Testing SpeedwayMedia.com

Tag: Daniel Suarez

  • Logano claims Busch Light Clash victory at LA Coliseum

    Logano claims Busch Light Clash victory at LA Coliseum

    Joey Logano etched his name as the winner of the 2022 Busch Light Clash in NASCAR’s inaugural exhibition event at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Sunday, February 6, after leading the final 35 laps and fending off a late challenge from Kyle Busch. The victory marked Logano’s second career Clash victory after winning his first at Daytona International Speedway in February 2017 as he also emerged victorious in NASCAR’s first event with the Gen 7 stock cars.

    The lineup for the exhibition feature was determined through the use of four 25-lap heat races, caution laps not included, and nine competitors from a total of 36 competing in each. The top-four finishers from each heat (16 total) earned a one-way ticket to the Clash. Afterwards, the 20 competitors who did not advance to the Clash via the heat races participated in two 50-lap Last Chance Qualifying races with the top-three finishers in each Last Chance Qualifying event advancing to the Clash.

    In the first Heat event, Kyle Busch, the reigning Clash champion who posted the fastest qualifying lap at 65.478 mph on Saturday and started on the pole, transferred after leading all 25 laps and finishing first ahead of runner-up Daniel Suarez. They were joined by third-place finisher Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and fourth-place finisher Ryan Blaney in the main event while Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain, rookie Todd Gilliland, Aric Almirola and BJ McLeod were sent to the Last Chance Qualifiers. The first Heat victory gave Kyle Busch the top starting spot for the main event

    In the second Heat event, Tyler Reddick, who started on the pole, ran away from the field to lead all 25 laps, finish first and transfer followed by Chase Briscoe, Austin Dillon and Cole Custer. Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr., rookie Harrison Burton and Brad Keselowski were sent to the Last Chance Qualifiers. The second Heat victory gave Reddick a front row starting spot alongside Kyle Busch for the main event.

    In the third Heat event, Justin Haley, who commenced his first full-time campaign in the NASCAR Cup Series competitor for Kaulig Racing on the pole, fended off the field to lead all 25 laps and transfer to the main event after finishing first. Joining him were William Byron, Christopher Bell and Chase Elliott while AJ Allmendinger, Kevin Harvick, Chris Buescher, Cody Ware and Corey LaJoie were sent to the Last Chance Qualifiers. The third Heat victory placed Haley on the second row for the Clash.

    In the fourth and final Heat event, Joey Logano, who started on pole, survived through two restarts to lead all 25 laps and transfer by finishing first ahead of Kyle Larson, the reigning Cup Series champion. Michael McDowell, the reigning Daytona 500 champion, finished third and also transferred along with Erik Jones, a former Clash winner. Austin Cindric, who spun on Lap 9 after getting hit by Landon Cassill and was trying to carve his way back to the front, settled in fifth and was sent to the Last Chance Qualifiers along with Ryan Preece, Kurt Busch, Cassill and Ty Dillon, who brought out an early caution after his car slowed due to a broken transmission. The fourth Heat victory placed Logano alongside Haley in the second row.

    Prior to the event, Larson was the lone competitor who was guaranteed a spot to the 2022 Busch Light Clash based on point provisional and being the reigning Cup champion. With Larson earning a top-four result in his heat event, however, Martin Truex Jr. was awarded a spot for the Clash based on points provisional due to finishing in the runner-up result in the 2021 Cup standings behind Larson. He opted to not participate in the Last Chance Qualifiers and use the points provisional to start at the rear of the field for the main event.

    In the first Last Chance Qualifying event, Denny Hamlin raced his way into the main event after leading all 50 laps and finishing first ahead of Kevin Harvick and AJ Allmendinger, both of whom also transferred. Cody Ware, Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, Corey LaJoie, rookie Todd Gilliland and BJ McLeod failed to qualify for the main event. Another competitor who headed home early was Aric Almirola, who commenced his final full-time season in NASCAR competition on a low note after getting bumped by Gilliland on Lap 4, which sent Almirola’s No. 10 Farmer John Ford Mustang sliding and making hard contact against the Turn 3 outside wall. The Floridian was very quick to express a warning finger towards the Front Row Motorsports rookie competitor following the incident.

    In the second and final Last Chance Qualifying event, Ryan Preece, Bubba Wallace and Harrison Burton survived a series of on-track carnages and restarts to claim the final transfer spots into the main event. Ty Dillon, who was originally penalized for jumping the restart with less than 20 laps remaining but fought his way back to the front, was first across the finish line in the final Last Chance Qualifying event, but was penalized a second time for jumping the final restart with three laps remaining and disqualified from the main event. As a result, Preece was promoted to first place ahead of Wallace and Burton, who rallied from spinning while leading with three laps remaining. Dillon joined Brad Keselowski, rookie Austin Cindric, Landon Cassill, Kurt Busch and Alex Bowman, all of whom were involved in at least one on-track incident, as the next wave of competitors that were sent home and out of the main event.

    When the main event commenced under green, Kyle Busch and Reddick dueled for the lead for a full lap as Reddick led the first lap by a nose. Busch was able to lead the following two laps before Reddick muscled his way into the lead by the fourth lap.

    Through the first 10 laps of the event, Reddick’s No. 8 Guaranteed Rate Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was leading ahead of Kyle Busch’s No. 18 M&M’s Toyota TRD Camry while Haley, Logano and Suarez were in the top five.

    Ten laps later and with the leaders catching lapped traffic amid the close-quarter racing, Reddick continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over Kyle Busch while Haley, Logano and Suarez remained in the top five. Larson was in sixth ahead of teammate Byron, Briscoe, Austin Dillon and Cole Custer while Erik Jones, McDowell, Christopher Bell, Blaney and Elliott were in the top 15. By then, Bubba Wallace, Stenhouse and Hamlin were lapped by the leaders.

    By Lap 35, Reddick stabilized his advantage to less than four-tenths of a second over Kyle Busch as Haley and Logano remained in third and fourth. Meanwhile, Larson overtook Suarez to move into the top five.

    Through the first 50 laps of the event, Reddick remained as the leader by more than a second over Kyle Busch while Logano was up in third place in his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang. Haley was in fourth while Larson and Briscoe battled for fifth. Byron, Suarez, Austin Dillon and Erik Jones were in the top 10 ahead of Blaney, Elliott, Custer, Bell and Kevin Harvick. By then, names like McDowell, Martin Truex Jr., teammate Hamlin, Preece, Stenhouse and Wallace were mired at least a lap behind the leaders.

    Three laps later, the first caution of the main event flew when Stenhouse spun in Turn 4. At the same time, Hamlin, who was off the pace prior to the caution, pulled his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry into the infield as his pit crew popped the hood opened to diagnose a power steering belt issue. The issue was enough to terminate Hamlin’s run in the Coliseum.

    Prior to the restart, Reddick, who was leading, and Briscoe, who was in fourth, retired after both encountered mechanical issues related to the driveshaft. These late turn of events moved Kyle Busch and Logano to the front of the grid.

    When the race restarted, Busch was able to clear Logano to retain the lead as Larson challenged Logano for the runner-up spot. Not long after, Logano retained second and Haley move his No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into third place while Larson slipped to fourth ahead of teammate Byron.

    By Lap 60, Kyle Busch continued to lead by nearly half a second over Logano while Haley, Larson and Byron stabilized themselves in the top five ahead of Erik Jones, Elliott, Blaney, Bell and Austin Dillon. Meanwhile, Suarez was in 11th ahead of Allmendinger, Custer, Harvick, Harrison Burton and McDowell. 

    Five laps later, the caution returned when Elliott spun his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Turn 2.

    Shortly after and when the race restarted under green, Kyle Busch and Logano dueled for the lead for a second time before Busch managed to clear Logano and retain the top spot. Behind, Byron challenged Haley for third ahead of Larson and Blaney.

    When the race reached the halfway mark and a break period on Lap 75, Kyle Busch fended off a last lap bump from Logano, which sent Busch’s car out of the racing groove, to retain the lead by a narrow margin. By then, Haley was in third ahead of Byron, Larson, Blaney, Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, Bell and Allmendinger.

    When the second half of the Clash started under green, Kyle Busch retained the lead as Byron settled in second ahead of Logano and the field. Meanwhile, Ryan Preece pulled his No. 15 Jacob Companies Ford Mustang to the infield due to a brake failure.

    A few laps later, a brief three-wide battle for second ensued between Larson, Logano and Byron before Larson prevailed ahead of both. Behind, Haley settled in fifth ahead of Austin Dillon, Blaney, Jones, Bell and Allmendinger. 

    With 60 laps remaining, Kyle Busch stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Logano while Larson, Haley and Byron remained in the top five. By then, 17 of 23 competitors were scored on the lead lap with Truex settling in 17th.

    Fifteen laps later, Kyle Busch remained as the leader by less than seven-tenths of a second over Logano. Behind, Larson remained in third ahead of teammate Byron and Haley while Austin Dillon, Blaney, Erik Jones, Bell and Chase Elliott were in the top 10. 

    Another 15 laps later, the caution flew when Blaney fell off the pace and retired after an earlier bump and contact with Erik Jones sent Blaney into the outside wall. The incident prompted Blaney to toss his HANS device to Jones’ No. 43 FOCUSFactor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 on the track to express his displeasure as his race came to an end. Prior to the caution, Kyle Busch was being pressured by Logano for the lead, where he got bumped by Logano’s Ford through the braking turns, as he was catching lapped traffic.

    When the race restarted, Kyle Busch and Logano continued to duel for the lead. Just then, the caution returned when Larson, who was battling Haley for third, veered and body slammed into the side of Haley and sent the Winamac, Indiana, native head-on into the inside concrete barriers on the frontstretch. The incident spoiled Haley’s strong weekend and a potential opportunity to win as he retired in the infield.

    Following another restart, Logano muscled his way into the lead and Larson moved his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into second ahead of Kyle Busch. 

    With less than 30 laps remaining, Logano was leading by a little over half a second over Larson and Kyle Busch while Austin Dillon and Byron battled for fourth. 

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Logano continued to lead by less than nine-tenths of a second over Kyle Busch, who earlier used his car to overtake Larson for second as he set his sights on Logano for the lead. 

    Five laps later and as Kyle Busch continued to close in on Logano for the lead, Austin Dillon moved up to third followed by Byron and Erik Jones while Larson slipped back to sixth ahead of Christopher Bell.

    With 10 laps remaining, the battle for the lead intensified as Logano had Kyle Busch covering his rear view mirrors with Busch drawing himself closer to Logano’s rear bumper.

    Down to the final five laps, the gap between Logano and Kyle Busch was down to less than half a second as Logano remained in the lead.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Logano stabilized himself with a respective advantage over Kyle Busch. With no challengers able to close in behind him, Logano was able to methodically navigate his way around the Coliseum smoothly for a final time and cross the finish line in first place to win by nearly nine-tenths of a second over Kyle Busch as Truex and McDowell wrecked in front of the leaders.

    With Logano becoming the first NASCAR competitor to win at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Clash victory was also the fifth for Team Penske and the 10th for the Ford nameplate.

    “I can’t believe it!” Logano, who revealed that his wife was expecting their third baby on FOX, exclaimed. “We’re here. The L.A. Coliseum. We got the victory with the old Shell/Pennzoil Mustang. This is an amazing event. Congratulations, NASCAR. Such a huge step in our industry to be able to do this, put on an amazing race for everybody. I’m out of breath. I was so excited about this. This is a big win. [Crew chief] Paul [Wolfe], [race engineer] Shaggy [Pope] and the engineers do a great job. The guys working on the car did an amazing job of finding speed when we were slow. We were 28th or so on the board yesterday and made some good changes, worked with our teammate Ryan Blaney a lot. I owe a lot to him, too. To see some of the gains they made and ultimately get the win. This is special. To get the first Next Gen win, the first win out here on the Coliseum, it’s a special one. We’re gonna have some fun and celebrate it.”

    Kyle Busch, the reigning Clash winner who led a race-high 64 laps compared to Logano’s 35, settled in second place followed by Austin Dillon, Erik Jones and Larson.

    “I was being perfect doing everything I needed to do—keep the tires underneath me,” Busch said. “When I got close, I was like, ‘OK, I’ve got to try more and pounce at an opportunity,’ and just overheated the tires and smoked them in three laps and that was it. Disappointing, obviously. To come out here, win the pole, lead laps, run up front, the finish goes green and it’s not chaotic, and we can’t win. That sucks.”

    “From where we were last night, it took a lot of crazy faith, a little prayer last night, talked to myself,” Dillon added. “We got it together today, though. The True Velocity Chevrolet was really fast, in practice. I just struggled a little bit [through] qualifying. I knew we’d get in the race, we’re gonna be fine. The long run speed was there. I’m disappointed I couldn’t get to those next two cars that were really wanting to get there, but all in all, a great race from where we were last night. Everybody back home at [Richard Childress Racing did] a good job. It was a good showing from us.”

    Byron, Custer, Bell, Allmendinger and Harvick completed the top 10 on the track.

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

    Results.

    1. Joey Logano, 35 laps led

    2. Kyle Busch, 64 laps led

    3. Austin Dillon

    4. Erik Jones

    5. Kyle Larson

    6. William Byron

    7. Cole Custer

    8. Christopher Bell

    9. AJ Allmendinger

    10. Kevin Harvick

    11. Chase Elliott

    12. Harrison Burton

    13. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    14. Daniel Suarez

    15. Martin Truex Jr., one lap down

    16. Michael McDowell, one lap down

    17. Ryan Blaney, three laps down

    18. Bubba Wallace, four laps down

    19. Justin Haley – OUT, Accident

    20. Ryan Preece – OUT, Oil Pressure

    21. Tyler Reddick – OUT, Drivetrain, 51 laps led

    22. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Drivetrain

    23. Denny Hamlin – OUT, Power

    The NASCAR Cup Series competitors will be taking a one-week break before returning to action at Daytona International Speedway in preparation for the 64th running of the Daytona 500 scheduled for February 20 at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX. Practices will occur on February 15 from 5:05-5:55 and 6:35-7:25 p.m. ET with a third practice session to occur on February 18 from 6 p.m. to 6:50 p.m. ET. The pole position qualifying session for the 500 is scheduled to occur on February 16 at 8:05 p.m. ET while the Bluegreen Vacations Duels, which will determine the remainder of the lineup for the 500, will occur on February 17 at 7 p.m. ET and 9 p.m. ET, both to air on FS1.

  • Bowman notches a thrilling, last-lap victory at Pocono

    Bowman notches a thrilling, last-lap victory at Pocono

    After losing the lead and having a potential victory slip out of his hands to his teammate Kyle Larson in the final laps, Alex Bowman earned redemption and came out on top after a flat tire allowed Bowman to overtake his Hendrick Motorsports’ teammate on the final lap and win the Pocono Organics CBD 325 at Pocono Raceway, the first of a Pocono weekend doubleheader, on Saturday, June 26. The victory allowed Bowman to claim his third NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2021 season and his first in the Tricky Triangle circuit in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.

    The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. With that, Kyle Larson, winner of last weekend’s Cup event at Nashville Superspeedway, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with teammate William Byron.

    Prior to the event, Cole Custer started at the rear of the field due to multiple pre-race inspection failures.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Larson received a push from Joey Logano on the outside lane to clear teammate Byron and take off with the lead entering the first turn. Behind, Logano made his way into the runner-up spot along with Ross Chastain, thus dropping Byron back to fourth. 

    With the field jostling early for positioning, Larson led the first lap ahead of Logano, Chastain, Byron and Kevin Harvick, with Denny Hamlin in sixth ahead of the Busch brothers, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Austin Dillon.

    By the fifth lap, Byron, who was running in third place the previous lap, muscled his No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE into the lead over teammate Larson and Logano. Behind, Harvick was in fourth while Chastain fell back to fifth ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin. 

    Meanwhile, Chase Elliott, coming off his disqualification run at Nashville Superspeedway, was mired back in 27th place after sustaining damage at the start of the race. Ahead, Brad Keselowski was in 12th behind Daniel Suarez, Tyler Reddick was in 13th ahead of Aric Almirola and Matt DiBenedetto, Martin Truex Jr. was in 16th ahead of Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman was in 18th, Ryan Blaney was in 23rd behind Erik Jones and rookie Chase Briscoe was in 25th behind Chris Buescher. 

    Four laps later, the first caution of the event flew due to debris reported in Turn 2. By then, NASCAR informed the teams that the caution for debris will serve as the competition caution initially planned on the 12th lap.

    Under caution, some like Chastain, Truex, Wallace, Blaney, DiBenedetto, Jones, Briscoe, Ryan Newman, Ryan Preece and Elliott pitted while the rest led by Byron remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Corey LaJoie was busted with a pit road speeding penalty.

    When the race restarted on Lap 12, Byron received a push from teammate Larson through the first turn to retain the lead as the field behind battled through two lanes for one full lap. 

    Just as the field returned to the frontstretch and crossed the start/finish line, the second caution of the event flew when Brad Keselowski, who was trying to make a crossover move on Cole Custer, bumped and turned Custer hard into the outside wall, effectively ending Custer’s first of two weekend runs at Pocono early and sending him to a back-up car for Sunday’s event.

    Under caution, few like Keselowski, Newman, Preece and Elliott pitted while the rest led by Byron remained on the track.

    When the race restarted on Lap 17, Byron retained the lead while Kyle Busch, who restarted on the front row, fended off Larson for the runner-up spot, with Harvick and Logano in the top five. Not long after, Kyle Busch was able to muscle his No. 18 M&M’s Mini’s Toyota Camry into the lead over Byron.

    By Lap 20, Kyle Busch was leading by nearly four-tenths of a second over Byron, with third-place Larson trailing by more than a second. Harvick and Logano were in the top five followed by Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Daniel Suarez, Austin Dillon and Reddick.

    A few laps later, Aric Almirola, Christopher Bell and Alex Bowman pitted under green as part of a strategic plan.

    Back on the track, Kyle Busch extended his advantage to more than a second over Byron. With a clear course in front of him, Busch, who managed to lap teammate Bell, was able to cruise away from the field and win the first stage on Lap 25, thus claiming his third stage victory of the season. Byron settled in second followed by teammate Larson, Logano and Harvick while Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Suarez, Austin Dillon and Reddick were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, some of the leaders led by Kyle Busch pitted while others led by Logano remained on the track.

    The second stage started on Lap 29 with Logano and Reddick restarting on the front row. At the start, Logano’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang rocketed to the lead with drafting help from Kurt Busch’s No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE while Chastain, Blaney and Truex all overtook Reddick through the first turn.

    By Lap 35, Logano continued to lead by nearly a second over Kurt Busch, with teammate Chastain, Blaney and Truex in the top five. Bubba Wallace was in sixth followed by Reddick, Keselowski, DiBenedetto and Newman. Meanwhile, Larson, Byron and Kyle Busch, all of whom were battling their way back to the front on fresh tires, were in 13th, 14th and 15th. Hamlin was in 16th ahead of Harvick, Suarez, Almirola and Jones.

    Through the first 40 laps of the event, Logano remained as the leader followed by Kurt Busch, Chastain, Blaney and Truex while Larson, Byron and Kyle Busch were in 10th, 11th and 12th. By then, Reddick peeled off the race track to pit under green.

    By Lap 45, Logano surrendered the lead to pit followed by Kurt Busch as Chastain took over the lead ahead of Blaney and Truex. A few laps later, Newman and Austin Dillon also pitted under green.

    Through the first 50 laps of the event, Chastain, racing in his No. 42 McDonald’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, was leading by six-tenths of a second over Blaney, while Truex, Wallace and Keselowski continued to run in the top five. Larson, meanwhile, worked his way back to sixth place ahead of teammates Bowman and Byron while Kyle Busch was in ninth ahead of Hamlin.

    Three laps later, the caution flew when Newman, who made a pit stop not long ago, got loose, spun and made contact with the outside wall in Turn 1 as he sustained damage to the left side of his car.

    Under caution, nearly the entire field led by Chastain pitted while some like the Busch brothers, Michael McDowell, Logano and Reddick remained on the track. 

    The race restarted on Lap 57 with the Busch brothers starting on the front row. At the start, Kyle Busch managed to pull ahead of brother Kurt through the first turn while Byron, racing on two fresh tires, battled with Logano for fourth place behind McDowell.

    With the field battling intensely for positioning around the Tricky Triangle, the caution returned two laps later when contact from rookie Anthony Alfredo and Corey LaJoie sent LaJoie making contact with the outside wall and spinning across the frontstretch.

    When the race restarted on Lap 63, Kyle Busch retained the lead followed by brother Kurt and Logano while McDowell slipped back to fourth ahead of Byron. As the field fanned out to multiple lanes behind, Byron was able to move into fourth place followed by Blaney and Larson, all of whom overtook McDowell for positioning.

    At the halfway mark on Lap 65, Kyle Busch was leading by nearly half a second over Kurt Busch while Logano, Byron and Blaney were in the top five. Larson was in sixth followed by McDowell, Reddick, Hamlin and Truex. Elliott, meanwhile, was in 13th behind Wallace and Keselowski, Chastain was in 15th behind Bowman and Harvick was in 16th ahead of Suarez, Briscoe, Almirola and Jones.

    By Lap 70, Kyle Busch extended his advantage to more than two seconds over brother Kurt, while Logano, Byron and Larson were in the top five.

    Just then, the caution returned when Chastain, who made right-side contact with the wall in Turn 2, spun in Turn 3 while trying to peel off the track to pit road, though he was able to make it back to his pit stall. At the time of caution, McDowell pitted for service.

    Under caution, some like Kurt Busch pitted while the rest led by Kyle Busch pitted.

    With two laps remaining in the second stage, the race restarted. At the start and with the field fanning out to multiple lanes approaching the first turn, Kurt Buch retained the lead ahead of Logano, Larson, Byron and Blaney. 

    Capitalizing in a two-lap shootout, Kurt Busch managed to fend off the field to claim the second stage on Lap 77 and win his second stage of this season. Larson crossed the start/finish line in second followed by Logano, Byron, Blaney, Hamlin, Truex, Bowman, Kyle Busch and Keselowski.

    Under the stage break, some like Elliott, Alfredo, Justin Haley, Chastain, LaJoie and others pitted while the rest led by Kurt Busch remained on the track.

    With 49 laps remaining, the final stage started. At the start, Kurt Busch received a huge push from Larson on the outside lane to clear Byron prior to reaching the first turn. With Kurt Busch and Larson out in front, Logano overtook Byron for third while Blaney settled in fifth ahead of Hamlin, Truex, Kyle Busch and the field.

    A lap later, the battle for the lead intensified as Larson took over the top spot through Turn 2. Through the following turn, Kurt returned the favor before Larson utilized the outside lane to his advantage to clear Kurt Busch and assume the top spot through the frontstretch.

    With 40 laps remaining, Larson was leading by over Kurt Busch, with Logano, Blaney and Byron running in the top five. Bowman was in sixth followed by Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Wallace and Suarez. By then, names like Truex, Harvick and Bell pitted. 

    During the next three laps, names like Logano, Almirola, Byron, Blaney, DiBenedetto, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon, Erik Jones and Keselowski pitted under green. The leader Larson also pitted along with Wallace, Suarez, Kurt Busch, Bowman. Following the pit stops, Austin Dillon was busted for speeding on pit road while DiBenedetto was penalized for removing the gas can out of his pit stall. While serving his first penalty, the race went from bad to worse for DiBenedetto, who was busted for speeding on pit road.

    Back on the track, Hamlin, who has yet to pit, was leading followed by teammate Kyle Busch, McDowell, Reddick and Elliott. 

    With 33 laps remaining, Kyle Busch peeled off the track for fuel under green and managed to exit pit road and pull ahead of Larson.

    Three laps later, Hamlin was leading by nearly 15 seconds over McDowell, with Reddick, Elliott and Chris Buescher running in the top five. Rookie Anthony Alfredo was in sixth followed by Cody Ware, Ryan Preece, James Davison and Kyle Busch, who was still ahead of Larson.

    Another few laps later, Hamlin surrendered the lead to pit for two fresh tires and fuel. By the time he returned to the track, he was overtaken by Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson, both of whom had enough fuel for the finish and were battling intensely to be ahead of one another with the rest of the leaders needing to pit. 

    Back at the front, McDowell was leading followed by Reddick, Buescher and Elliott while the two Kyles battled for fifth with 25 laps remaining.

    A lap later, Reddick pitted, moving Buescher and Elliott to second and third while Kyle Busch continued to remain ahead of Larson in fourth.

    Shortly after, the caution flew due to debris spotted in Turn 2. Under caution, a number of competitors led by McDowell pitted while the rest led by Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson remained on the track.

    With 19 laps remaining, the race restarted with Kyle Busch and Bowman starting on the front row ahead of Larson and Blaney. At the start, the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE driven by Alex Bowman powered his way into the lead on the inside lane entering the first turn while Kyle Busch fended off Larson for the runner-up spot. A lap later and with the field jostling for late positioning, Larson took over the runner-up spot and pursued teammate Bowman for the lead while Busch was pressured by Byron for more. 

    Four laps later, Bowman continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over teammate Larson while third-place Kyle Busch trailed by nearly a second. Byron was in fourth followed by Blaney, Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Reddick, Logano, Harvick, Suarez and Wallace.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Bowman maintained a three-tenths-of-a-second advantage over teammate Larson, with both pulling away from third-place Kyle Busch by more than a second. Despite repeated challenges from Larson, Bowman retained the top spot through every corner and straightaway, including blocking his teammate and thwarting his teammate’s momentum to assume the top spot.

    With five laps remaining, Larson gained a run through the frontstretch and attempted to extend his momentum through the inside lane, but Bowman pulled the block. While Larson attempted to crossover on the outside lane, Bowman retained the top spot. 

    A lap later, Larson finally succeeded after he gained another run and overtook teammate Bowman through Turn 2 after side-drafting him. By then, Kyle Busch cut the deficit to be under a second behind the two Hendrick Motorsports’ teammates. Larson, however, started to pull away with the lead.

    With the white flag waving and the final lap of the race occurring, Larson was ahead by more than a second over teammate Bowman with Kyle Busch trailing by less than two seconds. 

    Then, trouble occurred for Larson, whose No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE lost a left-front tire and went dead straight into the outside wall in Turn 3, thus smacking the wall and losing his momentum. With Larson scraping the wall and limping back to the finish line, Alex Bowman reassumed the lead on the final corner and was able to come back around to take the checkered flag and grab the win.

    The victory was Bowman’s fifth of his NASCAR Cup Series career in his 207th series start and third of the season since taking over the iconic No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports car. Bowman, who signed a two-year contract extension to remain at Hendrick Motorsports a week ago, also became the third competitor to achieve three or more victories of this season.

    In addition, Hendrick Motorsports’ competitors have won the last seven Cup events in recent weeks, including the All-Star Race, and 10 of the first 18 regular-season points-paying races of 2021.

    “I don’t even know what to think,” Bowman said on NBCSN. “I hate to win one that way, but hell yeah, I’ll take it. Super proud of this Ally No. 48 team. Man, we kind of gave the lead away. We’re on two tires, just got super tight. Tried to hold [Larson] off as long as I could, but can’t say enough about everybody at Team Hendrick right now. From top to bottom, everybody’s just putting great race cars on the track. [Crew chief] Greg [Ives] and all the guys did a really good job. Man, we didn’t run that good all day, so I’m kind of in shock. I don’t know what to say to you guys…Heck yeah. I’ll take it.”

    While Bowman celebrated, Larson, who made significant contact with the wall, coasted across the finish line in ninth place and with a wrecked race car as his hopes of winning four consecutive Cup races in recent weeks were spoiled on the final lap. The wreck will force Larson to move to a back-up car for Sunday’s Cup event at Pocono.

    “I guess, disbelief still,” Larson, who made a trip to the infield care center, said. “I don’t know. A little bit laughable just because I can’t believe it. Hate that we didn’t get another win. It would’ve been cool to win five in a row, but just wasn’t meant to be, I guess, today. I felt something like right in the middle of the tunnel [turn], wasn’t quite sure what it was yet and then, it finally shredded halfway through the little short chute there and couldn’t turn. Hate that we didn’t get the win, but cool that Alex still did. Cool to keep Mr. [Hendrick]’s streak going, but hate that we didn’t get HendrickCars.com into Victory Lane. But, we’ll try and start another streak tomorrow.”

    Kyle Busch settled in second place, nearly seven-tenths of a second behind, while Byron, Hamlin and Blaney finished in the top five.

    Kurt Busch notched a strong sixth-place result while Logano, Harvick, Larson and Keselowski finished in the top 10.

    Reddick, Elliott, Suarez, Wallace and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. earned top-15 finishes, Truex settled in 18th behind Almirola and Bell, Austin Dillon ended up in 21st in front of Erik Jones and rookies Chase Briscoe and Anthony Alfredo finished 24th and 26th.

    There were 14 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 25 laps.

    With eight races remaining until the 2021 Cup Playoffs commences, Hamlin continues to lead the regular-season standings by eight points over Larson. Eleven competitors (Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Christopher Bell and Michael McDowell) are currently guaranteed Playoff spots based on winning at least once through the first 18 regular-season races of this season. Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon, Tyler Reddick and Kurt Busch occupy the remaining five vacant spots as winless competitors, with Busch ahead by four points over Chris Buescher, 42 over Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 55 over Daniel Suarez, 62 over Matt DiBenedetto.

    Results.

    1. Alex Bowman, 16 laps led

    2. Kyle Busch, 30 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    3. William Byron, 13 laps led

    4. Denny Hamlin, 11 laps led

    5. Ryan Blaney

    6. Kurt Busch, 12 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    7. Joey Logano, 18 laps led

    8. Kevin Harvick

    9. Kyle Larson, 15 laps led

    10. Brad Keselowski

    11. Tyler Reddick

    12. Chase Elliott

    13. Daniel Suarez

    14. Bubba Wallace

    15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    16. Aric Almirola

    17. Christopher Bell

    18. Martin Truex Jr.

    19. Michael McDowell, five laps led

    20. Chris Buescher

    21. Austin Dillon

    22. Erik Jones

    23. Ryan Preece

    24. Chase Briscoe

    25. Cody Ware

    26. Anthony Alfredo

    27. Justin Haley

    28. James Davison

    29. Garrett Smithley

    30. B.J. McLeod

    31. Quin Houff

    32. Matt DiBenedetto, one lap down

    33. Ross Chastain, one lap down

    34. Josh Bilicki, two laps down

    35. Timmy Hill, four laps down

    36. Corey LaJoie, five laps down

    37. Ryan Newman – OUT, Accident

    38. Cole Custer – OUT, Accident

    The NASCAR Cup Series will return for its second event of the weekend at Pocono and to cap off a doubleheader weekend on Sunday, June 27, with the event to occur at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

  • Larson wins an eventful inaugural Cup event at Nashville

    Larson wins an eventful inaugural Cup event at Nashville

    Having enough fuel in the tank when it mattered most, Kyle Larson’s comeback season continued following a dominating victory in the inaugural Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday, June 20. The Elk Grove, California, native led a race-high 264 of 300 laps and had enough fuel to beat a hard-charging Ross Chastain by more than four seconds in the final laps to achieve his fourth consecutive victory in the NASCAR Cup Series in recent weeks.

    Qualifying occurred on Sunday, June 20, and Aric Almirola started on pole position after recording a pole-winning lap at 161.992 mph. Kyle Busch, who earned his 100th Xfinity Series career victory at Nashville on Saturday, joined Almirola on the front row.

    Prior to the event, William Byron, Erik Jones and Quin Houff started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective cars. In addition, Ryan Blaney made the left-hand turn to pit road and into his pit stall to have damage to his left-rear quarter panel repaired. The move dropped Blaney to the rear of the field. 

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Chase Elliott darted his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE to the outside of Almirola’s No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang in a bid for the lead. His plan, however, halted in Turn 1 when he nearly got sideways after getting out of the racing groove. Behind Elliott, teammate Alex Bowman also slipped from the groove and on the outside lane.

    Just then, the caution flew when Quin Houff made contact with the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2 after losing a tire, an incident that eliminated him from contention following the first two turns. At the time of caution, Kyle Busch was the leader followed by Almirola, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano and Cole Custer, with Elliott back in sixth.

    When the race restarted on the fifth lap, Kyle Busch and Almirola duked for the lead through the first two turns until Kyle Larson, winner of the last three Cup events, including the All-Star Race, made a three-wide move in-between Busch and Almirola to snatch the lead. With Larson’s No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE out in front, the field behind battled for early positioning.

    By Lap 10, Larson was leading by nearly a second over Kyle Busch while Aric Almirola and Joey Logano, both of whom made contact that nearly sent Logano in the infield a lap earlier in Turn 4, were in third and fourth. Cole Custer was in the top five followed by Matt DiBenedetto, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kevin Harvick.

    Ten laps later, Larson stretched his advantage to one-and-a-half seconds over Kyle Busch while Almirola, Logano and Custer continued to run in the top five. DiBenedetto and Bowman remained in sixth and seventh while Elliott, Harvick and Stenhouse battled for eighth place. Rookie Chase Briscoe was in 12th, Tyler Reddick and Brad Keselowski were in 14th and 15th, Denny Hamlin was battling Daniel Suarez for 16th, Bubba Wallace was in 19th, Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman were in 21st and 22nd, William Byron and Martin Truex Jr. were in 24th and 25th and Ryan Blaney was in 28th behind Erik Jones. 

    Through the first 30 laps of the event, Larson continued to lead by more than a second over Kyle Busch, who continued to track Larson. Almirola remained in third place followed by Logano and Custer. DiBenedetto also remained in sixth place followed by Stenhouse, Elliott, Bowman and Harvick.

    By Lap 40, the battle for the lead between the two Kyles ignited as Kyle Busch closed in on Larson for the lead, with both encountering lapped traffic. By then, Blaney made a pit stop under green. Soon after, Martin Truex Jr. made the turn to pit road for his service. 

    Not long after, pit stops under green commenced as Bubba Wallace pitted along with William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Daniel Suarez, Alex Bowman, Christopher Bell, DiBenedetto, Harvick, Tyler Reddick, Brad Keselowski and others. During this sequence, the leaders, Larson and Kyle Busch, pitted along with Elliott.

    With the green flag pit stops continuing, the caution flew when Reddick, who just completed his pit service, spun entering Turn 2 through the grass while trying to return to the main track. 

    Under caution, a handful of competitors that had not yet pitted under green, led by Kurt Busch, pitted. Names like Almirola, Michael McDowell and Stenhouse also pitted.

    Prior to the restart, a number of competitors took the wave around to return to the lead lap and when the field cycled back, Kyle Busch was the leader over Larson.

    The race restarted on Lap 52, with the two Kyles out in front. At the start, Kyle Busch jumped ahead and moved in front of Larson to retain the lead. A lap later, though, Larson made his move beneath Busch’s No. 18 Pedigree Toyota Camry to reassume the lead. 

    Another two laps later, a rough start to the day for Blaney went worse when his No. 12 Menards/Duracell Ford Mustang shot up the track and made hard contact against the Turn 1 outside wall following a brake issue, an incident that ended his day with a wrecked race car.

    When the race restarted on Lap 61, the two Kyles battled dead even for the lead through Turn 1 until Larson gained the advantage on the outside lane entering Turn 2, thus keeping Larson in the lead. 

    A few laps later, Elliott moved into the runner-up spot while Stenhouse started to challenge Kyle Busch for the lead. Kurt Busch, meanwhile, was in fifth followed by Logano, Almirola, Erik Jones, DiBenedetto and Bowman. 

    By Lap 70, Larson was leading by more than a second over teammate Elliott, with Stenhouse in third ahead of the Busch brothers. Almirola and Logano were in sixth and seventh followed by Erik Jones, DiBenedetto and Bowman. 

    Eight laps later, the caution flew when Justin Haley and Chris Buescher made hard contact into the outside wall separately in Turns 1 and 2. Haley’s incident was due to a brake rotor while Buescher’s incident was due to hitting a piece of debris on the track. The incident ended Buescher’s run, with broken rotors and loss of fluid.

    Under caution, some led by Larson pitted while the rest led by Elliott remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Bowman was sent to the rear of the field due to speeding on pit road. 

    With five laps remaining in the first stage, the race restarted as Elliott and Kurt Busch started on the front row. At the start, Elliott and Kurt Busch battled for the lead while Daniel Suarez was in third ahead of Erik Jones and the field. Behind, Larson, racing on fresh tires, charged his way into fourth place while Kyle Busch was also trying to march his way forward.

    With the field behind jostling for positioning, Elliott was able to retain the lead and claim the first stage on Lap 90, thus recording his second stage victory of the season. Kurt Busch settled in second followed by Larson, Suarez and Kyle Busch. Austin Dillon, Stenhouse, Keselowski, Logano and DiBenedetto were scored in the top 10. 

    Under the stage break, names like Elliott, Kurt Busch, Suarez, Austin Dillon and Truex pitted. During the pit stops, Truex was penalized due to a pit entry violation, where he did not enter pit road in a single-file line with his fellow competitors. In addition, Kurt Busch made another pit stop due to a loose wheel. 

    Back on the track, Larson, who pitted earlier, remained on the track to assume the lead followed by Kyle Busch, Stenhouse, Logano and DiBenedetto.

    The second stage started on Lap 97, and Larson retained the lead over Kyle Busch through the first two turns. Behind, Stenhouse overtook Logano for third followed by Denny Hamlin while Ross Chastain and DiBenedetto battled for sixth. Harvick, meanwhile, was back in the top 10 in eighth followed by Christopher Bell and Custer.

    At the Lap 100 mark, Larson was leading by more than a second over Kyle Busch and Stenhouse, who started to challenge Busch for the runner-up spot. Hamlin moved into fourth followed by Logano, DiBenedetto, Chastain, Harvick, Bell and Custer.

    Ten laps later, Larson extended his advantage to nearly three seconds over Stenhouse. Hamlin, Logano and Chastain were in the top five while Kyle Busch, who was battling handling issues, fell back to sixth.

    By Lap 125, Larson continued to lead by more than two seconds over Stenhouse, with third-place Hamlin trailing by less than seven seconds. Chastain was in fourth followed by Logano, Kyle Busch, Harvick, Almirola, Bell and Custer. Meanwhile, DiBenedetto was losing spots on the track due to an engine issue.

    Seven laps later, the caution returned when Bubba Wallace spun in Turn 2 after losing a left-rear tire. Under caution, the leaders pitted. Following the pit stops, Truex was penalized again, this time for speeding on pit road. In addition, teammate Bell was penalized due to an uncontrolled tire violation.

    On Lap 138, the race restarted under green, with Larson and Hamlin on the front row. At the start, Kyle Busch challenged Larson for the lead. Despite his challenge, Larson retained the lead when the field returned to the start/finish line. 

    Not long after, Stenhouse overtook Kyle Busch for the runner-up spot while Logano prevailed in a battle with Hamlin for fourth.

    By Lap 150, Larson was leading by over two seconds over Stenhouse, with Kyle Busch, teammate Hamlin and Kevin Harvick in the top five. Almirola was in sixth ahead of Logano, Byron, Chastain and Elliott.

    On Lap 173, the caution returned due to debris on the track that came from Cole Custer, who lost a right-rear tire after he also lost his brakes.

    Under caution, the leaders pitted and Briscoe exited in first following a two-tire stop. Reddick exited in second followed by Larson, the first competitor on four fresh tires. Austin Dillon was in fourth and Kyle Busch was in fifth.

    With five laps remaining in the second stage, the race restarted. At the start, Briscoe took off with the lead followed by Larson while Reddick struggled on the start as the field was also bunched up and fanned out to three lanes entering Turn 2.

    The following lap, Larson overtook Briscoe in Turn 2 to reassume the lead. Behind, Kyle Busch charged his way to fourth ahead of teammate Hamlin while Elliott was in seventh behind teammate Byron. Reddick, meanwhile, had fallen out of the top 10 while trying to keep his car straightened on old tires. 

    As the field continued to scramble for late positioning, Larson was able to cruise to the second stage victory on Lap 185 and record his 12th stage victory of the season. Austin Dillon edged Briscoe for the runner-up spot while Byron edged Kyle Busch for fourth place. Hamlin, Elliott, Stenhouse, Almirola and Harvick were scored in the top 10. 

    Under the stage break, some like Briscoe, Truex, Bell, Austin Dillon, Reddick, Erik Jones, Ryan Newman, Wallace and McDowell pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.

    With 110 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as teammates Larson and Byron led the field on the front row. At the start, Larson utilized the outside lane to retain the lead over teammate Byron while Kyle Busch was challenged by teammate Hamlin and Stenhouse for third. Soon, Elliott challenged Stenhouse for fifth with Kurt Busch lurking behind. 

    Six laps later, the caution flew when Ryan Preece spun in Turn 2. Under caution, some like Chastain, Bowman, Reddick, McDowell, Corey LaJoie, Suarez and DiBenedetto pitted.

    With 98 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Byron got loose and nearly clipped Larson sideways in Turn 1, but Larson was able to retain the lead through Turn 2. As Larson led teammate Byron, teammate Elliott was in third ahead of Hamlin and Kurt Busch. Stenhouse and Harvick battled for sixth followed by Briscoe, Almirola and Logano. Kyle Busch, meanwhile, was in 17th as he continued to battle handling issues to his car.

    With 90 laps remaining, Larson was leading by more than a second over teammate Byron, with teammate Elliott trailing by more than two seconds. Hamlin was in fourth followed by Kurt Busch, Harvick, Stenhouse, Briscoe, Almirola and Logano.

    Seven laps later, the event’s 10th caution flew when Wallace spun for a second time in Turn 2. Under caution, nearly all of the leaders pitted as Larson exited in first. Harvick, meanwhile, boosted his way to second place followed by Byron, Kurt Busch and Hamlin. Back on track, Chastain was the leader after he remained on the track without pitting.

    With 78 laps remaining, the race restarted. At the start, Larson powered away from Chastain to reassume the lead while Byron, who battled with Chastain and Harvick through Turn 2, moved back up to second. 

    Down to the final 75 laps of the event, Larson was leading by seven-tenths of a second over teammate Byron while Chastain, Harvick and Elliott were in the top five. Kurt Busch was in sixth followed by Briscoe, Hamlin, Almirola and Logano. Truex was in 12th behind teammate Bell, Keselowski was in 14th and Kyle Busch was in 18th ahead of Austin Dillon and Bowman.

    Soon after, the caution returned due to Briscoe making contact with the outside wall in Turn 3 after he lost his brakes.

    Under caution, names like Chastain, Suarez, Keselowski, Stenhouse, Reddick, Jones, Bowman, Corey LaJoie, Wallace, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon and others pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.

    The race restarted with 68 laps remaining, and Elliott made slight contact with teammate Byron in a three-wide bid for the lead. With Elliott backing out, Larson was able to receive another strong start on the outside lane to retain the lead over Byron. Behind, Harvick overtook Elliott in third while Kurt Busch continued to hold strong in fifth ahead of Almirola and the field.

    With 50 laps remaining, Larson was leading by two seconds over teammate Byron while Harvick, Elliott and Kurt Busch were in the top five. By then, Larson used the lapped car of J.J. Yeley to clear some debris off of his car. Almirola was in sixth and challenging Busch for the top-five spot, with Hamlin, Chastain, Bell and Stenhouse in the top 10. 

    Fifteen laps later, Larson continued to lead by more than three seconds over teammate Byron. Harvick was in third followed by teammate Almirola and Elliott. Kurt Busch fell back to sixth in front of teammate Chastain while Hamlin, Stenhouse and Bell were in the top 10.

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Larson was out in front by more than four seconds over teammate Byron, with Harvick, Almirola and Chastain in the top five. Kurt Busch was in sixth ahead of Stenhouse, Elliott, Bell and Hamlin. 

    With 10 laps remaining and fuel questions beginning to arise from a multitude of teams, Larson was leading by more than five seconds over teammate Byron. Harvick remained in third followed by Chastain and Almirola. Kurt Busch was in sixth followed by Stenhouse, Bell, Suarez and Hamlin.

    A few laps later, Truex pitted. Meanwhile, Chastain, who had enough fuel to the finish, overtook Harvick for third place and went to work on Byron for second place, which he succeeded.

    With five laps remaining, Larson, who remained in question about having enough fuel to the finish, was leading by more than five seconds over a hard-charging Chastain.

    Down to the final two laps, Hamlin and Kurt Busch ran out of fuel, with Hamlin pitting while Kurt Busch continued to run on the track.

    Back at the front, Larson continued to lead by more than five seconds over Chastain as he started the final lap of the race. Having enough fuel in his tank, Larson was able to coast his car around the circuit for a final time and take the checkered flag to win in Music City nation.

    With the inaugural victory in Nashville and a Gibson Guitar trophy, Larson achieved his 10th NASCAR Cup Series career victory and fourth of the season since returning as a full-time competitor. In addition, Hendrick Motorsports has won the six Cup events, including the All-Star Race.

    “Yeah, it was a great day,” Larson said on NBCSN. “We never really had to run behind people. When my teammates got out in front again, it would’ve probably been hard to pass them. The Valvoline Chevrolet was really good. It could cut the middle of the corner really well and our pit crew did an awesome job again. That number one pit stall helps a bunch, too. This crowd’s awesome…We had enough rubber and enough fuel leftover to do a good burnout there at the end. I can’t say enough about everybody at Hendrick Motorsports…I just hope we can keep it going.”

    Settling in a career-best runner-up result was Ross Chastain, who also achieved his second top-five result of this season and of his career.

    “We had the speed to run top five all day, but I sped on pit road and I boxed us in our pit box,” Chastain said. “For most of the day, I was so loose entry of Turn 1, just almost like wheel-hopping, bouncing the right rear. So, I really struggled, and finally, the last three runs of the race, [crew chief] Phil Surgen and this Clover Chevy team, they got it where I could hustle it and that’s what I needed. At the end, I didn’t want a caution. I knew Kyle [Larson] was out there. Just get to second and we’ll be happy with it.”

    Byron finished third followed by Almirola, who achieved his first top-five result of the season, and Harvick, who ran out of fuel coming to the finish line. 

    Stenhouse came home in sixth place followed by Suarez, Kurt Busch, Bell and Logano.

    Kyle Busch settled in 11th following a long battle with handling issues, Elliott fell to 13th after reporting concerns of a flat right-rear tire to his car, teammates Hamlin and Truex finished 22nd and 23rd, Keselowski came home in 24th following brake issues and DiBenedetto settled in 25th. Bowman finished 15th, Reddick settled in 19th ahead of Erik Jones and Bubba Wallace and rookie Chase Briscoe ended his run in 32nd.

    Following the race, Elliott was disqualified due to his car having five lug nuts not secured. As a result, he was credited with a 39th-place result and he was not awarded his playoff point from the Nashville event.

    There were 14 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured 11 cautions for 60 laps.

    With nine regular-season races remaining until the 2021 Cup Playoffs commences, Hamlin continues to lead the regular-season standings by nine points over Larson. Eleven competitors, (Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, William Byron, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Christopher Bell and Michael McDowell), are guaranteed positions for the Playoffs along with Denny Hamlin, who leads the regular-season standings. Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon, Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher occupy the remaining postseason spots as winless competitors, with Kurt Busch trailing the top-16 cutline by 24 points, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. trailing by 43, Matt DiBenedetto trailing by 46, Ross Chastain trailing by 50, Daniel Suarez trailing by 61, Bubba Wallace trailing by 77 and Ryan Newman trailing by 81.

    Results.

    1. Kyle Larson, 264 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    2. Ross Chastain, four laps led

    3. William Byron

    4. Aric Almirola, one lap led

    5. Kevin Harvick

    6. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    7. Daniel Suarez

    8. Kurt Busch, three laps led, Stage 1 winner

    9. Christopher Bell

    10. Joey Logano

    11. Kyle Busch, 10 laps led

    12. Austin Dillon

    13. Ryan Newman 

    14. Alex Bowman

    15. Corey LaJoie 

    16. Michael McDowell

    17. Anthony Alfredo

    18. Tyler Reddick

    19. Erik Jones

    20. Bubba Wallace, one lap down

    21. Denny Hamlin, one lap down

    22. Martin Truex Jr., one lap down

    23. Brad Keselowski, one lap down

    24. Matt DiBenedetto, two laps down

    25. Garrett Smithley, two laps down

    26. Josh Bilicki, two laps down

    27. J.J. Yeley, two laps down

    28. B.J. McLeod, five laps down

    29. Joey Gase, five laps down

    30. Cole Custer, 48 laps down

    31. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Accident five laps led

    32. Ryan Preece – OUT, Brakes

    33. Chad Finchum – OUT, Rear end

    34. David Starr – OUT, Brakes

    35. Justin Haley – OUT, Accident

    36. Chris Buescher – OUT, Accident

    37. Ryan Blaney – OUT, Accident

    38. Quin Houff – OUT, Accident

    39. Chase Elliott – Disqualified, 13 laps led

    Next on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ second annual Pocono Raceway doubleheader feature on June 26-27. The first Cup event of the weekend on Saturday, June 26, will occur at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN and the second on Sunday, June 27, will occur at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

  • Chastain, Reddick, Almirola and DiBenedetto transfer to All-Star Race following eventful All-Star Open

    Chastain, Reddick, Almirola and DiBenedetto transfer to All-Star Race following eventful All-Star Open

    Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick and Aric Almirola claimed starting spots for the 2021 NASCAR All-Star Race after each won a segment during the NASCAR All-Star Open at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, June 13. For the final transfer spot, Matt DiBenedetto earned a one-way ticket into the main event after being named the Fan Vote winner.

    The starting lineup was determined via driver points, making Tyler Reddick starting on pole position while Chris Buescher joined him on the front row.

    Prior to the race, Ross Chastain dropped to the rear of the field due to a violation discovered on his car pinpointing to his aero ducts. As a result, crew chief Phil Surgen was suspended from the weekend and Chip Ganassi Racing was fined $25,000. Austin Cindric (two pre-race inspection failures) and David Starr (unapproved adjustments) also started at the rear of the field. 

    When the green flag waved and the race started for the first segment, Buescher jumped ahead and battled Reddick for the lead entering the first turn before Reddick received a push from Matt DiBenedetto on the inside lane to take the lead.

    With the field jostling for position behind, Reddick led the first lap. Meanwhile, Buescher and rookie Chase Briscoe made their way into second and third over DiBenedetto as Bubba Wallace and Erik Jones joined the battle.

    Then, NASCAR declared that Buescher has been assessed a penalty for jumping ahead of the leader, Reddick, prior to the start of the event. In addition, Cindric was penalized for changing lanes at the start of the race.

    On the fourth lap, the caution flew when Wallace, who was running in fourth place ahead of Erik Jones and Matt DiBenedetto, got loose and spun in Turn 1 before coming to a rest below the apron. Despite the spin, Wallace continued with no damage to his No. 23 DoorDash Toyota Camry. 

    Under caution, Wallace pitted along with Daniel Suarez, Quin Houff, Garrett Smithley, Austin Cindric and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Following the pit stops, Stenhouse was assessed an over-the-wall too soon penalty. 

    When the race restarted on the eighth lap, Reddick retained the lead over Briscoe, Jones and the field through the first two turns. Not long after, the caution returned when Buescher spun in Turn 3 following a bump from Stenhouse. 

    Under caution, Buescher pitted along with Stenhouse and Josh Bilicki.

    When the race restarted on Lap 13, Reddick retained the lead followed by Jones, Briscoe and the field. 

    Two corners later, trouble ensued again when Jones, who battled hard against Briscoe, slipped up and spun sideways, where he was hit by Daniel Suarez before spinning back up to the wall with heavy damage as Suarez also made contact with the outside wall. The wreck was enough to knock Suarez and Jones out of contention to make the All-Star Race.

    Under caution, Briscoe pitted, but was busted for speeding on pit road.

    On Lap 18, the race restarted as Reddick and Ross Chastain started on the front row. At the start, Reddick and Chastain battled for the lead entering the backstretch while DiBenedetto and Corey LaJoie made a three-wide move on Almirola to move up towards the front.

    Coming to the final lap of the first segment, Chastain made his move on the outside lane of Reddick through Turns 3 and 4 and he was able to grab the lead past the start/finish line. Through Turn 1, Chastain was able to clear Reddick and pull away. 

    Following his surge on the final lap, Chastain, who rallied from starting at the rear of the field following pre-race inspection issues, rocketed away to win the first segment on Lap 20 and race his way into the All-Star Race for the first time in his career, joining teammate Kurt Busch in the main event.

    “It’s really cool,” Chastain said on FS1. “It’s been a good weekend on-track, but off-track, it’s obviously been really tough. Just fired me up more. This McDonald’s Chevy was obviously really good, coming from the back like that and race with guys like Reddick and those guys. I thought I was getting turned on the backstretch there when he drove into the left rear, but it’s a dream come true. Man, I’m living my dream as a farmer. Now, I get to go NASCAR racing in the All-Star Race with my heroes. It’s amazing.”

    Under the segment break, LaJoie pitted along with Justin Haley, Cody Ware, Houff, James Davison, Timmy Hill and David Starr.

    At the start of the second segment, Reddick received a push from Cindric on the outside lane to retain the lead ahead of DiBenedetto and Cindric. Meanwhile, Buescher and Almirola battled for fourth place followed by Wallace and Stenhouse. 

    By Lap 25, Reddick was the leader followed by Cindric, DiBenedetto, Almirola and Buescher. Wallace was in sixth followed by Briscoe, Stenhouse, rookie Anthony Alfredo and LaJoie. 

    A few laps later, DiBenedetto and Almirola overtook Cindric for second and third. Meanwhile, Reddick continued to lead by nearly a second. 

    By Lap 30, Reddick was leading by four-tenths of a second over DiBenedetto, with Almirola trailing by nearly a second. Behind, Cindric and Buescher battled for fourth place while Wallace retained sixth place.

    With five laps remaining in the second segment, Reddick was still leading despite encountering lapped traffic, but he had Almirola closing in for the lead.

    Down to the final two laps of the segment, Almirola drew his car behind Reddick’s rear bumper, but he could not navigate his way around Reddick to take the lead,

    On the final lap of the second segment, Reddick was leading by under two-tenths of a second over Almirola, who continued to keep Reddick in pressure. Despite Almirola’s late surge, Reddick was able to beat Almirola by nearly three-tenths of a second to win the second segment on Lap 40 as Reddick transferred to his first All-Star Race, joining teammate Austin Dillon.

    “Thankfully, we executed in the second segment,” Reddick said. “We got this thing in the race. That was the hottest 40-lap race I’ve ever done. That was hot.”

    Under the segment break, Stenhouse pitted along with Briscoe, Haley, B.J. McLeod and Garrett Smithley. 

    With 10 laps remaining, the final segment commenced under green. At the start, the field battled through two lanes as Almirola and DiBenedetto battled dead even for the lead. Following a close side-by-side battle with DiBenedetto for a full lap, Almirola pulled ahead with the lead.

    With five laps remaining, Almirola was leading by nearly half a second over DiBenedetto and Buescher. Cindric and Briscoe were in the top five followed by Wallace, Haley, Alfredo, Stenhouse and LaJoie.

    As Almirola continued to lead, DiBenedetto and Buescher battled for the runner-up spot as both were behind by seven-tenths of a second. 

    Having a clear lead to his advantage, Almirola, who has endured a difficult 2021 season, was able to navigate his way around the circuit for a final time and come back around to take the checkered flag and win the NASCAR All-Star Open as he punched his ticket into the All-Star Race for the fourth time in his career, joining teammates Kevin Harvick and Cole Custer. 

    “It just helps make you happy about something,” Almirola said. “It’s been a really tough year and the guys just continued to work their guts out and bring the best cars we can. And here at Texas today, we got a really fast car. We took the long way in, but I’m still glad we’re racing for a million bucks tonight. Just proud to give [my sponsors] something to smile about, really.”

    Despite finishing in the runner-up spot, Matt DiBenedetto claimed the 21st and final starting spot to the All-Star Race after being named the Fan Vote winner, a move that allowed him to transfer into the All-Star event for a second consecutive season.

    “That’s a relief,” DiBenedetto said. “We struggled a little bit with the car there, but man, thank you so much. That’s really cool. It means a lot to get all the votes from the fans. I can’t tell them how much I appreciate that and an opportunity to be an All-Star.”

    Buescher finished in third place followed by Briscoe and Cindric. Wallace rallied to finish sixth followed by Haley, Alfredo, Stenhouse and LaJoie. All eight competitors were among the remaining 18 competitors competing in the Open whom failed to make the All-Star Race.

    There were three lead changes for three different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 13 laps.

    Results.

    1. Aric Almirola – Won third segment, 10 laps led

    2. Matt DiBenedetto – Fan Vote winner

    3. Chris Buescher

    4. Chase Briscoe

    5. Austin Cindric

    6. Bubba Wallace

    7. Justin Haley

    8. Anthony Alfredo

    9. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    10. Corey LaJoie

    11. Cody Ware

    12. B.J. McLeod

    13. Josh Bilicki

    14. Garrett Smithley

    15. Quin Houff, one lap down

    16. James Davison, one lap down

    17. Timmy Hill, one lap down

    18. David Starr, one lap down

    19. Tyler Reddick – Won second segment, 38 laps led

    20. Ross Chastain – Won first segment, two laps led

    21. Erik Jones – OUT, Accident

    22. Daniel Suarez – OUT, Accident

    The 2021 NASCAR All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway will follow suit on Sunday, June 13, at 8 p.m. on FS1.

  • Bowman leads a 1-2-3-4 finish for Hendrick Motorsports at Dover

    Bowman leads a 1-2-3-4 finish for Hendrick Motorsports at Dover

    It was an historic day for Hendrick Motorsports as Alex Bowman assumed the lead under the final 100 laps following a stellar pit stop from his crew and went on to beat teammate Kyle Larson and win the Drydene 400 at Dover International Speedway on Sunday, May 16, as he also led a 1-2-3-4 finish for the HMS organization.

    The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. With that, Martin Truex Jr., winner of last weekend’s event at Darlington Raceway, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Denny Hamlin, teammate and the regular-season points leader.

    Prior to the race, Chase Elliott dropped to the rear of the field due to his car failing pre-race inspection twice. Ryan Newman also dropped to the rear due to unapproved adjustments. Josh Berry, who was making his NASCAR Cup debut in the No. 77 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports, also dropped to the rear of the field due to a driver change as he replaced Justin Haley, who was absent from the Cup event and Saturday’s Xfinity Series event due to COVID-19 protocols.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Truex launched ahead with the lead followed by Kyle Larson, Hamlin and Kyle Busch. Truex, though, was able to lead the first lap with the field behind jostling for position.

    Through the first 10 laps of the event, Truex continued to lead by half a second over Larson and nearly seven-tenths of a second over William Byron. Hamlin was in fourth followed by Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Chris Buescher and Christopher Bell.

    Five laps later, Byron, who had taken over the runner-up spot over teammate Larson, started to close in on Truex for the lead. Another lap later, Byron powered his No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE to the lead. 

    By Lap 20, Byron was leading teammate Larson and Harvick while Truex slipped back to fourth place ahead of teammate Hamlin.

    By Lap 30 and with the leaders approaching lapped traffic, Byron continued to lead by a narrow margin over teammate Larson. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch, who was running in the top 10, had fallen back to 12th place after reporting a mechanical issue to his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry.

    When the field reached the competition caution on Lap 35, Byron maintained the lead over teammate Larson, Harvick, Truex and Hamlin. By then, Chase Elliott, who started at the rear of the field, was in 17th while Kyle Busch, who continued to have mechanical issues with his car, had fallen back to 23rd. In addition, names like Ryan Preece, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Cole Custer and Aric Almirola were spared from being lapped by Byron.

    Under the competition caution, the leaders pitted and Larson was able to exit pit road ahead of teammate Byron. Following the pit stops, Tyler Reddick, Corey LaJoie and Michael McDowell were sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.

    When the race restarted on Lap 40, Larson took off with the lead followed by Harvick.

    By Lap 50, Larson was out in front by half a second over Harvick while Byron, Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin were in the top five. Chris Buescher was in sixth followed by Brad Keselowski, Logano, Alex Bowman and Elliott. Truex was back in 11th followed by Austin Dillon, Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace and rookie Chase Briscoe. Kyle Busch was in 29th, the final car on the lead lap.

    Three laps later, Kyle Busch, who continued to battle engine issues, was lapped by Larson. Meanwhile, Byron, who continued to run in third place, radioed brake issues to his car.

    Through the first 70 laps of the event, Larson remained in the lead by nearly two seconds over Harvick followed by Byron. Behind, Corey LaJoie pitted due to a flat tire.

    Five laps later, Larson extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Harvick followed by Byron, Blaney and Hamlin. Buescher, Logano, Keselowski, Elliott and Bowman all remained in the top 10 ahead of Austin Dillon and Truex, who was struggling with pace.

    At the Lap 100 mark, Larson continued to lead by more than four seconds over Harvick followed by Byron, Blaney and Hamlin. Elliott moved up to sixth followed by Buescher, Logano, Bowman and Keselowski.

    In the closing laps of the first stage, Larson increased his advantage to more than seven seconds. Behind, Hamlin moved up to second place followed by Blaney, Harvick and Elliott while Byron fell back to sixth.

    On the final lap of the first stage, Chase Briscoe, who was trying to remain on the lead lap ahead of leader Larson, scrubbed the outside wall in Turn 1, though he was able to prevent the car from spinning. The debris from Briscoe’s damaged car was enough for the first stage to conclude under caution as Larson was able to claim his fifth stage victory of the season. Hamlin maintained the runner-up spot followed by Blaney, Elliott and Harvick while Byron, Logano, Bowman, Buescher and Keselowski were in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Larson maintained the lead following his pit service. Hamlin exited in second place followed by Elliott, Blaney and Logano. Soon after, Truex made another pit stop to have damage to the front of his car repaired.

    The second stage started on Lap 129 with Larson and Hamlin on the front row. At the start, Larson maintained the lead while Elliott drew his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE alongside Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry for the runner-up spot.

    By Lap 135, Larson was leading by eight-tenths of a second over teammate Elliott followed by Blaney, Hamlin and Logano. Harvick, Buescher, Austin Dillon, Kurt Busch and Byron were in the top 10. 

    Through the first 150 laps of the event, Larson remained as the leader followed by teammate Elliott, Blaney, Hamlin and Logano. Harvick was in sixth followed by Byron, Buescher, Austin Dillon and Alex Bowman. Kurt Busch and Keselowski were in 11th and 12th, Truex was in 14th ahead of Daniel Suarez, Bubba Wallace was in 17th behind Tyler Reddick and Kyle Busch was in 36th, eight laps behind. By then, names like Cole Custer, Erik Jones, Ryan Newman, Ryan Preece, Christopher Bell, Matt DiBenedetto, Michael McDowell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were a lap behind.

    More than 20 laps later, the caution returned when Josh Berry scrubbed the wall in Turn 2. Prior to the pit road opening for the leaders, Blaney pitted to have a hole on the front of his car fixed and due to a flat tire. When the pits opened, the leaders pitted and Larson retained the lead after exiting ahead of Elliott, Hamlin, Harvick and Byron.

    When the race restarted on Lap 176, Larson launched ahead with a strong start followed by Elliott and Hamlin while Harvick and Byron battled for fourth place. In addition, Bowman, the fourth Hendrick Motorsports competitor, joined the party in sixth place.

    By Lap 190, Larson extended his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over teammate Elliott while Hamlin, Byron and Harvick continued to run in the top five. A few laps later, Penske teammates Logano and Keselowski nearly made contact with one another in Turn 1 while battling for eighth place. 

    At the halfway mark on Lap 200, Larson was leading by nearly a second over teammate Elliott while teammate Byron trailed by nearly five seconds. Hamlin was in fourth while Bowman was in fifth, marking all four Hendrick Motorsports competitors in the top five. Harvick was in sixth followed by Kurt Busch, Keselowski, Austin Dillon and Aric Almirola.

    By Lap 220, all four Hendrick Motorsports competitors were running first through fourth, with Larson leading Elliott, Bowman moving up in third and Byron back in fourth. Hamlin was in fifth followed by Harvick, Kurt Busch, Keselowski, Austin Dillon and Almirola. Logano, meanwhile, was in 13th behind Reddick and Truex.

    Despite having teammate Elliott closing in for the lead, Larson was able to pull away late as he approached lapped traffic and win the second stage on Lap 240 for his sixth stage victory of the season. Elliott followed behind in second place followed by teammates Bowman and Byron while Hamlin was in fifth. Harvick, Kurt Busch, Keselowski, Austin Dillon and Reddick were scored in the top 10. By then, names like Wallace and Logano remained on the lead lap.

    Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Larson retained the lead following another stellar stop from his pit crew followed by Bowman, Elliott, Byron and Kurt Busch.

    With 152 laps remaining, the final stage started. At the start, Larson rocketed away with another strong start while teammates Bowman and Elliott battled for the runner-up spot. Behind, a three-wide battle ensued between Harvick, Keselowski and Hamlin with Harvick moving into sixth place behind Kurt Busch while ahead of Keselowski and Hamlin. 

    Down to the final 135 laps of the event, Larson was out in front by more than two seconds over teammate Bowman with teammate Byron trailing by nearly three seconds and teammate Elliott trailing by three seconds. Kurt Busch, meanwhile, remained in fifth followed by Harvick, Keselowski, Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Reddick, Blaney, Ross Chastain, Almirola, Logano, Suarez and Truex.

    Fifteen laps later, Larson stabilized his advantage to nearly three seconds over teammate Bowman with his other two teammates, Byron and Elliott, trailing by more than four seconds. Harvick was in fifth place, trailing by more than seven seconds, after overtaking former teammate Kurt Busch.

    Down to the final 100 laps of the race, Larson remained in the lead followed by teammates Bowman, Byron and Elliott with Harvick in fifth. A lap later, though, the caution returned when Aric Almirola made hard contact into the Turn 3 outside wall after he blew a right-front tire, with fire eventually flaming out of Almirola’s car. The on-track incident marked Almirola’s fifth DNF and his sixth result of 30th or worse this season. 

    Under the caution period, the leaders pitted and Bowman, whose pit crew clocked off a fast pit service, emerged with the lead ahead of teammates Larson, Elliott and Byron with Harvick coming out in fifth.

    With 92 laps remaining, the race restarted and Bowman maintained the lead over Larson and Elliott. Behind, Harvick overtook Byron for fourth with Hamlin lurking behind.

    Six laps later, the caution returned when a bump from Ricky Stenhouse Jr. sent rookie Anthony Alfredo sideways and spinning to the inside wall in Turn 2, where he made contact with the wall. In the midst of the incident, Stenhouse and Keselowski received minor damage to their respective machines.

    Under caution, a majority of competitors led by Hamlin pitted while the rest led by Bowman remained on the track. Overall, all four Hendrick competitors along with Harvick, Tyler Reddick, Daniel Suarez and Bubba Wallace remained on the track.

    With 81 laps remaining, the race restarted. At the start, Bowman pulled ahead followed by Larson while Elliott struggled to launch on the inside lane. Despite Larson challenging teammate Bowman for the lead through Turns 1 and 2, Harvick pulled his No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang alongside Larson’s No. 5 Nations Guard Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE in Turn 3, which allowed Bowman to maintain the lead.

    While Bowman continued to lead under the final 75 laps, Larson remained within sight of the lead by nearly seven-tenths of a second followed by Elliott, Harvick and Byron. Suarez and Reddick maintained sixth and seventh while Wallace battled owner Hamlin for eighth place.

    Just then, debris drew the caution, which jumbled the field and erased Bowman’s lead over teammate Larson. Under caution, a majority of the leaders remained on the track while others like Logano, Custer pitted.

    The race restarted with 70 laps remaining and with teammates Bowman and Larson on the front row. At the start, Bowman maintained the lead followed by Larson and Elliott while Byron retook fourth place over Harvick.

    Under the final 60 laps of the event, on-track battling occurring and with weather threats looming near the track, Bowman remained as the leader under half a second over a hard-charging Larson followed by Elliott, Byron and Harvick. Reddick, Suarez, Hamlin, Wallace and Logano were in the top 10 followed by Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain, Kurt Busch, Custer and Truex.

    With 50 laps remaining, Bowman continued to lead by half a second over teammate Larson with teammates Elliott and Byron remaining in third and fourth. Harvick remained in fifth followed by Reddick, Suarez, Logano, Hamlin and Wallace, who had Blaney challenging him for more.

    Down to the final 35 laps of the event, Bowman was leading by more than a second over teammate Larson while Elliott, Byron and Harvick stabilized themselves in the top five. Reddick, Logano, Suarez, Hamlin and Wallace also stabilized themselves in the top 10.

    With 20 laps remaining, the gap between leader Bowman and runner-up Larson remained to more than a second, with teammate Elliott behind by more than two seconds and teammate Byron trailing by more than seven seconds. Harvick remained in fifth place while Logano overtook Reddick for sixth place. A few laps later, Custer overtook Wallace for 10th place.

    Under the final 10 laps, the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE driven by Bowman continued to lead by more than a second over teammate Larson, who continued to lose ground on his teammate for the top spot. Bowman maintained his healthy advantage under the final five laps of the event. 

    With no challengers closing in to his rear bumper, Bowman was able to come back around and claim the checkered flag ahead of his three HMS teammates.

    The Dover victory marked Bowman’s first at the Monster Mile, fourth of his Cup Series career and second of this season as he joined Martin Truex Jr. as the only multi-winners of this year’s Cup season. He also returned the iconic No. 48 car to Victory Lane at Dover for the first time since 2017 made by Jimmie Johnson, who won at Dover 11 times. The 1-2-3-4 finish was a first for HMS and the fourth time done by a NASCAR team.

    “We won Richmond and then had a really rough couple weeks there,” Bowman said on FS1. “[We] Went to some really good race tracks for us and struggled. [I] Told the guys last week, ‘We’re still the same team that did it at Richmond.’ It’s another really good place for us. I’m just so pumped for Ally. It feels right to put the No. 48 back in Victory Lane here after how many races this car has won here. Mr. [Hendrick] is here, I don’t think I’ve won with him here befrore, so that’s really cool. Just so proud of this pit crew. It was a rough off-season for us and a big void to fill…The whole pit crew’s doing a really good job. Thanks to my spotter, Kevin Hamlin, for coaching me there at the end. It was fun racing Kyle [Larson] and glad to get Hendrick Motorsports another win.”

    With the Dover victory and career win No. 267, Hendrick Motorsports is one win away from tying Petty Enterprises for the most victories all-time in the Cup Series. In addition, Chevrolet is one win away from achieving 800 victories in NASCAR’s premier series.

    “I can guarantee you, this is the most nervous I’ve ever been in a race,” Rick Hendrick said. “Great day for the organization. Alex, congratulations to him. This is a sign of the guys working together and bringing good stuff to the track. I don’t think it’ll hit me till tomorrow that we were able to finish 1-2-3-4. That’s pretty hard to do, things can happen, pit stops, tires, anything. That’s a first. We’ll take it. It’s a great day for us.”

    Larson, who led a race-high 263 laps, crossed the finish line in second place, two seconds behind, and for his third runner-up result of the season. 

    “I felt like all of us, HMS guys, were pretty equal, so it was like whoever got out to the lead was gonna be hard to beat,” Larson said. “[Bowman’s] team just really did a good job on that pit stop, gain control of the race and never really had a shot after that. That one restart, I got to his bumper and got him loose, but [Harvick] was coming, so we had to let each other go, but hard to be disappointed with that second. I felt like I did everything I could. We led a lot of laps, won both stages. Good points, but I would’ve liked to have been one spot better…What a day for Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet. Thanks to everybody at the shop, the engine shop. This is pretty amazing…That’s a pretty special day, for sure.”

    Elliott finished in third place, three-and-a-half seconds behind, as he has yet to win this season. Byron capped off the 1-2-3-4 finish for Hendrick Motorsports by finishing fourth as he also captured his 11th consecutive top-10 result.

    Logano emerged as the highest-finishing non-Hendrick Motorsports competitor by finishing fifth while Harvick, Hamlin, Reddick, Suarez and Custer finished in the top 10. 

    Wallace claimed his first top-15 finish of this season and for 23XI Racing by finishing 11th ahead of Blaney, Kurt Busch, Austin Dillon and Chastain. Keselowski finished 16th, Truex came home in 19th and Kyle Busch capped off his long afternoon in 27th. Josh Berry finished 30th in his Cup debut.

    There were 10 lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 41 laps. 

    Denny Hamlin continues to lead the regular-season standings by 101 points over William Byron and 102 over Martin Truex Jr.

    With the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series regular-season stretch halfway complete, 10 competitors (Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, William Byron, Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell and Michael McDowell) are currently guaranteed a spot in the Playoffs based on winning at least once. Denny Hamlin would also be guaranteed a spot based on leading the regular-season standings. Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon, Chris Buescher and Tyler Reddick are inside the top-16 cutline to the Playoffs as winless competitors, with Reddick ahead by 17 points over Matt DiBenedetto, 30 over Kurt Busch, 32 over Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 38 over Ryan Newman, 49 over Bubba Wallace, 56 over Daniel Suarez and 58 over Ross Chastain.

    Results.

    1. Alex Bowman, 98 laps led

    2. Kyle Larson, 263 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    3. Chase Elliott

    4. William Byron, 21 laps led

    5. Joey Logano

    6. Kevin Harvick

    7. Denny Hamlin, two laps led

    8. Tyler Reddick

    9. Daniel Suarez

    10. Cole Custer

    11. Bubba Wallace

    12. Ryan Blaney

    13. Kurt Busch

    14. Austin Dillon

    15. Ross Chastain

    16. Brad Keselowski

    17. Chris Buescher

    18. Ryan Preece, one lap down

    19. Martin Truex Jr., one lap down, 16 laps led

    20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap down

    21. Christopher Bell, four laps down

    22. Erik Jones, four laps down

    23. Ryan Newman, four laps down

    24. Matt DiBenedetto, five laps down

    25. Michael McDowell, five laps down

    26. Corey LaJoie, seven laps down

    27. Kyle Busch, seven laps down

    28. Anthony Alfredo, eight laps down

    29. Quin Houff, 12 laps down

    30. Josh Berry, 12 laps down

    31. Cody Ware, 13 laps down

    32. Garrett Smithley, 17 laps down

    33. James Davison, 18 laps down

    34. Josh Bilicki, 19 laps down

    35. Chase Briscoe, 65 laps down

    36. B.J. McLeod – OUT, Engine

    37. Aric Almirola – OUT, Accident

    Next on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is a trip to Austin, Texas, for the series’ inaugural event at the Circuit of the Americas for the EchoPark Texas Grand Prix. The event is slated to occur on Sunday, May 23, at 2:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Logano conquers inaugural Bristol Dirt Course

    Logano conquers inaugural Bristol Dirt Course

    In the first NASCAR Cup Series-sanctioned race on the dirt in half a century, Joey Logano made a late charge to the front and prevailed on an overtime restart to win the inaugural Food City Dirt Race at the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Course on Monday, March 29.

    Qualifying was initially set to occur on Saturday, March 27, featuring four 15-lap qualifying heat events and the starting lineup was based on a formula weighing the results and position gained during each heat. The qualifying heats, however, were cancelled due to rain, and the starting lineup was determined by qualifying metrics, based on race/points results and the fastest lap from the previous Cup race. 

    Kyle Larson was awarded the pole position based on the metric formula, but he started at the rear of the field due to an engine change. The move propelled Denny Hamlin, the regular-season points leader, to the front row along with Ryan Blaney, winner of last weekend’s Cup event at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Along with Larson, Matt DiBenedetto and Michael McDowell dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments.

    Delayed by weather and steady rain, the race was delayed from starting on Sunday, March 28, as the main event commenced on Monday, March 29. When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Hamlin launched his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry ahead with an early advantage on the outside lane as he led the first lap ahead of teammate Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney.

    The following lap, Kyle Busch powered his No. 18 M&M’s Messages Toyota Camry to the lead. Shortly after, teammate Martin Truex Jr., winner of the Truck Series event at the Bristol Dirt Course, moved into second place as Hamlin dropped to third place. Behind, Blaney was in fourth followed by Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman and William Byron.

    On the ninth lap, Truex emerged as the new leader of the event while Kyle Busch, who fell off the pace, pitted due to an overheating issue.

    By Lap 15 and with the dirt kicking up on the cars through every turn, Truex was leading by more than a second over Blaney, who was locked in a battle with the No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE driven by Byron. Hamlin and Bowman were in the top five followed by Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon and Ryan Newman. Meanwhile, Kyle Larson, one of NASCAR’s dirt specialists who started at the rear of the field due to an engine change, was up into 18th place.

    Through the first 30 laps of the event, Truex continued to lead as he was ahead by two seconds over Blaney. Teammates Bowman and Byron battled for third and fourth while Christopher Bell, one of the favorites as a dirt racing specialist, moved his No. 20 IRWIN Toyota Camry into fifth place. By then, Larson was in 12th. Kyle Busch, on the other hand, was in 38th place and trapped two laps behind the leaders.

    Not long after, Bowman slipped his way into the runner-up spot. In addition, Byron slipped his way on the inside lane in the dirt to take over third place, thus dropping Blaney to fourth. 

    On Lap 41, the first caution of the NASCAR Cup Series’ dirt event at Bristol flew due to a vicious multi-car wreck in the backstretch that involved Corey LaJoie, Stewart Friesen, Shane Golobic, rookie Anthony Alfredo and Aric Almirola, whose No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang sustained heavy damage after being hit three different times. The wreck, which occurred in front of the leaders, was enough for NASCAR to display the red flag, with the event being stopped for six and a half minutes.

    When the red flag was lifted and the race returned to racing under green on Lap 45, Truex retained the lead following a strong restart. Teammate Bell moved up into second place followed by teammate Hamlin while Bowman fell back to fourth ahead of Ryan Newman and Byron. Larson, meanwhile, moved up to seventh.

    Two laps later, the caution returned when contact from Byron sent Newman around in the backstretch. Fortunately, the field dodged Newman as he continued without any serious damage. In the midst of Newman’s incident, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick and rookie Chase Briscoe made contact with one another, where Harvick pinned Briscoe’s car against the outside wall and resulted with both competitors sustaining damage. Cody Ware was also involved in a separate incident with his car coming to a rest towards the backstretch’s inside wall.

    The incident was enough to send the field to the first scheduled competition caution on Lap 50. Under the competition caution, the field pitted and the teams were placed on a three-minute clock to work on the adjustments of the cars.

    When the field returned to the track and the race returned to green on Lap 51, Truex retained the lead followed by teammate Bell and Bowman. Larson charged up to fourth place followed by Hamlin and Daniel Suarez.

    Shortly after, the caution returned when Bell ran up the track in Turn 1 and entering the backstretch, got loose and spun in the dirt, collecting Larson and Ross Chastain, who ran into Larson’s No. 5 Freightliner Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE after having his path blocked. Teammates Harvick and Briscoe also sustained damage along with Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    Under caution, Larson drove his damaged car into the rear bumper of Bell’s car to express his displeasure as both competitors pitted for heavy damage on both of their cars. Bell and Chastain were knocked out of the race following the incident while Larson continued, though he dropped off the lead lap.

    When the race restarted on Lap 59, Truex retained the lead following a strong start while Suarez moved up into second place. Byron and Blaney were in third and fourth followed by Stenhouse and Hamlin. Chase Elliott and Logano were in seventh and eighth followed by Chris Buescher. Tyler Reddick, Bowman, Bubba Wallace and Ryan Newman

    By Lap 70, the No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry driven by Truex remained as the leader by nearly a second over Suarez while Byron, Blaney and Hamlin continued to run in the top five. Logano was in sixth while Elliott and Bubba Wallace battled for seventh. Stenhouse and Newman were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch, who returned to the lead lap under the first competition caution, was in 17th behind brother Kurt Busch.

    Ten laps later, Truex stabilized his advantage to less than two seconds over the No. 99 Camping World Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE driven by Suarez while third-place Byron was trailing by less than three seconds. Hamlin was in fourth ahead of Team Penske’s Blaney and Logano while Wallace was in seventh ahead of Elliott. Newman and Stenhouse continued to run in the top 10 and just ahead of Buescher, Reddick, Ryan Preece, Erik Jones and Bowman. The Busch brothers were in 17th and 18th, Harvick was in 20th, Brad Keselowski was in 23rd in between Michael McDowell and Stewart Friesen and Briscoe was in 25th in front of Austin Dillon.

    Through the first 90 laps of the event, Truex’s advantage increased to more than two seconds over Suarez, with Byron closing in on Suarez’s rear bumper for the runner-up spot. 

    With early action igniting in the inaugural Cup Bristol dirt event, Truex was able to cruise to the first stage victory on Lap 100 and become the ninth different competitor to record a stage victory through the first seven Cup events of the 2021 season. Byron crossed the start/finish line in second place followed by Hamlin, Suarez and Blaney. Logano, Wallace, Newman, Stenhouse and Buescher were scored in the top 10. By then, 24 of the 39-car field were scored on the lead lap, with names like Briscoe and Austin Dillon pinned a lap behind. Larson, meanwhile, was in 30th, two laps behind the leaders.

    Under the stage break, the leaders returned to pit road as the teams were given three minutes to service the cars.

    The second stage started on Lap 101 with Truex and Byron on the front row. At the start, Truex retained the lead and Suarez reassumed second place on the outside of Byron while Logano made a charge for fourth place against Hamlin. Newman, following his early spin, charged his way back into sixth place ahead of Wallace and Blaney as the dirt was kicking up around the track in the midst of the competitive racing.

    By Lap 110, Truex was ahead by nearly a second over Suarez while Byron, Logano and Hamlin were in the top five. Newman, Wallace, Blaney, Buescher and Chase Elliott were in the top 10 followed by Reddick, Erik Jones, Bowman, Matt DiBenedetto and Kyle Busch.

    With the field reaching the halfway point on Lap 125, Truex remained in command of the field by less than a second over Suarez while third-place Byron was trailing by less than two seconds. Logano continued to run in fourth place followed by Hamlin and Newman.

    Not long after, Suarez started to close in on Truex’s rear bumper for the lead as he was behind by three-tenths of a second. Byron also started to close in with his deficit being a second behind.

    On Lap 134, Suarez, who came into the main event with little dirt racing experience and in his seventh race with the newly formed Trackhouse Racing Team, put the bumper on Truex to move Truex out of the racing groove in Turn 3 and assume the lead in Turn 4. Not long after, Byron moved into second place while Truex dropped back to third place ahead of Logano and Newman.

    By Lap 140, Suarez was ahead by a narrow margin over Byron while Truex continued to retain third place over Logano and Newman.

    When the second competition caution flew on Lap 150, Suarez remained as the leader over Byron, Truex, Logano and Newman. 

    Under the second competition caution, the leaders returned to pit road for tires and service.

    When the race restarted on Lap 152, Suarez and Byron battled dead even for the lead through the first two turns before Suarez prevailed on the outside lane. Not long after, the caution returned for a multi-car wreck on the frontstretch that started when in the midst of the dust, Kyle Busch ran into Blaney’s No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang, turning him and stacking up the oncoming competitors behind. The incident also involved Austin Dillon, Bowman, Michael McDowell, Ryan Preece, Cody Ware, J.J. Yeley and Larson.

    The race restarted on Lap 158, and Suarez retained the lead following a strong start. Behind, Logano was able to take over second place while Byron and Truex battled for third place. Two laps later, however, the caution returned due to a single-car incident on the frontstretch involving Briscoe, who was turned by Keselowski.

    Following the recent wrecks and the rising dust amid the restarts, NASCAR announced that the competitors will restart in a single-file line, not double lanes, for the remainder of the race.

    When the race restarted on Lap 169, Logano challenged Suarez for the lead, but Suarez was able to retain the top spot. Behind, Truex was in third followed by teammate Hamlin, Byron, Newman, Elliott, Wallace, Reddick and Stenhouse.

    By Lap 180, Suarez remained as the leader by half a second over Logano with Truex, teammate Hamlin and Byron remaining in the top five. 

    Six laps later, the caution flew due to an incident involving Cody Ware and J.J. Yeley in Turn 3.

    On Lap 190, the race restarted and Suarez continued to lead, though Logano mounted another challenge for the lead. The following lap, Logano, following a brief battle with Suarez, emerged with a narrow advantage, though Suarez refused to give in.

    By Lap 195, Logano was leading by nearly half a second over Suarez while Joe Gibbs Racing’s Hamlin and Truex battled for third place. 

    Following his late surge to the front, Logano was able to come back around and win the second stage on Lap 200. Suarez settled in second place followed by Hamlin, teammate Truex and Newman while Stenhouse, Wallace, Erik Jones, Reddick and Elliott were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, the leaders returned to pit road for adjustments. In addition, the teams were given approximately 10 minutes to work on the cars to allow track officials to work on the track in preparation for the final stage.

    With 48 laps remaining, the final stage started with Logano remaining as the leader. At the start, Hamlin jumped to the outside lane to take the runner-up spot over Suarez. He then went to work on Logano for the lead while Truex started to close in on Suarez for third place. 

    Five laps later, Hamlin drew himself alongside Logano’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang, with both competitors locked in a heated battle for the lead in the dirt. Following a lengthy side-by-side battle, Logano retained the lead by a narrow margin over Hamlin.

    While Logano and Hamlin battled for the lead, Suarez remained in third place ahead of Truex, Newman and Tyler Reddick. Not long after, Reddick moved into the top five after overtaking Newman’s No. 6 Oscar Mayer Ford Mustang.

    Under the final 35 laps of the event, Wallace’s hopes for a top-10 result evaporated when contact from Stenhouse sent Wallace around and cut the left-rear tire on Wallace’s No. 23 DoorDash Toyota Camry. He was able to limp back to pit road and have the tire changed.

    With 30 laps remaining and the dirt continuing to kick up, Logano extended his advantage to under half a second over Hamlin with third-place Suarez trailing by three seconds. Truex and Reddick were in the top five followed by Newman, Stenhouse, Byron, teammate Elliott and Jones. By then, the leaders were mired in heavy, lapped traffic.

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Logano remained as the leader, but by less than half a second over Hamlin. Behind, Truex moved into third place over Suarez.

    Five laps later, Logano continued to lead by nearly half a second over Hamlin, with Logano starting to catch Bowman, Briscoe and Austin Dillon to lap them.

    With 10 laps remaining, Logano was still leading by a reasonable margin over Hamlin. Meanwhile, Truex was trailing the two leaders by less than three seconds.

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Logano extended his advantage to more than three seconds over Hamlin, who was still navigating his way through lapped traffic.

    Just then, the caution flew due to Mike Marlar spinning on the frontstretch due to a flat tire. The caution all but evaporated Logano’s advantage of more than three seconds over Hamlin, who was briefly overtaken by teammate Truex after Hamlin made contact with the outside wall while trying to close back in on Logano. By then, Stenhouse was in fourth followed by Suarez, Reddick, Newman, Byron, Jones and Blaney.

    The race restarted in overtime. At the start, Logano took off with the lead while Stenhouse mounted a challenge on Hamlin to take over the runner-up spot. Truex, meanwhile, fell off the pace after losing a tire.

    When the final lap initiated, Logano was still leading while Stenhouse was able to overtake Hamlin for the runner-up spot.

    With no challengers mounting close behind, Logano, who came into the event with little dirt experience, was able to come back around and claim the checkered flag ahead of Stenhouse.

    By winning the first stock car event on the Bristol Dirt Course, Logano became the first competitor to win a Cup event on dirt since Richard Petty made the last accomplishment at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in September 1970. Logano also became the seventh different winner through the first seven Cup events of the 2021 season as he also collected his 27th career victory in NASCAR’s premier series.

    “Man, it’s incredible!” Logano exclaimed on FOX. “How about Bristol on dirt, guys?! This is incredible! Unbelievable racetrack! Great job by everybody that prepped the track. Obviously, a lot of work over here the last few days. We did a lot of work in the dirt department here the last few weeks…I was getting nervous. There were so many first-time winners and different winners than there has typically been. I said, ‘We’ve got to get a win to make sure we get in the Playoffs,’ so it’s amazing to get this Shell/Pennzoil Mustang into victory lane at Bristol. There’s nothing like winning at Bristol, but putting dirt on it and being the first to do it is really special.”

    “Everyone at Team Penske really put together some really good cars to come here and wing it,” Logano added. “That’s what this is about. Nobody really knew what to put in the car and we were able to adjust the right way throughout practice and get into victory lane. It’s great.”

    Stenhouse crossed the finish line in an impressive second-place result and for his first top-five result in nearly a year followed by Hamlin, who secured his sixth top-five result of this season. Behind, Suarez notched a strong fourth-place result for his first top-five result since November 2019 and for a career-best result for the newly formed Trackhouse Racing Team. Newman finished in fifth place for his first top-five result since October 2019. 

    “Yeah, our Kroger Camaro was really good on the long run; we needed a little bit more NOS Energy Drink for the restarts,” Stenhouse said. “I just couldn’t get going, couldn’t get the turn in the race car that we needed. But, we made a ton of adjustments and we kind of went back and forth overnight of what we were going to do…Man, we had a blast. At the start of the race, I was terrible with the green race track and a little bit of moisture in it. But as it blew off, we got back to where we were in practice and felt really good with it. A good way to go into the off week. I’m going to go run my sprint car with my dad this weekend. Hope everyone has a good Easter.”

    “I thought I could, on that last restart, run the top-end hard, but they didn’t prep it in-between cautions like they did before, so it was just marbles up there,” Hamlin said. “I’m proud of this whole FedEx Camry team. Man, I thought I had a shot there. I cut t[Logano] too many breaks there when he was cutting us off, but at the end of the day it looked like he had a little bit better car in the long run. I’m proud of this whole team. We are third-best again.”

    “To be honest, I had no idea what I was doing,” Suarez said. “But, we’re having fun. Everyone at Trackhouse Racing did an amazing job. This is the second week in a row that we’ve had very fast race cars capable of running in the fop-five, top-10. I couldn’t be more proud of all these guys [like] Justin Marks, Ty Norris, and everyone that helps in this program…Everyone has been a huge support of myself. It just feels so good to be back. It’s been a little bit difficult the last year, and it feels so good to be able to race with these guys and to have some fun up front. Hopefully, our time will come soon.”

    Byron, Reddick, Blaney, Jones and Elliott finished in the top 10.

    Harvick finished 15th, Kyle Busch finished 17th behind brother Kurt, Truex dropped all the way back to 19th after leading a race-high 126 laps, Briscoe was the highest-finishing rookie in 20th, Stewart Friesen finished 23rd in his Cup debut, Wallace settled in 27th and Larson ended his long run in 29th.

    Following an eventful, successful first-year run of the NASCAR Bristol Dirt Course event, NASCAR announced that the event will return in Spring 2022.

    There were five lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured 10 cautions for 39 laps. 

    Following the first seven NASCAR Cup Series races of the 2021 season, Hamlin continues to lead the regular-season standings by 58 points over Logano, 80 over Truex, 85 over Larson and 95 over Keselowski.

    Results.

    1. Joey Logano, 61 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    2. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    3. Denny Hamlin, one lap led

    4. Daniel Suarez, 58 laps led

    5. Ryan Newman

    6. William Byron

    7. Tyler Reddick

    8. Ryan Blaney 

    9. Erik Jones

    10. Chase Elliott

    11. Brad Keselowski

    12. Michael McDowell

    13. Matt DiBenedetto

    14. Chris Buescher

    15. Kevin Harvick

    16. Kurt Busch

    17. Kyle Busch, seven laps led

    18. Ryan Preece

    19. Martin Truex Jr., 126 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    20. Chase Briscoe, one lap down

    21. Austin Dillon, one lap down

    22. Alex Bowman, one lap down

    23. Stewart Friesen, one lap down

    24. Cole Custer, one lap down

    25. Quin Houff, one lap down

    26. Ty Dillon, one lap down

    27. Bubba Wallace, two laps down

    28. J.J. Yeley, four laps down

    29. Kyle Larson, five laps down

    30. Josh Bilicki, six laps down

    31. Mike Marlar – OUT, Accident

    32. Cody Ware, 11 laps down

    33. Chris Windom – OUT, Engine

    34. Christopher Bell – OUT, Accident

    35. Ross Chastain – OUT, Accident

    36. Aric Almirola – OUT, Accident

    37. Shane Golobic – OUT, Accident

    38. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Accident

    39. Anthony Alfredo – OUT, Accident

    The NASCAR Cup Series will enter a one-week Easter break before returning at Martinsville Speedway in Henry County, Ridgeway, Virginia, for the series’ first Saturday night race of the season on April 10. The event is slated to occur at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Blaney perseveres late for a Cup victory at Atlanta

    Blaney perseveres late for a Cup victory at Atlanta

    In a late turn of events, Ryan Blaney overtook a dominating Kyle Larson and surged ahead under the final 10 laps to win the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 21, and claim his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2021 season.

    The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. With that, Denny Hamlin, the regular-season points leader, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Martin Truex Jr., Hamlin’s teammate and winner of last weekend’s Cup event at Phoenix Raceway.

    Prior to the race, Chase Elliott and Timmy Hill dropped to the rear of the field due to multiple pre-race inspection failures. For Hill, he was also assessed a pass-through penalty through pit road and his car chief was ejected due to his car failing pre-race inspection three times. Quin Houff also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments. 

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Hamlin pulled away with a strong start followed by Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick while Truex fell back to fourth. Behind, the field fanned out through two lanes.

    Following the first lap, Hamlin was out in front while Harvick and Logano battled for the runner-up spot. Through Turn 2, Truex gained a run on both Harvick and Logano, but Harvick blocked and stalled Truex’s momentum. 

    Through the first five laps of the event, Hamlin continued to lead by a narrow margin over Harvick with Logano trailing by less than half a second. Kyle Larson, making his 350th NASCAR national touring series start and who started sixth, moved up to fourth followed by teammate William Byron. Truex, meanwhile, fell back to sixth while Ryan Blaney, Austin Dillon, Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski were in the top 10.

    Over the next two laps, Larson advanced to third place over Logano, who was also pressured by Byron, who started ninth, for position. Behind, Truex was in sixth ahead of Blaney, Kurt Busch and Austin Dillon, all of whom were locked in a heated battle for position.

    By Lap 10, Hamlin was ahead by half a second over Larson, who continued to muscle his way to the front with Harvick behind by a second. Meanwhile, Tyler Reddick made an unscheduled pit stop after making early contact with the outside wall. 

    While Hamlin and Larson pulled away from the field and by nearly two seconds over third-place Harvick, teammates Logano and Ryan Blaney battled for fifth place, Kyle Busch, winner of the Truck Series event at Atlanta and who started 19th, moved up into seventh place while Truex continued to lose positions. By Lap 16, he was in 10th after being overtaken by the Busch brothers and Austin Dillon.

    By Lap 20, Hamlin extended his advantage to more than a second over Larson with Harvick trailing by more than three seconds. Byron and Blaney, who started 10th, were in the top five followed by Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Logano, Austin Dillon and Truex. Brad Keselowski, meanwhile, was back in 12th behind Alex Bowman, who was making his 250th NASCAR national touring series start. Chase Elliott, on the other hand, was up in 16th after starting at the rear of the field.

    When the competition caution flew on Lap 25, Hamlin remained in the lead by more than half a second over Larson with Harvick, Blaney and Kyle Busch in the top five, thus dropping Byron to sixth place. By then, 31 of the 39-car field were scored on the lead lap. 

    Under the competition caution, the leaders pitted and Larson emerged with the lead over Hamlin followed by Harvick, Blaney and Kyle Busch. Following the pit stops, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Corey LaJoie were sent to the rear of the field after both were busted for speeding on pit road.

    Prior to the restart, Harvick returned to pit road after his No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang suffered a flat left-rear tire.

    When the race restarted on Lap 30, Larson and Hamlin were locked in a heated battle for the lead through the first two turns. Hamlin received a push from Blaney to squeak ahead on the outside lane entering Turn 3, but Larson fought back on the inside lane to retain the lead when the field returned to the start/finish line.

    Shortly after, Blaney overtook Hamlin for second, who was also pressured by Kurt Busch’s No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. While Kurt Busch and Hamlin battled for third place, Kyle Busch battled Logano for fifth place. 

    By Lap 35, Larson continued to lead by nearly half a second over Blaney. Behind, Kurt Bush and Hamlin continued to battle for third place.

    Five laps later, Larson extended his advantage to more than a second over Blaney with Hamlin, Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch in the top five. Bowman, teammate Byron, Logano, Truex and Keselowski were in the top 10. By then, Elliott was up in 11th ahead of Matt DiBenedetto, Cole Custer, teammate Aric Almirola and Ryan Newman. Christopher Bell was in 16th, Austin Dillon was back in 18th, Bubba Wallace and Daniel Suarez were in 21st and 22nd ahead of Michael McDowell and Austin Cindric, making his second Cup career start, was in 24th ahead of Erik Jones. Rookies Chase Briscoe and Anthony Alfredo were in 28th and 29th while Harvick was back in 32nd place, the final car on the lead lap. Tyler Reddick was in 33rd, two laps behind the leaders.

    By Lap 50, the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE piloted by Larson was out in front of the field and by more than two seconds over Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry. Blaney, racing in the BODYARMOR Ford Mustang, continued to run in third place ahead of a charging No. 18 M&M’s Messages Toyota Camry driven by Kyle Busch. Brother Kurt was in fifth ahead of Bowman, Truex, Byron, Keselowski and Elliott.

    Ten laps later, Larson continued to extend his advantage as he was leading by over three seconds over Hamlin with teammate Kyle Busch trailing in third place by less than four seconds. While Blaney and Kurt Busch continued to run in the top five, Elliott moved up to eighth place ahead of teammate Byron and Keselowski.

    Another four laps later, pit stops under green commenced as Hamlin pitted followed by race leader Larson, DiBenedetto, Almirola, Blaney, Bowman, Kurt Busch, Logano, Harvick, Keselowski, Truex, Elliott, Christopher Bell, Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch, Byron, Bubba Wallace and others. 

    By Lap 67 and with most of the leaders pitting under green, Larson was back out in front by more than a second over Hamlin with teammate Kyle Busch retaining third place. Meanwhile, Harvick, who was in 27th, was able to remain ahead of leader Larson and on the lead lap. 

    Through the first 75 laps of the event and with the leaders mired around lapped traffic, Larson was the leader by more than three seconds over Hamlin with teammate Kyle Busch behind by four seconds. Blaney was in fourth while Bowman, racing in his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, moved up to fifth place. By then, Harvick, who tried to remain in front of leader Larson, was lapped, thus making Austin Cindric the final competitor on the lead lap.

    Fifteen laps later, Larson remained as the leader by six seconds over Kyle Busch, who earlier overtook teammate Hamlin for the runner-up spot. Blaney also moved up to third place while Hamlin and Kurt Busch were in the top five. Bowman, Truex, Elliott, Keselowski and Byron rounded out the top 10.

    By Lap 100 and in the final laps of the first stage, Larson stabilized his advantage to more than seven seconds over Kyle Busch with Blaney trailing by more than nine seconds, Kurt Busch by nearly 11 seconds, Hamlin by more than 12 seconds and Bowman by more than 13 seconds.

    With a fast car in the early stages of the event, Larson was able to cruise to the first stage victory on Lap 105 and with a seven-second advantage over Kyle Busch. Blaney settled in third followed by Kurt Busch and Hamlin while Bowman, Truex, Elliott, Chris Buescher and Byron were scored in the top 10. By then, 19 of the 39-car field were scored on the lead lap, with names like Aric Almirola, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, McDowell, Harvick, Cindric, Erik Jones and Briscoe pinned a lap behind.

    Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Larson retained the lead after exiting pit road with the top spot followed by Kyle Busch, Blaney, Elliott, teammate Bowman and Kurt Busch. Following the pit stops, Chastain was penalized for an uncontrolled tire.

    The second stage started on Lap 112 with the two Kyles on the front row. At the start, Larson pulled away on the inside lane while Kyle Busch struggled to go on the outside lane and caused a stack up with Elliott running into the rear bumper of Busch’s No. 18 Toyota. Behind, Kurt Busch, who was behind Elliott, was bumped and turned by Hamlin as Busch’s No. 1 Chevrolet made hard contact against the outside wall entering Turn 1. Though Busch limped his car back to pit road, the damage was enough to end his strong run early.

    Under caution, some like Hamlin, Logano, Suarez and Almirola pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.

    The race restarted on Lap 118 with teammates Larson and Byron on the front row. At the start, Blaney muscled his way into the lead over the Hendrick teammates. While Blaney led himself a lap, Larson, with a strong, fast car, was able to reassume the advantage by Lap 120. Behind, Keselowski sustained damage to his fender and hood as a result of running into the back of Truex’s No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry.

    By Lap 130, Larson was leading by nearly three seconds over Blaney, who had Bowman closing in for position. DiBenedetto and Byron were in the top five followed by Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch, Buescher, Elliott and Stenhouse.

    Twenty laps later, Larson increased his advantage to six seconds over Blaney. By then, Suarez was scored in the top 10 as he was in 10th place behind Buescher.

    Nearing the Lap 160 mark, a second round of pit stops under green occurred as the leaders pitted. When the field cycled through following the pit stops and the race reaching the halfway mark, Larson was back out in front by more than five seconds over teammate Bowman with Blaney, DiBenedetto and Kyle Busch in the top five.

    By Lap 175, Larson continued to lead by more than seven seconds over teammate Bowman with Blaney trailing by more than eight seconds. DiBenedetto and Kyle Busch continued to run in the top five followed by Byron, Austin Dillon, Hamlin, Buescher and Truex. Suarez, Elliott and Logano were 11th, 14th and 15th while Wallace was in 17th. Harvick, meanwhile, was mired back in 20th, two laps behind the leaders, while Keselowski was in 29th, three laps behind.

    Fifteen laps later, Larson extended his advantage to more than nine seconds over teammate Bowman as he continued to set sail with a fast car.

    By Lap 200 and in the final laps of the second stage, Larson was leading by nearly 11 seconds over Blaney with third-place Bowman trailing by more than 12 seconds.

    With no challengers lurking close behind, Larson was able to cruise to the second stage victory on Lap 210. Blaney crossed the line in second place, trailing by less than eight seconds, followed by Bowman, Kyle Busch and Byron while DiBenedetto, Austin Dillon, Chris Buescher, Hamlin and Suarez settled in the top 10 and with stage points. By then, 14 of the 39-car field were scored on the lead lap. While Ryan Newman and Elliott remained on the lead lap at the time of caution, names like Logano, Cole Custer, Bubba Wallace, Almirola, McDowell, Harvick, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, Cindric, Briscoe, Jones, Reddick and Keselowski were pinned at least a lap behind. Logano, though, received the free pass to return on the lead lap.

    Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Larson retained the lead after exiting pit road with the lead by a narrow nose over Blaney followed by Bowman, teammate Byron, Kyle Busch and DiBenedetto.

    With 108 laps remaining, the final stage commenced with teammates Larson and Byron on the front row. At the start, Larson retained the lead followed by Blaney, Bowman, Kyle Busch and Byron while Hamlin made a run alongside DiBenedetto and Suarez behind.

    Two laps later, the caution returned due to fluid on the track when smoke started billowing out of Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE entering Turn 4. Though Elliott was able to limp his car back to his pit stall, his crew ended up taking the car to the garage as Elliott’s race came to an end at his home track due to a mechanical failure.

    Under caution, the leaders returned to pit road and this time, Blaney exited the pits with the lead over Larson followed by Bowman, Kyle Busch and Byron. Following the pit stops, however, Kyle Busch was sent to the rear of the field due to speeding on pit road.

    Prior to the restart, 21 competitor opted for the wave around, with five returning on the lead lap, including Harvick. With than, 20 of the 39-car field were scored on the lead lap.

    With 101 laps remaining, the race restarted with Blaney and Hamlin on the front row. At the start, Blaney retained the lead while Larson and Hamlin battled for the runner-up spot along with DiBenedetto.

    Six laps later, Blaney was the leader by less than two-tenths of a second over Larson, who worked his way back into the runner-up spot, while Hamlin, Bowman and DiBenedetto were in the top five.

    With 90 laps remaining, Blaney stabilized his advantage by four-tenths of a second over Larson with Hamlin, Bowman and Austin Dillon in the top five. By then, names like DiBenedetto, Suarez, Buescher, Newman and Truex were in the top 10 while Byron, Kyle Busch, Logano and Harvick were in 11th, 13th, 15th and 16th.

    Two laps later, Larson reassumed the lead over Blaney, who had debris on the front grille of his car.

    With 75 laps remaining, Larson was out in front by more than two seconds over Blaney while Hamlin, Bowman and Austin Dillon continued to run in the top five. By then, Suarez, in his sixth race with the newly formed Trackhouse Racing Team, moved up to sixth place ahead of Buescher and DiBenedetto. Behind, Truex and Byron were in the top 10 followed by Kyle Busch.

    While Daniel Suarez and Trackhouse Racing Team were in sixth, Bubba Wallace and 23XI Racing were inside the top 15. B.J. McLeod, driving for the newly formed Live Fast Motorsports, was in 34th.

    Fifteen laps later, Larson stabilized his advantage to a second over Blaney, with the latter starting to decrease the deficit to himself and the leader. Hamlin, Bowman and Austin Dillon remained in the top five while Suarez, Buescher, DiBenedetto, Truex and Kyle Busch were scored in the top 10. Byron fell back to 11th followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Wallace, Harvick, Newman and Logano.

    A lap later, another round of pit stops under green occurred, starting with Truex pitting followed by others, with the teams filling the cars with enough fuel to get to the finish. During the pit stops, rookie Anthony Alfredo spun on pit road and nearly collided against Almirola and his pit crew during Almirola’s service. Despite the incident, the race continued under green.

    With 50 laps remaining and the pit stops completed, Larson was back out in front by more than two seconds over Blaney. Bowman was in third followed by Hamlin and Austin Dillon. Teammates Truex and Kyle Busch were in sixth and seventh followed by Byron, Buescher and DiBenedetto. Suarez, who was running in the top 10, was back in 19th, a lap down, after speeding while exiting pit road.

    Ten laps later, Larson continued to dominate with an advantage of three seconds over Blaney. Bowman trailed by less than seven seconds in third place while Hamlin and Austin Dillon continued to run in the top five. Kyle Busch, meanwhile, moved up to sixth place over teammate Truex while Byron, Buescher and DiBenedetto continued to run in the top 10.

    With 25 laps remaining and the field reaching the Lap 300 mark, Larson was still leading by more than two seconds over Blaney with third-place Bowman trailing by more than eight seconds and fourth-place Hamlin trailing by less than 10 seconds. Kyle Busch, meanwhile, was in fifth place, trailing the lead by less than 15 seconds, following an earlier pass on Austin Dillon.

    Five laps later, Larson stabilized his advantage to two seconds over Blaney with third-place Bowman trailing by more than nine seconds. By then, 15 of the 39-car field were scored on the lead lap, with Logano running in 15th place while Wallace was lapped in 16th place.

    With the laps winding down and the race transitioning to night conditions, Blaney started to narrow the deficit between himself and Larson, with the former behind by less than a second.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Larson was leading by four-tenths of a second over Blaney, who continued to close on Larson with a fast car. By then, Larson was mired behind Logano, who was trying to remain on the lead lap, and was having his large advantage slipping away.

    Two laps later, Blaney emerged with the lead in Turn 4 following a battle with Larson and following his late surge for the lead. Shortly after, he pulled away with a four-tenths of a second advantage over Larson, with both overtaking Logano and putting him a lap behind.

    Shortly after, Corey LaJoie made contact with the wall, but the race remained under green as LaJoie limped back to pit road.

    With five laps remaining, Blaney pulled away by more than a second over Larson with Bowman trailing by less than nine seconds.

    Not long after and when the final race started, Blaney continued to lead by nearly two seconds over Larson. With no challengers mounting behind, Blaney was able to come back around following his late surge and grab the checkered flag by two seconds over Larson.

    With his victory, Blaney became the sixth different winner through the first six races of the 2021 season as he also claimed his fifth Cup career victory and first since winning at Talladega Superspeedway in June 2020. He also recorded the first Cup victory of the season for Team Penske.

    “Gosh, we had a great long run car all day,” Blaney said on FOX. “It took us a little bit to get going. I was pretty free all day, so we made a really good change to tighten me up where I needed it and it looked like Kyle was getting loose and I’m happy it worked in our favor that there was a couple long runs at the end that kind of let us get there. He got slowed up behind some lap traffic, but I’m really proud of this whole BodyArmor, Menards No. 12 group. We’ve been good this year and had some bad breaks and it’s nice to close out a race like that. That was awesome.”

    Larson, who led a race-high 269 of 325 laps, finished in second place for the second time at Atlanta and for his third top-five result in four races this season.

    “Yeah, I don’t know,” Larson said. “I think [Blaney] just got a lot better there that last stage and it kind of changed up my flow of the race a little bit. I could get out to such a big lead and then I could take care of my stuff; and run the bottom, where it was maybe slower, but I could take care of my tires. He was fast there and I just wanted to maintain that gap that I had, so I had to run in the faster part of the racetrack and just use my stuff up. And then, he was just a lot better than me there late in the run. Hate to lead a lot of laps and lose, but we had a really good car that we brought to the track. Our HendrickCars.com Chevy was fast there for a long time. I don’t really know; I don’t know if we got that much worse or he just got way better and, like I said, it just kind of changed up the flow of my race.”

    Bowman finished in third place for his first top-five result of the season while teammates Hamlin and Kyle Busch finished in the top five.

    Austin Dillon, Buescher, Byron, Truex and Harvick finished in the top 10 on the track. 

    DiBenedetto finished 11th, Logano settled in 15th ahead of Wallace and Suarez, Cindric finished 22nd in his second Cup career start, Briscoe was the highest-finishing rookie in 23rd and Keselowski ended his run in 28th.

    There were 11 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 25 laps. 

    Hamlin continues to lead the regular-season standings by 43 points over Larson, 63 over Logano, 65 over Truex, 71 over Keselowski and 74 over Harvick.

    Results.

    1. Ryan Blaney, 25 laps led

    2. Kyle Larson, 269 laps led, Stage 1 and 2 winner

    3. Alex Bowman

    4. Denny Hamlin, 27 laps led

    5. Kyle Busch

    6. Austin Dillon

    7. Chris Buescher

    8. William Byron, two laps led

    9. Martin Truex Jr. 

    10. Kevin Harvick

    11. Matt DiBenedetto

    12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    13. Ryan Newman

    14. Ross Chastain

    15. Joey Logano, one lap down

    16. Bubba Wallace, one lap down

    17. Daniel Suarez, one lap down, one lap led

    18. Cole Custer, one lap down

    19. Michael McDowell, one lap down

    20. Aric Almirola, one lap down

    21. Christopher Bell, two laps down

    22. Austin Cindric, two laps down

    23. Chase Briscoe, two laps down

    24. Erik Jones, two laps down

    25. Ryan Preece, two laps down

    26. Tyler Reddick, two laps down

    27. Anthony Alfredo, three laps down

    28. Brad Keselowski, four laps down

    29. Corey LaJoie, six laps down

    30. Justin Haley, six laps down

    31. Cody Ware, nine laps down

    32. James Davison, nine laps down

    33. Quin Houff, 11 laps down

    34. B.J. McLeod, 12 laps down

    35. Joey Gase, 17 laps down

    36. Timmy Hill, 20 laps down

    37. Josh Bilicki, 40 laps down

    38. Chase Elliott – OUT, Engine

    39. Kurt Busch – OUT, Accident, one lap led

    Next on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the highly anticipated Food City Dirt Race at the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Course on Sunday, March 28, which will mark the series’ first event on dirt since 1970. The event is slated to occur at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

  • Sweet redemption for Larson at Las Vegas

    Sweet redemption for Larson at Las Vegas

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

    The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. With that, Kevin Harvick started on pole position and was joined on the front row with William Byron, winner of last weekend’s Cup event at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Results.

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

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

    3. Kyle Busch

    4. Denny Hamlin, 47 laps led

    5. Ryan Blaney, one lap led

    6. Martin Truex Jr., six laps led

    7. Christopher Bell

    8. William Byron, 25 laps led

    9. Joey Logano, seven laps led

    10. Erik Jones

    11. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 

    12. Austin Dillon

    13. Chase Elliott, 22 laps led

    14. Chris Buescher

    15. Ryan Preece, one lap down

    16. Matt DiBenedetto, one lap down

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

    18. Ryan Newman, one lap down

    19. Kurt Busch, one lap down

    20. Kevin Harvick, one lap down

    21. Chase Briscoe, one lap down

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

    23. Ross Chastain, one lap down

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

    25. Cole Custer, one lap down

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

    27. Alex Bowman, two laps down

    28. Bubba Wallace, five laps down

    29. Justin Haley, five laps down

    30. B.J. McLeod, seven laps down

    31. Garrett Smithley, eight laps down

    32. Cody Ware, eight laps down

    33. Quin Houff, 11 laps down

    34. Joey Gase, 12 laps down

    35. Josh Bilicki, 15 laps down

    36. Timmy Hill, 21 laps down

    37. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Rear end

    38. Aric Almirola – OUT, Accident

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

  • Bell notches first Cup career victory at Daytona road course event

    Bell notches first Cup career victory at Daytona road course event

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

    The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. With that, Chase Elliott, winner of the first Cup points-paying event on Daytona’s road course layout, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Michael McDowell, the 2021 Daytona 500 champion. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Results.

    1. Christopher Bell, five laps led

    2. Joey Logano, 10 laps led

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

    4. Kurt Busch, two laps led

    5. Brad Keselowski

    6. Kevin Harvick

    7. A.J. Allmendinger, two laps led

    8. Michael McDowell

    9. Ryan Preece

    10. Alex Bowman

    11. Chris Buescher

    12. Martin Truex Jr.

    13. Cole Custer

    14. Erik Jones

    15. Ryan Blaney

    16. Daniel Suarez, two laps led

    17. Aric Almirola

    18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    19. Ty Dillon

    20. Ryan Newman

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

    22. Anthony Alfredo

    23. James Davison

    24. Justin Haley

    25. Cody Ware

    26. Bubba Wallace

    27. Garrett Smithley

    28. Scott Heckert

    29. Timmy Hill

    30. Kyle Larson

    31. Corey LaJoie

    32. Chase Briscoe

    33. William Byron, one lap down

    34. Austin Dillon, one lap down

    35. Kyle Busch, one lap down

    36. Josh Bilicki – OUT, Brakes

    37. Matt DiBenedetto, five laps down

    38. Tyler Reddick – OUT, Accident

    39. Ross Chastain – OUT, Accident

    40. Quin Houff – OUT, Engine

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

  • Almirola wins first Bluegreen Vacations Duel at Daytona

    Almirola wins first Bluegreen Vacations Duel at Daytona

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Results.

    1. Aric Almirola, 52 laps led

    2. Christopher Bell, three laps led

    3. Ryan Newman

    4. Joey Logano

    5. Ryan Preece

    6. Ty Dillon

    7. Kyle Larson

    8. Daniel Suarez, two laps led

    9. Michael McDowell

    10. Jamie McMurray

    11. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    12. Matt DiBenedetto

    13. Denny Hamlin, one lap led

    14. Cole Custer

    15. Tyler Reddick, two laps led

    16. Austin Cindric, one lap down

    17. Erik Jones, one lap down

    18. Quin Houff, two laps down

    19. Timmy Hill, three laps down

    20. Alex Bowman, four laps down

    21. Cody Ware, four laps down

    22. Josh Bilicki – OUT, Overheating

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