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  • Hamlin manages tire wear to claim dramatic Cup victory at Bristol

    Hamlin manages tire wear to claim dramatic Cup victory at Bristol

    In an event where tire management was the name of the game, Denny Hamlin implemented his racing roots by preserving his tires to the very end, which enabled him to fend off teammate Martin Truex Jr. and win a wild conclusion to the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 17. 

    The three-time Daytona 500 champion from Chesterfield, Virginia, led 13 times for a race-high 163 of 500-scheduled laps after starting in third place and quickly making his presence at the front known by leading for the first time on Lap 21. Then, amid a series of caution periods and tire wear issues that plagued several front-runners and stars, Hamlin preserved his tires and managed to carve his way through traffic and run up front.

    He traded the lead on several occasions with his fellow competitors and Joe Gibbs Racing teammates and stretched his worn tires further than his competitors before pitting under green with 53 laps remaining. After cycling back to the lead shortly after, he then managed to fend off a late challenge from Truex while leading 47 of the remaining 48 laps, which was enough for him to claim his first checkered flag of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series. 

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup on Saturday, March 16, Ryan Blaney secured his first Cup pole position of the 2024 season and the 10th of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 124.954 mph in 15.356 seconds. Joining him on the front row was rookie Josh Berry, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 124.792 mph in 15.376 seconds. 

    When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Blaney muscled his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead to take the lead and managed to fend off both Berry and teammate Joey Logano for a full circuit around the Last Great Coliseum’s concrete surface to lead the first lap. Blaney and Berry battled dead even for the lead during the following two laps before Berry muscled his No. 4 SunnyD Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead of Blaney who fell back to second in front of teammate Logano and Chase Briscoe while Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott joined the battle. 

    Through Laps 5 to 10, Berry retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Blaney while Briscoe, Hamlin and Elliott were running in the top five. Behind, Michael McDowell moved up to sixth followed by Bubba Wallace and Truex while Logano fell back to ninth in front of Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and William Byron. 

    Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Berry was leading by a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Hamlin followed by Blaney, Elliott and Wallace while Chase Briscoe, Truex Jr., McDowell, Larson and Brad Keselowski were running in the top 10 ahead of Harrison Burton, Erik Jones, Ty Gibbs, William Byron and Christopher Bell. Meanwhile, Logano had fallen to 16th ahead of Kyle Busch, rookie Zane Smith, Austin Cindric and Tyler Reddick. 

    A lap later, however, Hamlin overtook Berry for the lead. By then, Byron, who was running in the top 15, had fallen off the pace after he was hit by Logano, who was hit by Bell first, entering the backstretch, which resulted in Byron getting loose, scraping the backstretch’s outside wall and bumping across Bell before slipping towards the outside wall in Turn 3. Byron would pit with a broken toe link to his No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 as the event’s first caution period flew on Lap 22 due to debris reported in between Turns 3 and 4. 

    During the event’s first caution period, nearly the entire field led by Hamlin pitted for service for the first time while Reddick remained on the track. Following the pit stops amid mixed strategies, Berry exited first with two fresh tires ahead of Wallace, Elliott, Truex, McDowell and Hamlin. Amid the pit stops, Erik Jones was penalized for equipment interference. 

    When the event restarted under green on Lap 30, Reddick muscled ahead with the lead ahead of Berry and teammate Wallace. As the field cycled back to the frontstretch, however, the caution quickly returned after Reddick received a bump from Berry and was pinned in a tight three-wide battle with Wallace and Berry for the lead entering the frontstretch that got Reddick’s No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE spinning sideways in front of McDowell, Elliott and the field. With Reddick spinning below the track, he was then hit by rookie Zane Smith while Daniel Hemric, Corey LaJoie, AJ Allmendinger and rookie Carson Hocevar, all of whom were running towards the rear of the field, all wrecked across the frontstretch while stepping off the gas. 

    As the event restarted under green on Lap 38, Wallace fended off Berry from the outside lane to retain the lead while McDowell followed suit in a close third place. With Wallace still leading just past the Lap 40 mark, Hamlin and Elliott battled dead even for fourth place while Blaney and Ty Gibbs battled for sixth. Berry, however, would make his move beneath Wallace to reassume the lead through the frontstretch by Lap 41 while McDowell tried to follow suit. This allowed Hamlin to narrow the gap and challenge McDowell for third place, which he would succeed in doing so on Lap 44 while Blaney and Elliott joined the battle. Amid the early battles towards the front, Berry continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over Wallace. 

    On Lap 47, Wallace cycled his No. 23 Leidos Toyota Camry XSE past Berry to reassume the lead. Team owner Hamlin would quickly follow suit in second along with Blaney and Elliott as Berry settled in fifth by the Lap 50 mark, where Wallace would continue to lead. Three laps later, however, Hamlin assumed the lead in his No. 11 Express Oil Change Toyota Camry XSE following a strong move to the outside lane with four fresh tires entering the backstretch over Wallace. Blaney would also follow suit to move into the runner-up spot followed by Elliott while Wallace fell back to fourth as he was being challenged by Brad Keselowski, Ty Gibbs and Briscoe for more. 

    Just past the Lap 60 mark, Hamlin was overtaken by Elliott for the race lead in front of a stacked field jostling for positions amid two lanes. With Elliott leading in his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, Blaney battled Hamlin for second in front of Keselowski while Kyle Busch battled Wallace for fifth place. 

    Nearing the Lap 70 mark, the event’s second caution period flew due to debris reported across the frontstretch after Zane Smith blew a right-front tire. By then, Blaney had led Laps 65 to 68 before the lead was acquired by Kyle Busch, starting on Lap 69. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Busch returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin exited pit road first ahead of Blaney and Elliott while Busch, Keselowski, Briscoe and Bell followed suit. Amid the pit stops, McDowell was penalized for having too many crew members over the pit wall. 

    With the event restarting under green on Lap 79, Hamlin retained the lead after rocketing away from the field past the restart zone as Blaney and Elliott battled for second in front of Busch, Keselowski and Briscoe. With the field behind battling dead even amongst one another for spots, Hamlin would continue to lead until Blaney shoved his way into the lead through the frontstretch on Lap 83. Blaney would stretch his advantage to as high as two-tenths of a second during the following six laps until Hamlin cycled back into the lead on Lap 89. Behind, Kyle Busch prevailed in a tight battle with Elliott for third place as he tried to close in on the two leaders while Keselowski, Briscoe, Bell, Larson Ty Gibbs and Wallace followed suit in the top 10. 

    Through the first 100 scheduled laps, Hamlin stretched his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Busch followed by Blaney, Elliott and Keselowski while Bell, Briscoe, Gibbs, Larson and John Hunter Nemechek occupied the top 10 in front of Wallace, Alex Bowman, Chris Buescher, Berry and Justin Haley. Meanwhile, Erik Jones was in 16th ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Truex, Logano and Todd Gilliland while Ryan Preece, McDowell, Austin Cindric, LaJoie and Ross Chastain trailed in the top 25. 

    Ten laps later, Hamlin continued to lead by over three-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Busch as Blaney and Bell were running third and fourth, with teammates Elliott and Larson fending off Gibbs for fifth and sixth. Hamlin would then stretch his advantage to more than a second over Blaney, with he and Bell overtaking Busch by the Lap 115 mark. By then, Larson retained fifth in front of Gibbs while Elliott was overtaken by Keselowski and Buescher for seventh and eighth. 

    Then on Lap 120 and with the majority of the field being mired with tire wear concerns, Blaney overtook Hamlin for the lead as Gibbs and Larson followed suit while Hamlin went wide up the track in Turn 1. By then, Busch and Wallace were falling off the pace and losing a bevy of spots amid concerns of losing their tires towards the end of the first stage period. Gibbs then overtook Blaney for the lead on Lap 121 as he proceeded to lap Austin Cindric while Larson moved into the runner-up spot.  

    Two laps later, the caution flew after Busch spun in Turn 2 after he lost a right-tire tire to his No. 8 FICO Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, where Busch would proceed to reverse his entry through the backstretch before spinning it back to the front below the apron as he lost a lap to the leaders. Busch’s incident occurred after Hamlin had hit the outside wall entering the frontstretch due to getting bumped by Byron, with Hamlin also cutting a tire but proceeding straight.

    Busch’s incident was enough for the first stage period to conclude under caution as Ty Gibbs captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2024 season and of his career. Larson settled in second followed by Buescher, Keselowski and Nemechek while Blaney, Truex, Preece, Berry and Bell were scored in the top 10. 

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Gibbs returned to pit road for service and for another round of fresh tires. Following the pit stops, Larson edged Gibbs off of pit road to exit first while Keselowski, Blaney, Buescher and Nemechek followed suit.  

    The second stage period started on Lap 140 as Larson and Keselowski occupied the front row. At the start, Larson muscled ahead with a brief advantage through the first two turns and the backstretch before Gibbs rocketed his No. 54 SiriusXM Toyota Camry XSE back into the lead during the following lap. John Hunter Nemechek would follow suit in second along with Berry, with the latter then battling Nemechek for second and challenging Gibbs for the lead by the Lap 145 while Larson fell back to fourth along with Nemechek. Shortly after, teammate Martin Truex Jr., who was quick to carve his way to the front, rocketed his No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry XSE into the lead by Lap 146 before teammate Gibbs cycled back into the lead by Lap 150. By then, all four Joe Gibbs Racing entries were running in the top five while Larson was battling for second in front of Bell, Truex and Hamlin.  

    On Lap 154 and with the field running stacked amongst one another through the high banks of Bristol, Larson assumed the lead. Gibbs would reassume the lead three laps later before teammate Hamlin cycled into the lead another two laps.  

    By Lap 175, Gibbs, who reassumed the lead four laps earlier, was leading by nearly two-tenths of a second over teammate Truex followed by Berry, teammate Bell and Buescher while Keselowski, Larson, Logano, Preece and Nemechek occupied the top 10. Meanwhile, Hamlin had fallen to 11th in front of Blaney, Haley, Daniel Suarez and Kaz Grala. 

    A lap later, the caution flew after Stenhouse, who was running in the top 20, was mired in a midfield stack-up that started with him making contact with McDowell through the backstretch before he made contact with Hemric and Zane Smith through Turn 4 as Stenhouse’s No. 47 Ball Park Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 emerged wobbling entering the frontstretch while Hemric and Smith hit the outside wall. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Gibbs returned to pit road for service and fresh tires. Following the pit stops, Buescher exited first followed by Gibbs and Truex while Bell, Gilliland, Larson, Logano and Keselowski followed suit. Not long after, Ty Gibbs made an extra pit stop for qualifying scuff tires to preserve his sticker tires. 

    As the field restarted under green on Lap 189, Buescher retained the lead from the outside lane over Bell and Truex. Buescher would continue to lead by the Lap 200 mark before Bell would zip by Buescher through the frontstretch during the following lap. Teammate Truex would follow suit in second over Buescher while Nemechek and Larson were running in the top five in front of a stacked field. A few laps later, Daniel Suarez nearly wrecked after making contact with Justin Haley through Turns 1 and 2 while battling for a top-10 spot, but he kept his car straight and dropped to 17th while the event remained under green flag conditions. 

    Twenty-five laps later and amid a series of jostling for positions occurring around the field, Truex cycled past teammate Bell for the lead. By then, teammate Gibbs carved his way back to third place followed by Nemechek and Keselowski while Logano was running sixth ahead of Berry, Hamlin, Grala and Larson. 

    Another three laps later, the caution flew after Kyle Busch, who was mired in 31st and a lap down, spun for a second time on his own in Turn 2. With nearly the entire field led by Bell pitting again, Bell retained the lead after exiting first with four fresh tires while Nemechek, Logano, Hamlin, Larson and Truex followed suit in the top six. Back on the track, however, Spire Motorsports’ LaJoie and Hocevar remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Blaney was penalized for speeding on pit road. 

    With the event restarting with 11 laps remaining to the second stage’s conclusion, LaJoie led the field entering the first turn before Bell used the four fresh tires to his advantage as he zipped his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry XSE past the Spire entries for the lead. Logano would quickly follow suit in second along with Nemechek as the field stacked up while navigating past Hocevar and LaJoie.  

    On Lap 242, Logano gave Bell a bump through Turns 1 and 2 in his bid for the lead, but Bell withstood his ground as he retained the lead. Logano would give Bell another hit on the side during the following lap as they both battled dead even for the lead in front of Nemechek and Gibbs. With Logano claiming the lead and clearing Bell by Lap 245, Gibbs navigated his way past teammate Bell for second during the following lap while Keselowski and Nemechek battled Bell for third. In the process, Logano retained a narrow lead over Gibbs before Gibbs claimed the lead back on Lap 248.  

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 250, Ty Gibbs claimed his second consecutive Cup stage victory of the day and of the 2024 season. Keselowski overtook Logano through the frontstretch to claim second place while Nemechek, Bell, Truex, Hamlin, Larson, Wallace and Ryan Preece were scored in the top 10. 

    During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Gibbs peeled off the track to pit road. Following the pit stops, Gibbs retained the lead after exiting pit road first with two fresh tires ahead of Logano, Truex, Bell, Gilliland, Nemechek and Keselowski, who was hit on the right front side by Austin Cindric while trying to exit his pit stall. Amid the tire concerns generated by all teams since the event’s start, Goodyear released an extra set of tires for all teams to use. 

    With 236 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as teammates Gibbs and Truex occupied the front row. At the start, Gibbs retained the lead over Truex while teammate Bell settled in third ahead of Logano, Nemechek and Keselowski. With the field stacked amid two lanes, Gibbs stretched his advantage to three-tenths of a second with 230 laps remaining. By then, Gilliland moved up to fourth as he was running in between Bell and Nemechek while Keselowski and Logano dropped to eighth and ninth as they were running behind Larson and Hamlin on the track. In addition, Ross Chastain was running 10th on two fresh tires as he was trying to retain the spot over Berry and Wallace. 

    With 115 laps remaining, Truex cycled past teammate Gibbs for the lead as teammate Bell trailed by half a second in third place. By then, teammate Hamlin was running in sixth place behind Nemechek and Larson while Berry and Haley cracked the top 10. In addition, Logano was plummeting in the leaderboard as he had dropped out of the top 20 while nearly making contact with teammate Blaney. 

    Down to the final 200 laps of the event, Truex was leading by three-tenths of a second over teammate Bell while teammate Gibbs trailed by half a second in third place. Behind, Nemechek was in fourth place ahead of Hamlin, thus placing five Toyota competitors in the top five, while Keselowski, Larson, Berry, Gilliland and Haley were running in the top 10 ahead of Grala, Chastain, Blaney, McDowell and Wallace. Meanwhile, Logano dropped to 27th behind Austin Dillon and Buescher was in 20th while Elliott was mired in 23rd in between Hocevar and LaJoie. 

    Nine laps later, the caution flew after Berry, who was running in the top 10, slipped sideways and did a full 360 spin entering the backstretch, but managed to keep his No. 4 entry off the wall. By then, all four Joe Gibbs Racing competitors led by Truex were running first through fourth in front of Keselowski, Larson and Nemechek. As the lead lap field led by Truex drove to pit road for service, Hamlin emerged with the lead after he exited pit road first ahead of teammates Bell and Gibbs followed by Larson while teammate Truex exited fifth ahead of Keselowski, Nemechek and Blaney. 

    With the event restarting under green with 178 laps remaining, Hamlin muscled ahead with the lead through the first two turns before teammate Gibbs rocketed past Hamlin through the backstretch to return to the lead. Behind, Hamlin fended off teammates Bell and Truex to retain second while Larson tried to challenge Truex for fourth place as he was running ahead of Gilliland, Nemechek and McDowell. As the field behind jostled for late positions, Gibbs stabilized his advantage to three-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin with 170 laps remaining.  

    With 160 laps remaining, Gibbs continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin while teammate Bell trailed in third place by eight-tenths of a second. With a three-wide action ensuing between Gilliland, Berry and Alex Bowman for top-15 spots and more battles ensuring around the Last Great Coliseum, Gibbs stabilized his narrow advantage to two-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin while teammate Bell, Larson, Keselowski and teammate Truex were running third to sixth with 150 laps remaining. Additionally, Haley was running seventh in front of McDowell, Blaney and Bubba Wallace while Kaz Grala and Nemechek settled in the top 12.  

    Through the final 135 laps of the event, Hamlin zipped by teammate Gibbs for the lead through the frontstretch. By then, Daniel Hemric and Noah Gragson each made separate contact with the outside wall, but the event remained under green flag conditions.  

    Two laps later, the caution returned after Cindric, who was trying to remain on the lead lap from the leader Hamlin, slipped up the track while avoiding Gilliland and made contact with Stenhouse, who was a lap down, that sent both for a spin in Turn 4 as Hamlin, Gibbs and Bell scattered to avoid the chaos. The caution period prompted the leaders to return to pit road for service, where Hamlin retained the lead after exiting pit road first ahead of teammates Bell and Gibbs along with Larson, teammate Truex and Keselowski. Amid the pit stops, Larson was penalized for an equipment interference penalty. 

    During the ensuing restart period with 121 laps remaining, Hamlin retained the lead after muscling away from teammates Bell and Gibbs, though Bell managed to muscle ahead and lead the proceeding lap before Hamlin reclaimed the top spot by the next lap as Gibbs battled teammate Bell in front of teammate Truex and Keselowski. As Hamlin retained the lead in front of his three Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota teammates with 110 laps remaining, Keselowski settled in fifth ahead of McDowell while Haley was running in seventh ahead of Blaney, Wallace and Nemechek. 

    Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Gibbs, who reassumed the lead from teammate Hamlin a lap earlier, was leading ahead of teammates Bell, Hamlin and Truex, respectively, while Keselowski retained fifth ahead of McDowell, Haley, Nemechek, Wallace and Berry.  

    Fifteen laps later, Gibbs continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over teammate Bell as teammates Hamlin and Truex followed suit in the top four. Another nine laps later, Hamlin nearly took the lead from teammate Gibbs, but he had to move up the track to avoid hitting Gilliland as Gibbs retained the lead in front of Hamlin and Truex while Bell was in fourth ahead of Keselowski. 

    Not long after and with the concern of tire wear returning amongst the teams, Hamlin, who assumed the lead with 75 laps remaining, was leading over teammate Truex. By then, a bevy of competitors including Berry, Blaney, Bell, Larson and Gilliland were losing ground of the leaders due to tire wear. Gibbs would then lose ground of the lead as his tires were wearing out, which allowed Keselowski to move up to third place. With Briscoe also falling off the pace, Blaney fell off the pace after he lost a tire, which forced him to pit, and Larson pitted under green. Bell would then pit under green with 60 laps remaining due to a flat tire while Hamlin retained a narrow lead over teammate Truex as he was trying to preserve his tires. 

    With 55 laps remaining and with nearly the entire field being pinned a lap down after having made a pit stop under green for fresh tires, the top-six competitors led by Hamlin were scored on the lead lap. Two laps later, Hamlin surrendered the lead to pit under green as Hocevar made contact with the wall, though the event remained under green flag conditions. Teammate Truex would pit another two laps later along with Keselowski. Once Alex Bowman pitted from the lead with 49 laps remaining, Hamlin cycled back into the lead. 

    Down to the final 40 laps of the event, Hamlin was leading by more than a second over teammate Truex while Berry, Keselowski and Larson were scored in the top five ahead of Buescher, Bell, Nemechek, Haley and Bowman. Hamlin’s advantage would then shrink to three-tenths of a second over Truex with 30 laps remaining as they were mired in lapped traffic.  

    With 20 laps remaining, Hamlin continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over teammate Truex as they both continued to be mired in lapped traffic. With Keselowski scored in third ahead of Berry and Larson, Hamlin managed to navigate his way through the lapped traffic to fend off Truex and retain the lead with 10 laps remaining.  

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Hamlin stabilized his advantage to four-tenths of a second over Truex as both cleared a majority of the lapped traffic, but the latter kept the former within his sights.  

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hamlin remained as the leader by half a second over Truex. With Truex unable to mount a final lap charge on his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate for a final circuit, Hamlin was able to preserve his tires and navigate his way around the Bristol circuit smoothly for a final time as he claimed the checkered flag by a second over Truex. 

    With the victory, Hamlin, who became the fifth winner through the 2024 season’s first five events, recorded his 52nd career win in the NASCAR Cup Series, his fourth at Bristol, with the victory being his first in the spring, and his first since winning the Bristol Night Race last September. The 2024 Cup season marks Hamlin’s 18th season where he has achieved at least one victory in NASCAR’s premier series as he also recorded the second consecutive victory in recent weeks for both Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota.  

    Photo by Chad Wells for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “[Tire management], That’s what I grew up doing here in the short tracks of the whole mid-Atlantic [region],” Hamlin said on FOX. “South Boston [Speedway], Martinsville [Speedway], all those tracks. It’s just what I grew up doing. Once it became a tire management race, I really liked our chances, but obviously, the veteran in Martin [Truex Jr.], he knew how to do it as well. We just had a great car. Great team. The pit crew just did a phenomenal job all day. Can’t say enough about them. Man, it feels so good to win at Bristol.” 

    Truex, who has finished in the top 15 through this season’s first four-scheduled events, came home with a strong runner-up result for his first top-five finish of the 2024 campaign. 

    “Just really proud of my team, everybody on our Auto-Owners Camry,” Truex said. “[Crew chief] James [Small] and the guys did a great job this weekend in having a plan coming here. I guess this tire management thing fit into my wheelhouse here at Bristol. The difference was just coming down to the pits so far behind Denny. I had to use mine [tires] up more than him on the last run and then, the last four or five laps of the race, my right rear [tire] was cored. We gave it a hell of an effort. I had a lot of fun today. Second always hurts a little, but it’s a really good run for us here. It’s been a great season so far for us.” 

    Keselowski settled in third place while Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson finished in the top five and as the final group of competitors to finish on the lead lap. John Hunter Nemechek, Buescher, Elliott, Ty Gibbs and Bell, who were all a lap down, finished in the top 10. 

    Notably, Berry finished 12th, pole-sitter Blaney ended up 16th, Logano fell back to 22nd and Kyle Busch ended up 25th behind teammate Austin Dillon. 

    There were a race-record 54 lead changes for 16 different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 98 laps. In addition, only five of the 36 starters finished on the lead lap. 

    Following the fifth event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Kyle Larson and Truex Jr. are tied for the regular-season lead in the points standings as they are both ahead by seven points over Ty Gibbs, eight over Ryan Blaney and 12 over Denny Hamlin. 

    Results. 

    1. Denny Hamlin, 163 laps led 

    2. Martin Truex Jr., 54 laps led 

    3. Brad Keselowski, one lap led 

    4. Alex Bowman, three laps led 

    5. Kyle Larson, 19 laps led 

    6. John Hunter Nemechek, one lap down 

    7. Chris Buescher, one lap down, 17 laps led 

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

    9. Ty Gibbs, one lap down, 137 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner 

    10. Christopher Bell, one lap down, 29 laps led 

    11. Michael McDowell, one lap down 

    12. Josh Berry, one lap down, 25 laps led 

    13. Chase Briscoe, two laps down 

    14. Ryan Preece, two laps down 

    15. Ross Chastain, two laps down 

    16. Ryan Blaney, two laps down, 14 laps led 

    17. Justin Haley, two laps down 

    18. Daniel Suarez, two laps down 

    19. Kaz Grala, two laps down 

    20. Erik Jones, two laps down 

    21. Corey LaJoie, two laps down, four laps led 

    22. Joey Logano, two laps down, five laps led 

    23. AJ Allmendinger, two laps down 

    24. Austin Dillon, two laps down 

    25. Kyle Busch, two laps down, five laps led 

    26. Todd Gilliland, three laps down 

    27. Carson Hocevar, three laps down 

    28. Daniel Hemric, four laps down 

    29. Bubba Wallace, four laps down, 15 laps led 

    30. Tyler Reddick, five laps down, four laps led 

    31. Austin Cindric, five laps down 

    32. Harrison Burton, five laps down 

    33. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., five laps down 

    34. Noah Gragson, six laps down 

    35. William Byron, eight laps down 

    36. Zane Smith – OUT, Engine 

    Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ fourth annual running of the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The event is scheduled for next Sunday, March 24, and will air at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX. 

  • Christopher Bell muscles to first Cup victory of 2024 at Phoenix

    Christopher Bell muscles to first Cup victory of 2024 at Phoenix

    Christopher Bell was not to be denied. His fast No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry XSE entry enabled him to rally from restarting towards the middle of the pack during a late-race restart period to leading the final 41 laps en route to a strong victory in the Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, March 10. 

    The 29-year-old Bell from Norman, Oklahoma, led twice for 50 of 312-scheduled laps in an event where he started 13th and spent the first stage period running within the top 15 before his car came to life during the second stage period, which allowed him to carve his way to the front and claim the second stage victory over Toyota teammate Tyler Reddick.  

    Despite losing ground for the lead following a slow pit stop prior to the start of the final stage, Bell, who dodged a series of cautions and on-track incidents during the final stage’s start, pitted along with the majority of the front-runners for fresh tires and fuel during a late caution period with less than 98 laps remaining. During the final restart with 92 laps remaining, Bell used the four fresh tires to his advantage and methodically navigated his way back towards the front. Once teammate Martin Truex Jr. pitted for fresh tires and fuel with 41 laps remaining, the lead was all Bell’s as the Oklahoma native maintained a sizeable gap between himself and Chris Buescher and teammate Ty Gibbs for the remainder of the event, which was enough for him to claim his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2024 season. 

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, March 9, Denny Hamlin claimed his first Cup Series pole position of the 2024 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 132.655 mph in 27.138 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Ty Gibbs, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 132.227 mph in 27.226 seconds. 

    Prior to the event, rookie Josh Berry dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments and repairs made to his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry after he spun and hit the wall during his qualifying attempt. 

    When the green flag waved and the event commenced, teammates Hamlin and Ty Gibbs dueled for the lead through the frontstretch and entering the first two turns until Gibbs rocketed his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE into the lead from the outside lane entering the backstretch. As the field fanned out to as large as four lanes, Gibbs proceeded to lead the first lap while Erik Jones battled and overtook Hamlin for the runner-up spot. 

    Through the second to fifth lap marks, Gibbs maintained a steady lead that would grow to half a second over Erik Jones and teammate Hamlin while Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott followed suit in the top five. Behind, William Byron trailed in sixth ahead of Chase Briscoe and rookie Carson Hocevar while Michael McDowell, Martin Truex Jr. and Noah Gragson battled for ninth place in front of Daniel Suarez and Kyle Larson. 

    Then approaching the sixth lap, the event’s first caution flew after Derek Kraus spun sideways on the bottom lane through Turn 2 and back across the track entering the backstretch before he was hit by both Austin Dillon and Austin Cindric, the latter of which would retire from further competition. During the event’s first caution period, some including Kyle Busch pitted while the rest led by Ty Gibbs remained on the track. 

    When the event restarted under green on Lap 12, Gibbs muscled ahead of the field to retain the lead on the inside lane while Reddick ignited a three-wide battle on Hamlin and Erik Jones for the runner-up spot. Jones would use the outside lane to fend off both Toyota teammates for second place as Elliott and Byron trailed closely in the top six. In addition, Briscoe and Hocevar battled for seventh place along with McDowell while Gibbs stretched his early advantage by nearly half a second over Jones by the Lap 15 mark. 

    Through the first 25 scheduled laps, Gibbs was leading by four-tenths of a second over Jones followed by Hamlin, Reddick and Chase Elliott while William Byron, Michael McDowell, Carson Hocevar, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Blaney followed suit in the top 10. Behind, Martin Truex Jr. was in 11th ahead of Noah Gragson, Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez and Christopher Bell while Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch and John Hunter Nemechek trailed in the top 20. Meanwhile, Josh Berry was mired in 21st ahead of Chris Buescher, Joey Logano, Ryan Preece and Alex Bowman while Todd Gilliland, Corey LaJoie, Harrison Burton, Daniel Hemric and Justin Haley rounded out the top 30. 

    Ten laps later, Gibbs stabilized his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Jones while Hamlin and Reddick trailed by within one-and-a-half seconds. Elliott would trail the top-four competitors by more than two seconds and teammate Byron would trail by more than three seconds as Gibbs maintained the lead by four-tenths of a second over Jones, who was slowly closing in on the leader, by the Lap 40 mark. 

    By Lap 50, Gibbs stabilized his advantage to two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Reddick, who moved into the runner-up spot, followed by Hamlin while Jones fell back to fourth place. In the process, Hendrick Motorsports’ Elliott and Byron remained in fifth and sixth, respectively, as they trailed the lead by more than two seconds while McDowell, Blaney, Briscoe and Truex were running in the top 10 ahead of Larson, Gragson, Hocevar, Suarez and Keselowski. 

    Seven laps later, Reddick, who navigated his way around Phoenix’s racing lanes to narrow the gap between himself and Gibbs, drew himself into a side-by-side battle with Gibbs for the lead through the backstretch and the frontstretch. Gibbs would try to fight back from the outside lane, but Reddick used the inside lane to muscle his No. 45 Mobil 1 Toyota Camry XSE ahead with the top spot. 

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 60, Reddick, who capitalized late on his battle with Ty Gibbs, captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2024 season as he also stretched his advantage to six-tenths of a second. Gibbs settled in second followed by Hamlin, Jones and Elliott while Byron, Blaney, McDowell, Briscoe and Truex were scored in the top 10. 

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Reddick pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin emerged as the new race leader after he exited pit road first from the first pit box while Reddick, Byron, Elliott, Gibbs, Blaney, Briscoe, Larson, Keselowski and Jones followed suit in the top 10. Not long after, Larson pitted his No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for a second time due to a left-rear tire issue while Hocevar also pitted again for a loose wheel. 

    The second stage period started on Lap 69 as Hamlin and Reddick occupied the front row. At the start, Hamlin muscled his No. 11 Mavis Brakes Plus Toyota Camry XSE ahead with the lead as the front-runners dived below the frontstretch dog-leg and fanned out entering the first two turns. With Hamlin leading the race, Reddick maintained the runner-up spot while a three-wide action for third place involving Gibbs, Byron and Elliott ensued in front of Blaney. In the process, Keselowski was in seventh ahead of another three-wide battle involving Truex, Briscoe and Jones while Hamlin was leading just past the Lap 70 mark. 

    Through the first 80 scheduled laps, Hamlin extended his advantage to a second over Reddick followed by Elliott, Gibbs and Byron while Blaney, Truex, Keselowski, Bell and Gragson trailed in the top 10 ahead of Erik Jones, Suarez, Briscoe, Bowman and McDowell. Hamlin would stretch his lead to more than two seconds over Reddick by the Lap 90 mark while Elliott, Gibbs and Byron remained in the top five. 

    At the Lap 100 mark, Hamlin continued to lead by nearly two seconds over Reddick followed by Elliott, Byron and Gibbs while Truex, Bell, Blaney, Keselowski and Gragson were scored in the top 10. Behind, Erik Jones trailed in 11th followed by Suarez, Briscoe, Bowman and McDowell while Buescher, Wallace, Chastain, Preece and Larson were running in the top 20 ahead of Nemechek, Logano, LaJoie, Kyle Busch and Berry. 

    Fifteen laps later, Hamlin stabilized his lead to more than a second over Reddick as Elliott and Byron remained in the top four. Meanwhile, Bell carved his No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE into fifth place followed by teammate Truex while teammate Ty Gibbs dropped to seventh. 

    Shortly after, green flag pit stops commenced as Blaney pitted his No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse along with Chastain and Larson. More names like Byron, Bell, Truex, Keselowski, Bowman, Wallace, Buescher, Preece, Logano, LaJoie, Daniel Hemric, Elliott, Gibbs, Briscoe, Nemechek, rookie Zane Smith, Justin Haley and Reddick would pit during the ensuing laps, starting from Lap 116, before Hamlin pitted from the lead on Lap 119. 

    Just past the Lap 120 mark and with nearly the entire field having made a pit stop under green, Todd Gilliland, who has yet to pit, was leading ahead of Kyle Busch, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Hocevar and Kraus, all of whom have yet to pit, while Hamlin, the first competitor who pitted and who nearly made contact with Suarez while trying to enter his pit stall, trailed in sixth place as he also had Reddick closing in on him for position. 

    On Lap 133, Reddick, who overtook Hamlin through the first two turns a lap earlier, used the outside lane to rocket past Gilliland for the race lead. Hamlin would quickly follow suit for the runner-up spot as Byron and Bell trailed in the top five within six seconds. By then, Stenhouse and Hocevar remained on the track in sixth and seventh, respectively, while Kyle Busch was scored a lap down after he pitted under green. 

    Just past the Lap 145 mark, Reddick stretched his advantage to nearly a second over Hamlin as Gilliland, who led 14 laps, continued to run on the track in third place ahead of Bell, Byron and Truex. Reddick would maintain his lead by eight-tenths of a second over Hamlin while Bell and Byron overtook Gilliland for third and fourth by Lap 150. 

    By the halfway mark on Lap 156, Reddick continued to lead within a second over Hamlin while Bell, Byron and Truex trailed in the top five ahead of Gilliland, Blaney, Elliott, Keselowski and Gragson, all of whom were running in the top 10 and trailing the lead by 14 seconds. Reddick would maintain the lead by eight-tenths of a second over Hamlin while Bell trailed in third place by more than a second as Gilliland pitted under green by the Lap 165 mark. 

    By Lap 175, Reddick, who was mired in lapped traffic as he was trying to lap Logano, retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Bell, who nearly overtook Reddick for the lead entering the first two turns, while third-place Hamlin trailed by nearly a second as Byron and Truex trailed from a distance in the top five. Bell would then capitalize on his charge to overtake Reddick for the lead through the first two turns with four laps remaining to the second stage’s conclusion. 

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 185, Bell captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Reddick trailed in second followed by Hamlin, Byron and Truex while Blaney, Elliott, Gragson, Keselowski and Chris Buescher were scored in the top 10. By then, 19 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while Ryan Preece, who was running 19th, managed to fend off Logano to emerge as the first competitor scored a lap down and receive the free pass.  

    During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Bell returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin benefitted from having the first pit box towards the exit of pit road for a second time as he exited first followed by Reddick, Byron, Elliott, Blaney and Truex. Amid the pit stops, Harrison Burton was penalized for speeding on pit road. 

    With 118 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Hamlin and Reddick occupied the front row. At the start, the front-runners fanned out and dived through the frontstretch dog-leg as Hamlin maintained the lead in front of a side-by-side battle between Reddick and Byron for the runner-up spot. With the field still fanning out across multiple lanes from the backstretch through the frontstretch, Hamlin maintained the lead in front of Reddick and Byron. The caution, however, would return two laps later after Kyle Busch, who was mired in 25th, got loose through Turn 2 and was bumped by Zane Smith into Kaz Grala before Busch spun his No. 8 zone Premium Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 within the middle of the track through the backstretch.  

    During the following restart with 110 laps remaining, the front-runners dived through the frontstretch dog-leg as Reddick overtook Hamlin for the lead. With the field fanning out through the backstretch, Reddick was leading by nearly half a second over Hamlin followed by Blaney, Byron and Truex as Ross Chastain, who was running in the middle of the pack, scraped the outside wall towards the frontstretch, though the event remained under green flag conditions. 

    With 107 laps remaining, the caution returned after Logano, who was scored as the first competitor a lap down, received a huge bump by Nemechek entering Turn 1 that sent his No. 22 Hunt Brother’s Pizza Ford Mustang Dark Horse spinning below the apron before he came back across the track and was hit by Corey LaJoie, with Kraus, Zane Smith and Berry also involved as Logano’s long afternoon came to a late end. 

    As the event restarted with 100 laps remaining, the leaders dived through the frontstretch dog-leg as Reddick battled and fended off Hamlin to retain the lead. With Hamlin fighting back during the following lap by drawing even with Reddick, Truex joined the tight three-car battle for the lead while Byron maintained fourth place in front of a three-wide battle involving Gragson, Keselowski and Wallace as Blaney and Bell battled for ninth.  

    The caution, however, returned with 98 laps remaining after Hamlin, who was battling Reddick for the lead, got loose underneath Reddick entering Turn 1 as he slid into Reddick and spun sideways from the middle to the bottom lane through Turn 2 while the rest of the field scattered to avoid hitting Hamlin. During the caution period, a majority of the front-runners led by Reddick pitted for fresh tires and fuel while the rest led by Truex remained on the track. 

    With the event restarting with 92 laps remaining, the field fanned out and dived through the frontstretch dog-leg as Truex maintained the lead in front of the field. During the following lap, Truex was leading by three-tenths of a second over Preece, Gilliland, Chastain and Buescher while Ty Gibbs, who pitted for two fresh tires and a full tank of fuel, carved his way up to seventh place. Amid the tight battles between those who pitted and those who did not, Wallace, who was getting pinned in between Briscoe and Erik Jones while battling for a top-10 spot, got loose and got Jones’ No. 43 Family Dollar Toyota Camry XSE sideways entering Turn 1, which resulted with Jones making contact with the outside wall and plummeting in the leaderboard, though the event remained under green flag conditions. 

    Back at the front of the pack, Ty Gibbs continued to use the two fresh tires to his advantage as he carved his way up to third place while Truex continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over Preece with 90 laps remaining. By then, names like Chastain, McDowell, Gilliland, Buescher, Briscoe, Keselowski and Suarez were running in the top 10 while front-runners Reddick, Bell, Blaney, Elliott, Hamlin and Byron were mired in 12th, 13th, 15th, 17th, 18th and 20th, respectively. 

    With 75 laps remaining, Truex was leading by two seconds over Preece as Ty Gibbs was trying to close in and overtake Preece for the runner-up spot. Behind, Chastain was running in fourth place ahead of Buescher, Keselowski and McDowell while Bell carved his way up to eighth place with four fresh tires in front of Gilliland and Briscoe. By then, Reddick was mired in 12th while Blaney was in 14th. Meanwhile, Hamlin was in 16th while Wallace was back in 18th.  

    Fifteen laps later, Truex, who continued to hold strong on old tires and with questions arising on how much fuel he had to make it to the scheduled distance, was still leading as he stretched his advantage to four seconds over teammate Ty Gibbs, who overtook Preece for the runner-up spot six laps earlier. Behind, Chastain was in fourth while Bell navigated his way into the top five on his four fresh tires. Bell would then overtake both Preece and Chastain to move his strong race car into third place another two laps later as he trailed his teammate by less than six seconds. 

    With 50 laps remaining, Truex continued to lead by five seconds over teammate Bell, who overtook teammate Ty Gibbs for the runner-up spot on four fresh tires and with enough fuel for the scheduled distance as he was running faster lap times compared to his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates. Behind, Chastain and Buescher were running in the top five ahead of Preece, Keselowski, McDowell and Gilliland while Reddick was able to navigate his way back into the top 10 as he was in 10th followed by Gilliland, Gragson, Blaney, Suarez and Hamlin.  

    Nine laps later, Truex surrendered the lead to pit his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE under green for fresh tires and a full tank of fuel as he ended up a lap down. This allowed teammate Bell to assume the race lead as he was leading by more than two seconds over teammate Ty Gibbs while Chastain, Buescher and Keselowski were scored in the top five. As Preece pitted under green, Truex would manage to overtake teammate Bell to un-lap himself while the latter stretched his advantage by more than four seconds over teammate Gibbs with 30 laps remaining. By then, Reddick was up to eighth place ahead of Blaney and Gragson while Hamlin was in 11th. 

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Bell stabilized his advantage to more than four seconds over teammate Gibbs while Buescher, Chastain and Keselowski continued to hold strong in the top five. Behind, Reddick moved his Mobil 1 entry up to seventh behind McDowell, Blaney was in eighth ahead of Briscoe and Gragson, Hamlin was still mired in 11th, Larson was in 14th and Byron was mired in 18th behind Truex.  

    Five laps later, Bell stretched his lead slightly to five seconds over teammate Gibbs while third-place Buescher trailed by less than six seconds. Bell would extend his lead by another second to six seconds over Buescher, who overtook Gibbs for the runner-up spot, with 10 laps remaining as Keselowski and Chastain battled fiercely for fourth place. 

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Bell maintained the lead by more than six seconds over Buescher and teammate Gibbs while Keselowski and Chastain continued to run in the top five ahead of Blaney and McDowell. Behind, Briscoe, Truex and Reddick battled for eighth while Gragson and Hamlin battled for 11th.  

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Bell remained as the leader by more than five seconds over Buescher’s No. 17 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse. With the gap between the leader and the runner-up spot large, Bell was able to navigate his way around the Phoenix circuit smoothly for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch and claimed his first checkered flag of the 2024 Cup Series season. 

    With the victory, Bell, who became the fourth winner through the first four events of the 2024 Cup season, captured his seventh Cup Series career victory and his first at Phoenix as he extended his winning streak in the Cup circuit to four consecutive seasons. Bell also registered the first Cup victory of the 2024 season for both Joe Gibbs Racing and the Toyota nameplate while also recording the first official victory for Toyota’s Camry XSE stock car. 

    “This one feels really good,” Bell said on the frontstretch on FOX. “A credit to my engineers, my crew chief and all the mechanics on this [No. 20 car]. You don’t get cars like that very often as you know. Just super, super proud to be on this No. 20 car. This Rheem Camry was amazing today. I feel like we have [a] capability of running races like this a lot. Hopefully, this [win] is the first of many this year.” 

    Buescher, whose previous best result in the Cup Series is ninth during the first three events on this year’s schedule and who is coming off an early accident last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway due to a loose wheel that resulted in the suspension of two of his crew members, settled in the runner-up spot followed by Ty Gibbs, who led 57 laps and notched a career-best result.  

    “[The runner-up finish]’s huge,” Buescher said. “We’ve talked a lot internally. We’ve been able to lead, at any point, on all three races leading up to this. We didn’t quite get there today but certainly, a great finish for our BuildSubs.com Ford Mustang. Really proud of everybody. I know we had a rough go last weekend. This [finish] was good to get everybody back together and prove that we’re in this together. We’re gonna win or lose these things as a team. That was almost a win today.” 

    Keselowski came home in fourth place while Blaney edged Chastain to finish fifth. 

    Chastain, Truex, McDowell, Briscoe and Reddick finished in the top 10. 

    Notably, Hamlin, who led the most laps at 68 along with his 23XI Racing driver Reddick, ended up 11th ahead of Noah Gragson, Larson settled in 14th, Wallace ended up 16th, Byron finished 18th ahead of teammates Elliott and Alex Bowman and Kyle Busch capped off his long afternoon in 22nd. In addition, Carson Hocevar emerged as the highest-finishing rookie candidate in 15th place.  

    There were 10 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 40 laps. In addition, 21 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap. 

    Following the fourth event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Ryan Blaney leads the regular-season standings by 10 points over both Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr., 17 over William Byron and 21 over both Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs. 

    Results. 

    1. Christopher Bell, 50 laps led, Stage 2 winner 

    2. Chris Buescher 

    3. Ty Gibbs, 57 laps led 

    4. Brad Keselowski 

    5. Ryan Blaney 

    6. Ross Chastain 

    7. Martin Truex Jr., 55 laps led 

    8. Michael McDowell 

    9. Chase Briscoe 

    10. Tyler Reddick, 68 laps led, Stage 1 winner 

    11. Denny Hamlin, 68 laps led 

    12. Noah Gragson 

    13. Daniel Suarez 

    14. Kyle Larson 

    15. Carson Hocevar 

    16. Bubba Wallace 

    17. Todd Gilliland, 14 laps led 

    18. William Byron 

    19. Chase Elliott 

    20. Alex Bowman 

    21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 

    22. Kyle Busch, one lap down 

    23. Ryan Preece, one lap down 

    24. Justin Haley, one lap down 

    25. John Hunter Nemechek, one lap down 

    26. Josh Berry, two laps down 

    27. Harrison Burton, two laps down 

    28. Daniel Hemric, two laps down 

    29. Zane Smith, three laps down 

    30. Kaz Grala, three laps down 

    31. Erik Jones, seven laps down 

    32. Austin Dillon, eight laps down 

    33. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Accident 

    34. Joey Logano – OUT, Accident 

    35. Derek Kraus – OUT, Accident 

    36. Austin Cindric – OUT, Accident 

    Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the return of the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, March 17, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX. 

  • Larson dominates for first Cup victory of 2024 at Las Vegas

    Larson dominates for first Cup victory of 2024 at Las Vegas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Results. 

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

    2. Tyler Reddick, one lap led

    3. Ryan Blaney 

    4. Ross Chastain, two laps led 

    5. Ty Gibbs 

    6. Noah Gragson 

    7. Martin Truex Jr., four laps led

    8. Denny Hamlin, 16 laps led

    9. Joey Logano, two laps led

    10. William Byron, 15 laps led

    11. Daniel Suarez, 15 laps led

    12. Chase Elliott 

    13. Brad Keselowski 

    14. Erik Jones 

    15. Carson Hocevar 

    16. Austin Dillon 

    17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 

    18. Alex Bowman, three laps led

    19. Daniel Hemric, one lap led

    20. Josh Berry 

    21. Chase Briscoe, one lap led

    22. John Hunter Nemechek 

    23. Ryan Preece 

    24. Todd Gilliland 

    25. Michael McDowell, four laps led 

    26. Kyle Busch, 18 laps led

    27. Justin Haley 

    28. Derek Kraus, two laps led 

    29. Austin Cindric 

    30. Harrison Burton 

    31. Kaz Grala 

    32. Corey LaJoie, one lap down 

    33. Christopher Bell, two laps down 

    34. JJ Yeley, six laps down 

    35. Bubba Wallace, 13 laps down 

    36. Zane Smith, 13 laps down 

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

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

  • Suárez edges Blaney and Busch in three-wide finish for second Cup career victory at Atlanta

    Suárez edges Blaney and Busch in three-wide finish for second Cup career victory at Atlanta

    In a three-wide photo finish for the ages, Daniel Suárez bested NASCAR Cup Series champions Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch to score a wild victory in the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, February 25.

    “It’s an amazing feeling,” Suárez said after the race. “This team did an amazing job all race long. We wrecked on Lap two. The guys fixed the car and we were able to make it good again, make it fast again. It took some tweaking, but unbelievable. Freeway Insurance, Trackhouse, Chevrolet, and all the people that believed in us from day one – it’s unbelievable to do this in this fashion.”

    The 2016 Xfinity Series champion from Monterrey, Mexico, led twice for nine of 260 scheduled laps in an event where he was involved in a 16-car pileup on the second lap. Amid the early incident, Suárez persevered through nine additional caution periods to methodically carve his way back to the front, where he would lead for the first time with 12 laps remaining. During a five-lap shootout to the finish, Suárez, who lost the lead to Ryan Blaney, was left to battle Kyle Busch dead even for the runner-up spot during the next four laps.

    Then on the final lap, both Suárez and Busch took Blaney in a tight three-wide battle in front of the stacked field through the final two turns. All three competitors remained dead even against one another through the frontstretch until Suárez just managed to emerge ahead of both Blaney and Busch by a nose to claim his second NASCAR Cup Series career victory and snap a one-year winless drought.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, February 24, Michael McDowell achieved his first Cup Series pole position of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 178.844 mph in 30.999 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Joey Logano, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying speed at 178.424 mph in 31.072 seconds.

    Prior to the event, however, Logano dropped to the rear of the field and was forced to serve a pass-through penalty through pit road at the start of the event due to wearing illegal gloves and violating NASCAR’s SFI specification. Chase Elliott also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his entry.

    When the green flag waved and the event commenced, McDowell and Kyle Busch, who moved up to the front row, dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Busch, who was drafted by Kyle Larson on the inside lane, quickly moved in front of McDowell entering the backstretch. McDowell, however, fought back as he transitioned from the outside to inside lane, but Busch was able to muscle ahead from the outside lane and lead the first lap.

    Following the completion of the first lap, however, the first caution flew after a checkup towards the front of the pack caused by Gilliland on the outside lane resulted with Austin Dillon, who was running in the top 10 and ran into the rear of Austin Cindric, getting hit by Martin Truex Jr. as he spun his No. 3 BREZTRI Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 exiting the frontstretch, which then triggered a multi-car wreck entering Turn 1 that collected Bubba Wallace, Ty Gibbs, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, Noah Gragson, Alex Bowman, John Hunter Nemechek, Erik Jones, rookie Carson Hocevar, Daniel Suárez, Elliott, Daniel Hemric, Ryan Preece, BJ McLeod and Harrison Burton.

    During the event’s first caution period, a bevy of names that included Ross Chastain, Brad Keselowski, Corey LaJoie, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., rookie Zane Smith, Logano and the wrecked competitors pitted while the rest led by Busch remained on the track. By then, Josh Williams took his Kaulig Racing entry to the garage due to a mechanical issue.

    When the event restarted under green on Lap 10, Busch quickly transitioned from the outside to inside lane to retain the lead in front of a side-by-side duel in front of McDowell and Larson through the first two turns and the backstretch. Larson then challenged Busch with a move to the inside lane and he managed to slide in front of Busch’s No. 8 Cheddar’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through Turns 3 and 4 to take the lead. Busch, however, responded back by overtaking Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during the following lap as he would retain the lead while Chris Buescher challenged Larson for the runner-up spot.

    Through the first 15 scheduled laps, Busch was leading ahead of Chase Briscoe and Larson while McDowell and Buescher followed suit in front of two tight-packed lanes. With the field slowing fanning out to three lanes while spread out around the Atlanta circuit, Busch, who was swapping against Larson for the lead a few laps earlier, continued to lead by the Lap 20 mark ahead of Larson while McDowell, Blaney and Buescher battled in the top five. Behind, Briscoe was in sixth while William Byron, Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric, Denny Hamlin, Truex, Zane Smith, Gilliland, Ty Gibbs and LaJoie occupied the top 15 on the track.

    Nearing the Lap 25 mark, the event’s second caution flew after Buescher, who was running in the top 10, got loose and spun his No. 17 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse in front of William Byron entering Turn 4, though he was dodged by oncoming traffic and was able to limp his entry to pit road for four fresh tires. During the caution period, some led by Byron pitted while the rest led by new race leader Ryan Blaney remained on the track.

    At the start of the proceeding restart on Lap 31, Blaney muscled ahead on the outside lane and fended off Larson through the first two turns and the backstretch until Larson fought back on the inside lane, with both dueling for the lead in front of Busch, Briscoe, McDowell and Denny Hamlin. Amid the two-pack formation towards the front, Blaney retained the top spot until Busch rocketed his way back to the lead just past the Lap 33 mark. With Busch leading, McDowell battled dead even with Blaney for the runner-up spot while Chastain, Larson, Briscoe and Truex followed suit by the Lap 35 mark.

    Through the first 40 scheduled laps, Busch continued to lead in front of McDowell, Blaney, Chastain, Larson, Briscoe, Truex, Hamlin, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Bubba Wallace while Byron, rookie Josh Berry, LaJoie, Logano, Gilliland, Cindric, Ty Gibbs, Keselowski, Zane Smith and Justin Haley were running in the top 20 amid two tight-packed lanes.

    Ten laps later and with the field dispersed, McDowell, who reassumed the top spot on Lap 41, was still leading in front of Blaney, Busch, truex and Larson while Hamlin, Chastain, Briscoe, Stenhouse and Wallace were running in the top 10 in front of Byron, Logano, LaJoie, Cindric and Keselowski.

    Another two laps later, the caution flew after Hamlin, who was battling for a top-five spot on the track, made contact with Kyle Busch as he spun his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry XSE through the frontstretch’s grass before coming to a stop just towards the exit of pit road. During the caution period, a majority of the field pitted while the rest led by McDowell remained on the track.

    With the event restarting with a single lap remaining to the first stage’s period, McDowell and Blaney dueled for the lead exiting the frontstretch and through the first two turns until McDowell started to muscle ahead from the inside lane with drafting help from Chastain. As the field behind fanned out to three lanes through Turns 3 and 4, McDowell was able to muscle ahead and capture his first stage victory of the season on Lap 60. Blaney settled in second followed by Chastain, Larson and Busch while Truex, Stenhouse, Wallace, Byron and Gilliland, all of whom earned the first wave of stage points, were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, some led by McDowell pitted while the rest led by teammate Gilliland remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Blaney nearly collided with Ryan Preece while trying to exit his pit stall amid a congested pit road stretch with those who pitted.

    The second stage period started on Lap 67 as Gilliland and Logano occupied the front row. At the start, Gilliland and Logano dueled for the lead entering the first turn until Gilliland, who received a strong push from LaJoie on the inside lane, muscled ahead and managed to slide in front of Logano’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse through the backstretch. With Buescher, LaJoie and Zane Smith following suit, Gilliland retained the lead in front of Logano as Josh Berry, Harrison Burton and Cindric joined the battle towards the front.

    On Lap 72, Zane Smith, who was rim-riding towards the outside wall while running in the top five, made contact with the outside wall through Turns 3 and 4 after he got loose just as Logano slid up in front of him, which stalled his momentum as his No. 71 City of Refuge Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 slowly began to backslide through the field. With the field remaining under green flag conditions as Smith pitted, Gilliland retained the lead followed by Logano, Buescher, Berry and Harrison Burton while Elliott, Hamlin, Cindric, LaJoie and Ty Gibbs were running in the top 10 by the Lap 75 mark.

    Through the first 80 scheduled laps and with the majority of the field running in tight-pack formation amid two lanes, Gilliland continued to lead in front of Ford teammates Logano, Buescher, Burton and McDowell, who carved his way from starting in the top 20, while Hamlin, who recovered from his early spin, was trying to mount a charge on the inside lane followed by Cindric. The top 28 competitors would be separated by more than two seconds by the Lap 85 mark as Gilliland retained the lead while McDowell moved up to third place and challenged Logano for more.

    At the Lap 100 mark, Logano, who assumed the lead for the first time of the day a lap earlier, was leading in front of Gilliland, Buescher, Keselowski and McDowell while Burton, Byron, Hamlin, Blaney and Chastain were running in the top 10 in front of Larson, Cindric, Truex, Busch, Elliott, LaJoie, Wallace, Stenhouse, Daniel Suárez and Briscoe. By then, the top 28 competitors were separated by more than three seconds.

    Fifteen laps later, Logano, who spent the previous 15 laps swapping the lead with Buescher and Gilliland, was leading ahead of Chastain and teammate Blaney while Buescher, Keselowski, Hamlin, Cindric, Burton, Larson and Byron followed suit in the top 10. By then, the majority of the field were running in two tight-packed lanes while some occurrences of three-wide racing occurred.

    At the halfway mark on Lap 130, green flag pit stops slowly commenced as teammates Logano and Blaney pitted while Larson was leading in front of Cindric, Chastain, Keselowski, Byron and Hamlin. Cindric would then pit during the following lap as Keselowski challenged Larson for the lead. Keselowski would then lead Chastain and teammate Buescher to pit road through the venue’s pit road entrance towards the backstretch’s exit by Lap 133 before Hamlin led Truex, Elliott and Burton to pit road during the proceeding lap.

    Then as Larson surrendered the lead to pit with the next wave of competitors on Lap 135, where he got bumped by Kyle Busch, Byron and McDowell spun and wrecked against one another while trying to enter the pit road’s commitment line towards the backstretch, though the event remained under green flag conditions as both proceeded. Amid the pit stops, Berry and Chastain were penalized for speeding on pit road.

    With the first wave of green flag pit stops being completed by Lap 139, Cindric cycled his No. 2 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse into the lead followed by teammates Logano and Blaney while Gilliland followed suit in fourth place. In addition, Larson was in fifth while Buescher, Briscoe, Wallace, Suárez and Keselowski were scored in the top 10. Soon after, Wallace, Busch and Stenhouse were penalized for speeding on pit road while Erik Jones was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation.

    By Lap 150, Cindric retained the lead ahead of teammate Logano, Larson, teammate Blaney and Buescher while Gilliland, Briscoe, Truex, Suárez and Hamlin cycled their way into the top 10 ahead of Keselowski, Burton, Elliott, LaJoie, Justin Haley, Ty Gibbs, Kaz Grala, Carson Hocevar, Austin Dillon and John Hunter Nemechek.

    Then on the final lap of the second stage period, the caution flew after Logano, who was trying to slide up in front of Buescher amid the draft, ran out of room as both collided against the outside wall through the backstretch, with Hamlin also getting collected in the wreckage while Keselowski barely dodged the incident. With the second stage period concluding under caution on Lap 160, Cindric, who nearly lost the lead to teammate Logano a few laps earlier, captured his first stage victory of the 2024 season. Larson settled in second followed by Blaney, Suárez and Truex while Gilliland, Keselowski, Burton, Briscoe and Elliott were scored in the top 10.

    During the stage break, the entire lead lap field led by Cindic returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Gilliland exited first followed by Keselowski, Elliott, Hamlin, Suárez and Burton while Cindric exited in 10th place.

    With 90 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Gilliland and Keselowski occupied the front row. At the start, Gilliland and Keselowski dueled for the lead entering the first turn until Gilliland muscled ahead on the inside lane followed by Hamlin and Blaney. With Hamlin and Blaney swapping lanes exiting the backstretch, Gilliland maintained the lead on the frontstretch while Keselowski, Truex and Elliott followed suit in close-quarters racing and amid two tight-packed lanes. Amid the tight racing towards the front, Gilliland maintained the lead and control of both lanes during the proceeding laps while both Hamlin and Blaney were trying to gain runs amid their respective drafting lanes.

    Not long after, the caution returned with 86 laps remaining after Kaz Grala, who was running in the top 10, made light contact with Kyle Busch amid a three-wide battle in Turn 1 as he slid sideways through the turn, but managed to keep his car off the track from oncoming traffic. During the caution period, some led by Blaney, Elliott and Cindric pitted while the rest led by Gilliland remained on the track.

    During the proceeding restart with 80 laps remaining, Gilliland received a push from Truex’s No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE to muscle ahead from Hamlin on the inside lane through the first two turns and the backstretch while the rest of the field behind fanned out and battled in two tight-packed lanes. With Briscoe, Keselowski, Larson, Elliott and Suárez making their moves to the front, Truex would then grab the lead two laps later over Gilliland through a strong move entering the backstretch while Hamlin remained in third place amid a tight battle with Briscoe. Another three laps later, however, Gilliland cycled his No. 38 Georgia Peanuts Ford Mustang Dark Horse back into the lead from Truex. Meanwhile, Keselowski was battling Briscoe and Larson for third place while Hamlin slipped to sixth.

    With 65 laps remaining, Larson, who returned to the lead two laps earlier, was leading, but mixed in a tight battle to maintain the top spot in front of Gilliland, Truex, Hamlin and Keselowski while Suárez, Briscoe, Elliott, Cindric and Burton followed suit in the top 10. Behind, LaJoie was in 11th ahead of Blaney, Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs and Haley while Hocevar, Daniel Hemric, Grala, Preece and McDowell occupied the top 20.

    Three laps later and with the field fanning out to three lanes amid the late jostling of spots, the caution returned after Elliott, who was marching his way through the top-10 ranks, got bumped by Chastain and sent sideways entering Turn 3 as he managed to keep his No. 9 Hooters Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 spinning below the apron and away from oncoming traffic, though Ty Gibbs also veered sideways to avoid hitting Elliott. Amid the chaos, Wallace, who was battling Chastain for the free pass spot by being the first competitor scored a lap down, managed to receive the free pass.

    During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Truex pitted, mainly for fuel, while McDowell and Preece remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Truex exited pit road first followed by teammate Hamlin, Briscoe, Cindric, Keselowski and Larson while Gilliland exited eighth behind Busch.

    With the event restarting under green with 55 laps remaining, McDowell and Truex dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. They continued to duel for the lead in front of two tight-packed lanes through the frontstretch and back to the frontstretch while Austin Dillon, who was running in the middle of the pack, fell off the pace after he pounded the backstretch’s outside wall hard, though the event remained under green flag conditions.

    Then with 50 laps remaining and with the field fanned out to three tight-packed lanes, a four-wide action for the lead ensued between Truex, Briscoe, McDowell and Cindric through the frontstretch as Cindric, who instigated the four-wide move, moved into the lead entering Turns 1 and 2. Busch would follow suit in second through the backstretch along with Briscoe, Gilliland, Hamlin and McDowell amid the four-wide battle while Truex, who was getting bumped and jostled amid the fanned-out battles, was slowly backsliding. The field would then settle to three-wide racing for the following lap as Cindric retained the lead followed by Busch, Hamlin, Briscoe and Gilliland while Keselowski and Larson followed suit.

    With 44 laps remaining, Hamlin overtook Cindric from the outside lane for the lead. During the following lap, Briscoe tried to move in front of Hamlin for the lead, but the move did not prevail as Busch overtook Briscoe for the runner-up spot while Hamlin maintained the lead. The caution, however, would return with 42 laps remaining after Keselowski, who was running third, got loose and slid towards the outside wall entering Turn 3 as he collected Larson and LaJoie in the process. During the caution period, some including McDowell and Elliott pitted while the rest led by Hamlin remained on the track.

    As the event restarted with 35 laps remaining, Hamlin muscled ahead from the inside lane followed by Busch while Cindric was left to fend off Briscoe and the rest of the pack in third place. Hamlin would retain the lead during the proceeding laps and with 30 laps remaining over Busch while Blaney and Briscoe battled for third place in front of two tight-packed lanes. Shortly after, however, Busch and Blaney went three wide on Hamlin as they both overtook Hamlin and moved into a battle into the lead for themselves followed by Gilliland and Cindric while Hamlin slid back to sixth in front of Wallace.

    With less than 25 laps remaining and with the intensity towards the front igniting amid three tight-packed lanes, Blaney was leading the race ahead of teammate Cindric and Busch while Wallace and Briscoe battled for fourth in front of the field.

    With 21 laps remaining, however, the caution returned after Hamlin, who was pinned in a tight four-wide battle for fourth place with Briscoe, Suárez and Busch, made contact with Briscoe that sent Briscoe’s No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse sideways and into Hamlin before Briscoe slapped the outside wall hard between Turns 3 and 4 as Burton, Berry and Haley were also collected. The incident was enough for the event to be placed in a red flag period for more than 11 minutes.

    Once the red flag lifted and the field returned under a cautious pace, some including Gilliland, Hemric, Preece and Byron pitted while the rest led by Blaney remained on the track.

    When the event restarted with 15 laps remaining, where Blaney and Suárez occupied the front row, Blaney muscled ahead on the inside lane followed by teammate Cindric and Truex while Suárez, who had Kyle Busch and Wallace drafting him, was trying to fight back on the outside lane through the backstretch. With Blaney leading the next two laps and having both lanes to his control, Suárez then made his move on the outside lane with 12 laps remaining through the backstretch as he led the next laps by a hair while Busch and Cindric followed suit in the second lane. Then during the following lap and as Cindric briefly lost his momentum through the first two turns, the caution flew after Berry, who was drafting Wallace in the top 10, ran into the outside wall entering the backstretch and spun back across the track, where he collided into rookie Carson Hocevar, before he spun back across the track and into oncoming traffic as Elliott also spun towards the infield. Amid the chaos, Suárez managed to retain the lead over Blaney.

    Down to the final five laps of the event, the race restarted under green as Suárez and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Suárez muscled his No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ahead on the inside lane followed by Busch through the first two turns. Suárez then moved in front of Blaney to stall his momentum through the backstretch, but Blaney managed to stick his nose and draw even with Suárez exiting the backstretch as he assumed the lead followed by Truex. Blaney then retained the lead in front of two stacked lanes during the proceeding laps as he went on defense to fend off Suárez and Busch while Truex was backsliding.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Blaney remained as the leader ahead of a side-by-side battle involving Suárez and Busch. Blaney would continue to lead through the first two turns and through the majority of the backstretch until Busch and Suárez took Blaney three wide entering Turns 3 and 4. Suárez, Busch and Blaney remained dead even amid three lanes for the lead entering the frontstretch, with neither lifting. With the leaders navigating through the frontstretch, Suárez, Busch and Blaney crossed the finish line dead even as the checkered flag flew. Following an extensive review of the footage, Suárez was declared the winner as he had beaten Blaney by 0.003 seconds and 0.007 seconds over Busch.

    With the victory, Suárez, who was in contention of winning this year’s Daytona 500 before he was eliminated amid a late multi-car wreck, earned his second Cup Series career victory, his first since winning his first series’ event at Sonoma Raceway in June 2022 and his first on a superspeedway venue. He also recorded the seventh career victory for Trackhouse Racing and his first with his new crew chief Matt Swiderski.

    “It was so damn close,” Suárez, who celebrated with a piñata, said on FOX. “It was good racing. Ryan Blaney there, Kyle Busch. Austin Cindric also was doing a great job giving me pushes. In the back straightaway, he didn’t push me because he knew I was gonna fight his teammate. Man, what a job. We wrecked [on] Lap 2. The [No. 99] guys did an amazing job fixing this car. Man, I can’t thank everyone enough. Let’s go!”

    Blaney, who led 31 laps, settled in the runner-up spot while Kyle Busch, who led 28 laps, ended up in third place following their dramatic three-wide finish with Suárez to the finish line.

    Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “I thought I laid back enough in [Turns] 1 and 2 to not let both lanes get that big of a run,” Blaney said. “Both lanes just got that shove super hard and I just chose the bottom [lane], safest place to be. What a cool finish. Appreciate the fans for sticking around. That’s a lot of fun. That’s always a good time when we can do that. Race clean, three-wide finish to the end. Happy for Daniel [Suárez]. That was cool to see. Fun racing with Kyle [Busch]. I’ve won [races] by very, very little [margin], too, so I can’t complain too much about losing by that much. Close.”

    “Overall, just real proud of everybody at [Richard Childress Racing], ECR [Engines],” Busch added. “Our Cheddar’s Camaro was fast. It’s good to see Daniel [Suárez] get a win. We were helping each other, being Chevy team partners and working together there. It shows that when you do have friends and you can make alliances that they do seem to work and that was the good part of today. Dammit. We’ll have to do it again and find another one.”

    Austin Cindric came home in fourth place while Bubba Wallace rallied from a roller coaster event to finish fifth for a second consecutive race. Stenhouse, Chastain, McDowell, Buescher and Ty Gibbs finished in the top 10 on the track.

    There were 48 lead changes for 14 different leaders. The race featured 10 cautions for 65 laps. In addition, 22 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Following the second event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Kyle Busch leads the regular-season standings by a single point over both William Byron and Austin Cindric, three over Bubba Wallace, eight over Ryan Blaney, 12 over Chase Elliott and 13 over Daniel Suárez.

    Results.

    1. Daniel Suárez, nine laps led

    2. Ryan Blaney, 31 laps led

    3. Kyle Busch, 28 laps led

    4. Austin Cindric, 32 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    5. Bubba Wallace, three laps led

    6. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap led

    7. Ross Chastain

    8. Michael McDowell, 27 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    9. Chris Buescher, one lap led

    10. Ty Gibbs

    11. Harrison Burton

    12. Martin Truex Jr., nine laps led

    13. Corey LaJoie

    14. Kaz Grala

    15. Chase Elliott

    16. Ryan Preece

    17. William Byron

    18. Daniel Hemric

    19. Carson Hocevar

    20. Justin Haley

    21. John Hunter Nemechek

    22. Austin Dillon

    23. Denny Hamlin, one lap down, 15 laps led

    24. BJ McLeod, three laps down

    25. Erik Jones , four laps down

    26. Todd Gilliland, four laps led, 58 laps led

    27. Alex Bowman, five laps down

    28. Joey Logano, eight laps down, 27 laps led

    29. Josh Berry – OUT, Accident

    30. Tyler Reddick, 17 laps down

    31. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Accident

    32. Kyle Larson – OUT, Accident, 17 laps led

    33. Brad Keselowski – OUT, Accident, two laps led

    34. Christopher Bell – OUT, Accident

    35. Zane Smith – OUT, DVP

    36. Noah Gragson – OUT, Accident

    37. Josh Williams – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, March 3, and air at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

  • William Byron capitalizes late to claim first Daytona 500 victory

    William Byron capitalizes late to claim first Daytona 500 victory

    In a star-studded and electrifying season-opening event where the Ford and Toyota competitors were deemed as the heavyweight favorites, Chevrolet competitor William Byron and Hendrick Motorsports delivered the final ultimatum that sent them to Victory Lane in the rain-postponed, 66th annual running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on Monday, February 19.

    The 26-year-old Byron from Charlotte, North Carolina, led the final four of 200-scheduled laps in an event where he started 18th and was consistent amongst a bevy of competitors running in tight two and three-stacked lanes from start to finish. After dodging a multi-car wreck with eight laps remaining that eliminated a bevy of former Cup Series champions and stars, Byron cycled to the front and made his presence at the front known for the first time during the final restart. With four laps remaining, he fended off late challenges from Ross Chastain and Austin Cindric.

    Then as both Chastain and Cindric wrecked before the start of the final lap, Byron managed to start the final lap and emerge in front of teammate Alex Bowman at the moment of caution to emerge as the winner of the Great American Race for the first time in his career and in his seventh full-time campaign piloting the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports.

    The starting lineup for the main event was determined through a single-car qualifying session comprising two rounds that occurred on Wednesday, February 14, followed by a pair of Bluegreen Vacations Duels on Thursday, February 15. At the conclusion of both sessions, Joey Logano started in the pole position after posting a lap at 171.947 mph in 49.465 seconds and was joined on the front row by Michael McDowell, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 181.686 mph in 49.536 seconds. Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell occupied the second row after both won their respective Duel events.

    Before the event, the following drivers including Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, William Byron, Noah Gragson and Daniel Hemric dropped to the rear of the field in backup cars after each wrecked their primary cars during the Duel events. Kaz Grala also dropped to the rear of the field due to an engine change made to his Front Row Motorsports entry.

    When the green flag waved and the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season commenced, Logano gained an early advantage to lead the field entering the first two turns from the outside lane followed by Christopher Bell until McDowell fought back on the inside lane as both fought for the top spot through the backstretch and in front of two packed lanes. With the field still stacked up amid two tight-packed lanes through the frontstretch, Logano led the first lap by a hair over McDowell as both continued to battle side-by-side for the lead during the proceeding laps.

    Then on the fifth lap and as the field started to fan out to three lanes as both Logano and McDowell continued to fight for the lead, the event’s first caution flew. Brad Keselowski, who was running within the top 10, got John Hunter Nemechek loose and sent him veering left into Harrison Burton. Burton, who collected rookie Carson Hocevar, was sent spinning across the frontstretch grass before his No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Mustang Dark Horse came back across the track and was T-boned by Kaz Grala, who sent Ryan Preece spinning across the frontstretch. Preece, however, avoided making heavy contact with the inside wall, before Burton was hit by Austin Dillon’s No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 while Jimmie Johnson collided with Hocevar.

    During the first caution period, nearly the entire field led by Logano and McDowell pitted while the rest of the field, including Christopher Bell, David Ragan, Daniel Hemric, Ryan Blaney and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., remained on the track. During the pit stops, where a majority of the field opted for only fuel for their respective entries, William Byron received a vehicle interference penalty when he pulled up into the wrong box and nearly collided with teammate Alex Bowman. In addition, Nemechek would be penalized for an equipment violation.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 11, Bell and Blaney dueled for the lead amid two tight-packed lanes through the first two turns as Bell had Logano drafting him on the outside lane while Blaney had Daniel Hemric drafting him on the inside lane. Both Bell and Blaney would continue to compete for the lead in front of two tight-packed lanes during the proceeding laps. By then, AJ Allmendinger served a drive-through penalty through pit road for not lining up properly during the restart.

    Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Bell and Blaney continued to battle for the lead in front of two tight-packed lanes while Hemric, Logano, McDowell, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Austin Cindric, Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick were scored in the top 10 followed by Ross Chastain, Alex Bowman, Erik Jones, Riley Herbst, rookie Josh Berry, Chase Briscoe, Chris Buescher, rookie Zane Smith, Daniel Suarez and Justin Haley. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch was back in 21st along with Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, Todd Gilliland and Martin Truex Jr. while Bubba Wallace, Nemechek, Corey LaJoie, William Byron and Noah Gragson were running within the top 30 ahead of Ragan, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Preece, Anthony Alfredo and Allmendinger, with Jimmie Johnson scored two laps down in 36th place.

    Five laps later, Bell and Blaney remained dead even for the lead in front of the pack as Hemric and Logano followed suit in the second row while McDowell and Elliott were running in the third row ahead of Keselowski, Cindric, Hamlin and Reddick. The field led by both Bell and Blaney would continue to run stacked amid two tight-packed lanes by the Lap 30 mark.

    Just past the Lap 35 mark and with a majority of the field migrating to the inside lane while trying to conserve fuel, Blaney had sole possession of the lead followed by Bell, Hemric, Logano and Elliott while Keselowski and Cindric fought for sixth place with Cindric leading a handful of competitors on the outside lane. A lap later, Logano mounted a charge on the outside lane through the frontstretch but was blocked by teammate Blaney entering the first turn. By then, Blaney had his Team Penske teammates Logano and Cindric along with a majority of the competitors following suit on the outside lane while Bell served as the lead competitor on the inside lane, followed by Hemric, Elliott and Keselowski.

    On Lap 40, Logano mounted another charge on the outside lane followed by teammate Cindric and overtook him for the lead entering Turns 1 and 2 while teammate Blaney moved to the inside lane in front of Bell. Another lap later, however, the Team Penske competitors along with Bell, Hemric and Keselowski pitted under green, mainly for fuel, while McDowell assumed the lead. Chris Buescher would then pit his No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang Dark Horse by Lap 42 as McDowell was trying to fend off Berry, Hamlin, Elliott and Kyle Busch for the lead. Though he initially prevailed, McDowell was left battling Elliott side-by-side for the lead.

    After Berry led a lap on Lap 45, Elliott assumed the lead in his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during the following lap. He would be followed by Kyle Busch, Bubba Wallace, Martin Truex Jr. and Noah Gragson while Byron, Larson, Hamlin, Bowman and Zane Smith were scored in the top 10 as the field dispersed, with the Team Penske competitors separated as Blaney was losing the draft from teammates Logano and Cindric due to taking extra time in his pit stall for fuel.

    Just past the Lap 50 mark, top names that included Bell, Hemric, Blaney and McDowell, all of whom previously pitted, were lapped by the front-runners as Elliott retained the lead followed by Kyle Busch, Wallace, Truex and Gragson while Byron, Larson, Hamlin, Bowman and Zane Smith remained in the top 10 amid a long single-file line towards the outside lane.

    Four laps later, Zane Smith and Stenhouse pitted under green. Another lap later, a bevy of competitors, mainly Chevrolet competitors, led by Elliott pitted as Wallace cycled into the lead, though Wallace would lead another wave of competitors, mainly Toyota competitors, into pit road for service during the following lap as Gragson cycled into the lead followed by a bevy of Ford competitors. The leader, Gragson, along with teammate Berry, Justin Haley and Todd Gilliland then pitted prior to the Lap 60 mark as Ragan assumed the lead followed by Preece while Kyle Busch, who was leading a bevy of competitors who pitted, was in third and trying to gain ground amid the draft.

    With three laps remaining in the first stage period, Ragan and Preece, both of whom were trying to stretch their fuel tanks to the distance of the stage’s conclusion, were overtaken by a wave of competitors led by Kyle Busch, who assumed the lead followed by Byron, Elliott, Suarez and Larson while Bowman, Chastain, Wallace, Truex and Hamlin were mired in the front pack.

    At the start of the first stage period’s final lap, Elliott moved to the outside lane as he assumed the lead from Busch followed by teammates Larson, Bowman and Chastain. Then entering the frontstretch, Larson tried to make his move to Elliott’s outside approaching the start/finish line, but Chastain gave Elliott a bump, which propelled Elliott forward as he claimed the first stage victory on Lap 65. Teammate Larson settled in second followed by Chastain while Byron, Bowman, Busch, Hamlin, Wallace, Truex and Suarez were scored in the top 10. By then, Blaney, Bell and Hemric had managed to cycle their way back onto the lead lap while Allmendinger fended off McDowell to emerge as the first competitor scored a lap down, which enabled him to cycle back onto the lead lap during the caution period.

    Under the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Elliott pitted while select names that included Keselowski, Riley Herbst and Hemric remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, both Nemechek and Reddick stalled their respective entries. In addition, Kyle Busch was penalized for a safety violation. Herbst and Hemric would pit during the proceeding lap while Keselowski remained on the track, though he pitted to top off of fuel prior to the lead as Larson and Berry cycled into the lead.

    The second stage period started on Lap 70 as Larson and Berry occupied the front row. At the start, Larson and Berry dueled for the lead through the first two turns as Berry muscled his No. 4 SunnyD Ford Mustang Dark Horse into the lead before Larson fought back on the outside lane. With both remaining dead even for the lead, Larson led the next scheduled lap as Hamlin and Gilliland followed suit in the second lane.

    With the field fanning out to three lanes through the backstretch by Lap 71, both Larson and Berry remained dead even for the lead until Logano mounted a charge from the third outside lane as he rocketed his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse into the lead followed by Chase Briscoe and Haley before Briscoe, who migrated to the inside lane, challenged Logano for the lead as Logano transitioned from the inside and outside lane. With Larson stuck in the middle lane, Logano had drafting help from Haley on the outside lane while Briscoe was trying to regain momentum from the inside lane. As teammates Briscoe and Berry lost momentum and were slowly drifting to the rear of the field, Logano retained the lead followed by Haley, Buescher, Kyle Busch, Preece and Blaney while Larson, who moved in front of Briscoe, was trying to mount forward on the inside lane by the Lap 75 mark.

    By Lap 80, Logano was leading followed by Haley, Buscher, Busch and Preece while Blaney, Gilliland, Hemric, Wallace and Zane Smith were in the top 10 followed by Truex, Larson, Alfredo, Reddick, Bell, Elliott, Cindric, LaJoie, Keselowski and Stenhouse. Meanwhile, Byron was mired back in 25th while teammates Berry and Briscoe fell back to 23rd and 27th, respectively, as Chastain was in 29th in between Gragson and Ty Gibbs. In addition, Hamlin was back in 34th place.

    Ten laps later, Logano continued to lead followed by Haley, Wallace and Buescher while Todd Gilliland, who was challenging Logano for the lead a few laps earlier, was trying to mount back towards the front on the inside lane as Gilliland, who received drafting help from Wallace earlier, was being drafted by Truex while Reddick tried to join the fray.

    A few laps later and as the field lapped McDowell, who was battling gear issues, through the frontstretch, Gilliland steered his No. 38 gener8tor Ford Mustang Dark Horse to the inside lane and battled dead even with Logano through the first two turns before managing to move in front of Logano’s Ford through the backstretch. This allowed Truex to mount a charge on the inside lane as Gilliland retained the lead both on the outside lane and in the overall event ahead of Logano while Truex, Reddick, Haley and Cindric were battling with close quarters for the top spot.

    At the halfway mark on Lap 100, Gilliland continued to lead followed by Logano, Truex, Haley and Reddick while Wallace, Cindric, Buescher, Keselowski and Busch were scored in the top 10 amid two tight-packed lanes. By then, 34 of 40 competitors were scored on the lead lap and separated by two seconds. Gilliland would continue to lead the next eight laps until he was overtaken by Bubba Wallace through the frontstretch. Wallace, however, would be overtaken by Kyle Busch exiting the backstretch and through Turns 3 and 4 while Preece mounted a charge to the outside lane as he challenged Busch for the lead while Wallace followed suit.

    Then on Lap 111, a second cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Preece led Logano, Gilliland, Wallace and a bevy of competitors to pit road. Amid the pit stops, Berry was turned by Nemechek as he was trying to enter his pit stall while Preece, who locked up his front tires while trying to enter pit road, was penalized for speeding on pit road. Meanwhile, Busch assumed the lead followed by Larson, Alfredo and the rest of the pack.

    Busch would then lead another wave of competitors, mainly Chevrolet competitors, to pit road for service on Lap 114 under green while Larson, who assumed a brief lead, led Blaney, Elliott, Corey LaJoie, Cindric, Byron, Bowman and Chastain to pit road. At the completion of the green flag pit stops, Larson managed to merge back onto the track as the leader followed by teammate Elliott, Blaney and LaJoie while Busch was trying to carve his way back to the front followed by a bevy of competitors. Larson would maintain the lead until Cindric made his way to the front and the lead, followed by teammate Blaney nearing the Lap 120 mark while Busch was in fourth ahead of Elliott, Byron and LaJoie.

    Just past the Lap 120 mark, a tight battle for the lead ignited between Cindric and Busch, with Busch receiving drafting help from Byron on the outside lane while Cindric had teammate Blaney drafting him in front of two tight-packed lanes as the top-23 competitors were separated by more than a second.

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 130, Blaney, who had been drafting teammate Cindric over the course of the previous 10 laps amid his battle with Busch, made a bold move beneath teammate Cindric to assume the lead through Turns 3 and 4, which enabled him to muscle his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead of the pack and claim the stage victory. Teammate Cindric followed suit in second along with Suarez while Busch, Reddick, Byron, Wallace, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., AJ Allmendinger and Buescher were scored into the top 10. Amid the battle towards the front, Ty Gibbs managed to fend off Preece and Berry to emerge as the first competitor a lap down as he cycled back onto the lead lap.

    During the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Blaney pitted while Keselowski remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Suarez was penalized for equipment interference while Busch had issues for a loose wheel to his entry, but he managed to cycle back to his pit stall to have the wheel issue addressed as he remained on the lead lap. In addition, Keselowkski, Nemechek and Ragan would pit, which cycled Cindric back to the lead.

    With 64 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Cindric and Wallace occupied the front row. At the start, Cindric and Wallace dueled for the lead as Cindric had teammate Blaney drafting him on the outside lane while Wallace had teammate Reddick drafting him on the inside lane. Both Cindric and Wallace would continue to battle dead even for the lead during the proceeding laps. Then as the field fanned out to three tight-packed lanes, Allmendinger, who rallied from being mired a lap down earlier, muscled his No. 16 Celsius Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead over Wallace followed by Buescher and Truex while Wallace and Cindric slipped out of the top five. A tight battle for the lead then ignited between Allmendinger and Reddick with 60 laps remaining while the field continued to battle amid three tight-packed lanes.

    Five laps later, Allmendinger retained the lead from the inside lane followed by teammate Hemric while LaJoie was trying to mount a charge from the outside lane followed by Bell and Truex as Hamlin was leading the middle lane ahead of Kyle Busch. Not long after, Allmendinger would get shuffled out of the lead as LaJoie and Kyle Busch battled dead even for the lead while Hamlin, Bowman, Larson and Bell followed suit with 50 laps remaining. Two laps later, Hamlin muscled his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry XSE into the lead over LaJoie as Busch tried to fight back on the inside lane.

    With 40 laps remaining, Hamlin was leading ahead of LaJoie, Busch, Bell, Logano and the rest of the field. As the field fanned out to three tight-packed lanes while the intensity of the event started to ignite, Logano, who assumed the lead not long after, was leading followed by Ragan, Hamlin, Busch, and Keselowski while Bell, Briscoe, Reddick, Gragson and Chastain were scored in the top 10 amid two tight-packed lanes with 30 laps remaining. Logano would continue to lead ahead of Ragan, Hamlin, Keselowski, Busch and the rest of the field with 25 laps remaining.

    Then with 23 laps remaining, another wave of green flag pit stops commenced as Riley Herbst led Hemric, LaJoie and a handful of competitors to pit road. Another wave of competitors, mainly Toyota competitors, led by Bell pitted during the next lap while Hamlin and Busch pitted together with 20 laps remaining. A wave of Ford competitors led by the race leader Logano would pit with 19 laps remaining while a wave of Chevrolet competitors led by Chastain pitted during the following lap. After the pit stops, Ross Chastain would cycle into the lead followed by Stenhouse and teammate Suarez while Logano was trying to weave his way back to the front amid the drafting momentum from his Ford teammates.

    Down to the final 15 laps of the event, Chastain was leading ahead of Logano, Stenhouse and a bevy of competitors running tight amid two tight-packed lanes. Shortly after, Suarez would muscle his No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead while Stenhouse was getting shuffled out of the lead draft. Meanwhile, Chastain remained in contention up on the outside lane followed by Logano while Byron tried to mount a charge on the inside lane.

    A few laps later, the field fanned out to three tight-packed lanes as Chastain made his move to the outside lane followed by Logano, leaving Suarez pinned on the middle lane and Byron on the inside lane, as he reassumed the lead. Not long after, Byron mounted a charge on the inside lane along with Suarez as all three continued to battle dead even in front of the stacked field with 10 laps remaining.

    Then with nine laps remaining, the caution flew after Bowman bumped and got teammate Byron loose, which resulted with Byron veering left and clipping Keselowski’s No. 6 Castrol Ford Mustang Dark Horse into Logano and into the path of both Blaney and Truex exiting the backstretch, which triggered a multi-car wreck that collected Suarez, Stenhouse, Reddick, Hamlin, Ty Gibbs, Preece, Gragson, Hemric, Alfredo, Larson, Briscoe, Buescher and Erik Jones. Amid the wreckage, Chastain barely escaped with the lead followed by Bowman, Byron, Cindric and Elliott as the event was placed in a red flag period for more than 15 minutes.

    Once the red flag lifted and the field proceeded under a cautious pace, some led by Briscoe pitted while the rest led by Chastain remained on the track.

    Down to the final four laps of the event, the race restarted under green as Chastain and Byron occupied the front row. At the start, Chastain and Byron dueled for the lead through the first two turns as Chastain had Bowman drafting him on the outside lane while Byron had Cindric drafting him on the inside lane. Through the backstretch, Chastain and Byron continued to battle dead even for the lead as the field returned to the frontstretch with three laps remaining.

    With two laps remaining, Byron received a strong push from Cindric to muscle his No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ahead of Chastain from the inside lane through the frontstretch. Byron would then maintain the lead over Cindric, Chastain and LaJoie through the backstretch and approaching the start/finish line to start the final lap of the event.

    Then as the field approached the tri-oval to start the final lap of the event, Cindric, who blocked LaJoie while battling Byron for the lead, veered back to the right and clipped Chastain’s No. 1 Busch Light Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, which sent both spinning through the frontstretch’s grass as Cindric came back across the track and was T-boned by Ragan as Zane Smith was also involved while Chastain slid across the infield and just missed the inside wall.

    With the leaders having crossed the start/finish line to start the final lap of the event prior to the caution being displayed that ended the event, Byron emerged out in front of teammate Bowman and the field when the caution flew and was declared the winner of the event.

    With the victory, Byron, whose previous best Daytona 500 result was 21st, became the 43rd competitor to win the Great American Race as this season marks the fourth consecutive time where the Daytona 500 featured a first-time winner of the event. In addition, Byron, who achieved his 11th NASCAR Cup Series career victory and second at Daytona International Speedway, delivered the ninth Daytona 500 victory for Hendrick Motorsports and the team’s first since 2014, which occurred with Dale Earnhardt Jr., while also piloting the No. 24 car to a 500 victory for the first time since Jeff Gordon made the last accomplishment in 2005. The 500 victory was also the first for crew chief Ryan “Rudy” Fugle and the 26th overall for the Chevrolet nameplate.

    Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “[Daytona 500 champion title] sounds really damn good,” Byron said on FOX. “I’ve so many emotions. Obviously, I hate what happened at the backstretch. I just got pushed and got sideways, but just so proud of this whole AXALTA team, 40th anniversary to the day on Monday [when HMS first competed]. Just extremely blessed and thankful for all the opportunities. We just wanna keep [the early momentum] going. We have a lot to prove this year. This is a good start, obviously. Daytona 500! It’s freakin’ awesome! Let’s go!”

    “[We had] Just really good strategy [that got us to the front],” Byron added. “We laid back and tried to save fuel for most of the race. We would get up there at the end of the stages and make some moves. Just thankful for great power under the hood, all of our partners, everybody that allows us to do this. I’m just a kid from racing on computers and winning the Daytona 500. I can’t believe it. [Me and my dad] have been through so much. We sat up in the grandstands together and watched the races. It’s so freakin’ cool.”

    In addition to Byron, the 2024 Daytona 500 victory was meaningful for Jeff Gordon, vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, and owner Rick Hendrick, whose team, Hendrick Motorsports, is celebrating its 40th anniversary of competition in the NASCAR Cup Series.

    “I’m telling you, you couldn’t write the script any better,” Hendrick said in Victory Lane. “When we think about coming down here the first time, we didn’t think we should be here, felt so out of place. We win this on our 40th [anniversary] to the day. It’s just… and tied a record now, so that’s awesome.”

    “It’s so cool,” Gordon added. “What this is gonna do for this team, for AXALTA and all of our partners, and William Byron. He was already a superstar. He just went to another level being a superstar. I wasn’t driving the car, but I felt like I was making every lap with him out there. It’s just crazy to watch these guys do what they do and do it so well. To watch it from this side of it, it makes me so happy, so proud. We’re gonna celebrate. This is an amazing win. Huge win. Daytona 500!”

    Teammate Bowman settled in second place while Bell, Corey LaJoie and Bubba Wallace finished in the top five. For Bowman, the runner-up result was his best in his eighth attempt of winning the Great American Race.

    “I was pretty sure Willliam [Byron] had it, but you’re gonna let him debate it, right?” Bowman said. “I think a couple hundred more feet and obviously, we had the run. Just so proud of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. To get a Hendrick Motorsports 1-2 [finish], have the No. 24 car in Victory Lane. Obviously, I wish it was our Ally No. 48 [car], but it was a great day for us. Proud of everybody. We did everything we could right. [I] Wish it was one spot better, but still, proud of the whole team.”

    Allmendinger, John Hunter Nemechek, Erik Jones, Noah Gragson and Chase Briscoe completed the top 10 in the final running order.

    Notably, Kyle Larson ended up 11th followed by Kyle Busch, rookie Zane Smith, Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr. while Hamlin ended up 19th. Chastain, who was in the position of achieving his first Daytona 500 victory prior to the final lap accident, ended up 21st while Cindric ended up 22nd.

    There were 41 lead changes for 20 different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 20 laps. Overall, 20 of 40 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Following the first event of the 2024 Cup Series season, William Byron leads the regular-season standings by four points over teammate Alex Bowman, 10 over Christopher Bell, 12 over Chase Elliott, 15 over Bubba Wallace and 17 over John Hunter Nemechek, Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch.

    Results.

    1. William Byron, four laps led

    2. Alex Bowman

    3. Christopher Bell, 22 laps led

    4. Corey LaJoie, one lap led

    5. Bubba Wallace, three laps led

    6. AJ Allmendinger, nine laps led

    7. John Hunter Nemechek

    8. Erik Jones

    9. Noah Gragson, five laps led

    10. Chase Briscoe

    11. Kyle Larson, seven laps led

    12. Kyle Busch, 12 laps led

    13. Zane Smith

    14. Chase Elliott, 13 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    15. Martin Truex Jr.

    16. Daniel Hemric

    17. Ty Gibbs

    18. Chris Buescher

    19. Denny Hamlin, 10 laps led

    20. David Ragan, two laps led

    21. Ross Chastain, one lap down, 14 laps led

    22. Austin Cindric, one lap down, 13 laps led

    23. Ryan Preece, one lap down

    24. Riley Herbst, one lap down

    25. Josh Berry, one lap down

    26. Justin Haley, one lap down

    27. Anthony Alfredo, two laps down

    28. Jimmie Johnson, four laps down

    29. Tyler Reddick – OUT, Accident

    30. Ryan Blaney – OUT, 12 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    31. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Accident

    32. Joey Logano – OUT, Accident, 45 laps led

    33. Brad Keselowski – OUT, Accident, three laps led

    34. Daniel Suarez – OUT, Accident, two laps led

    35. Todd Gilliland – OUT, Accident, 16 laps led

    36. Michael McDowell, 24 laps down, six laps led

    37. Austin Dillon, 54 laps down

    38. Kaz Grala – OUT, Accident

    39. Harrison Burton – OUT, Accident

    40. Carson Hocevar – OUT, Accident

    With the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season officially underway, the next event on the schedule is the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, February 25, and air at 3 p.m. ET on FOX.

  • Bell overtakes teammate Hamlin to win second Bluegreen Vacations Duel; Grala secures Daytona 500 starting spot

    Bell overtakes teammate Hamlin to win second Bluegreen Vacations Duel; Grala secures Daytona 500 starting spot

    Having very little success on superspeedway venues throughout his racing career, Christopher Bell gained an early advantage in his pursuit of winning his first Daytona 500 title by scoring a victory in the second of two Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday, February 15, following a final lap overtake on teammate Denny Hamlin.

    The 29-year-old Bell from Norman, Oklahoma, led the final lap of 60 scheduled laps in an event where he started 16th and methodically carved his way to the front while also dodging a late multi-car wreck that collected a bevy of stars, including last year’s NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney. During an eight-lap dash to the finish, Bell, who drafted teammate Denny Hamlin into the lead, gained a huge drafting run from Harrison Burton on the final lap to feign a move on Hamlin and overtake him through the backstretch. He would then fend off a final lap charge from Austin Cindric to achieve his first Daytona Duel career victory.

    Amid Bell’s Duel victory, Kaz Grala rallied from his mechanical issues during Wednesday’s single-car qualifying session and starting at the rear of the field to claim a transfer spot into this year’s Daytona 500 over BJ McLeod.

    Prior to the event, Michael McDowell, who claimed a front-row starting spot for this year’s Daytona 500, started on the pole and was joined on the front row by Austin Cindric. In addition, Kaz Grala dropped to the rear of the field due to an engine change after he had dealt with a mechanical issue during Wednesday’s single-car qualifying session.

    When the green flag waved and the second Duel event commenced, McDowell muscled his No. 34 Love’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead with the lead from the inside lane while Austin Cindric, William Byron, Kyle Busch and Harrison Burton followed suit. With a majority of the field opting to run on the inside lane, McDowell proceeded to lead the first lap. He would maintain control of both lanes and the field throughout the early stages of the event while Riley Herbst was trying to generate a run from the outside lane.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, McDowell was then being challenged for the lead as William Byron made his move to the outside lane and drew his No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 even with McDowell through the backstretch. McDowell, however, would maintain his ground and position from the inside lane, though Byron kept in toe with McDowell from the outside lane as he had Kyle Busch drafting him.

    Nearing the Lap 10 mark, Byron, who assumed the lead for the first time on the seventh lap, was leading from the inside lane and by a hair over a hard-charging Riley Herbst while Kyle Busch, Noah Gragson, McDowell, AJ Allmendinger, Austin Cindric, Bubba Wallace, Christopher Bell and Harrison Burton were running in the top 10 amid two tight-packed lanes. Meanwhile, BJ McLeod was running in a transfer spot in 13th place, three spots ahead of David Ragan, while Kaz Grala was mired in 21st place, dead last.

    By Lap 20, Herbst, who led six laps in the process, and Noah Gragson were dueling for the lead as Herbst had drafting help from Wallace and Bell while Allmendinger, who led two laps earlier, was drafting Gragson along with Byron amid a stacked two-packed field. By then, McLeod was running in the top 10 while Ragan and Grala were mired at the rear of the field.

    At the halfway mark on Lap 30, Wallace, who led for the first time on Lap 21, was leading in his No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota Camry XSE ahead of Bell and rookie Zane Smith while Herbst fell back to fourth place in his No. 15 Monster Energy Ford Mustang Dark Horse in front of Gragson, McLeod, Justin Haley, Allmendinger, McDowell and Byron. By then, Kyle Busch was back in 12th while Ragan and Grala were still mired in 20th and 21st, respectively.

    Then with 19 laps remaining, pit stops under green commenced as some led by Wallace pitted, mainly for fuel. Another wave of competitors led by McDowell would pit during the following lap while a select few, led by Harrison Burton, remained on the track. With the rest of the lead lap competitors led by Burton pitting with 17 laps remaining, McDowell would manage to blend back as the race leader with 15 laps remaining as he had Denny Hamlin following suit along with Cindric, Chase Briscoe, Byron and Kyle Busch.

    Then with 13 laps remaining, the caution flew after Busch bumped and sent Byron sideways through the tri-oval, where he clipped Ryan Blaney and sent Blaney’s No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse head-on into the outside wall as Blaney’s car went up in flames. The carnage also collected Brad Keselowski, Gragson, Briscoe, Herbst, Burton, Wallace, Haley and McLeod. Amid the carnage, all competitors, including Blaney, emerged uninjured as the event was placed in an eight-minute red flag period to have the carnage cleared.

    Once the red flag lifted and the remaining competitors proceeded under a cautious pace, the event resumed under green flag conditions with eight laps remaining. At the start, McDowell received a strong push from Cindric’s No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse on the outside lane through the frontstretch to maintain a brief advantage until Hamlin came roaring back on the inside lane with drafting help from Bell, with the latter muscling ahead. McDowell, however, fought back through the backstretch and through Turns 3 and 4 as he maintained the lead followed by Cindric, Keselowski and Grala while Hamlin was trying to regain his momentum.

    Two laps later and amid a stacked two-packed field at the front, Hamlin drew his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry XSE into another side-by-side battle against McDowell’s Ford for the lead. While McLeod was trying to draft his way towards Ragan and Grala for a transfer spot into the Daytona 500, Hamlin and McDowell continued to battle dead even for the lead and in front of Bell and Cindric.

    Then with four laps remaining and while Hamlin transitioned from the inside to outside lane to block McDowell, McDowell was bumped out of line by Cindric and drifted to the rear of the field. This resulted with Bell drawing even and challenging teammate Hamlin for the lead while Cindric and John Hunter Nemechek followed suit. As the field continued to run in two tight-packed lanes, however, Hamlin managed to clear Bell and assume the lead under his control. By then, Grala was racing within the top 10 and in a transfer spot for the Daytona 500 ahead of Ragan and McLeod.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hamlin remained as the leader over teammate Bell, Nemechek, Zane Smith and Burton, who was gaining a draft from Cindric and Keselowski to march his way to the front. Amid Burton’s strong run from the outside lane through Turns 1 and 2, Bell moved his No. 20 DeWalt/Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry XSE in front of Burton as he gained a run on Hamlin entering the backstretch. It was then when Bell feigned a move to Hamlin’s inside as Hamlin transitioned to the inside lane, which allowed Bell to storm into the lead on the outside lane while being drafted by Burton and Cindric. Cindric then moved Burton out of the draft to challenge Bell for the lead, but Bell executed two blocks on Cindric entering the frontstretch, which were enough for him to claim the checkered flag first and win the first Duel event of his career.

    With the victory, Bell, whose previous best Duel results were a pair of runner-up results from 2021 and 2023, was awarded a handful of championship points and the fourth-place starting spot for this year’s 66th running of the Daytona 500 as he also recorded the 11th Daytona Duel victory overall for Joe Gibbs Racing. With 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick winning the first Duel event, this season marks the first time since 2014 that Toyota competitors swept both Daytona Duel events.

    The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season is set to mark Bell’s fifth as a full-time competitor and fifth attempt of winning his first Great American Race on Sunday, Feb. 18.

    “Yeah, it feels good,” Bell said. “These [superspeedway] races, man. I don’t know what to think of ’em. Me and Adam Stevens, my crew chief, we have a running joke: I say these races are 100% luck. I know that’s not true, but it seems like we’ve been struggling to get to the end of it. I know I’ve been a common denominator in a lot of the wrecks. Feels good to do everything right today.”

    Cindric, the 2022 Daytona 500 champion, settled in second place in a Duel event for a third consecutive season while Hamlin, Nemechek, Harrison Burton, Zane Smith, Keselowski, Byron, Briscoe and Justin Haley finished in the top 10 on the track.

    Meanwhile, Kaz Grala, who needed to finish ahead of both David Ragan and BJ McLeod on the track to make the starting grid for this year’s Daytona 500, accomplished his feat after finishing in 12th place, two spots ahead of McLeod and three spots over Ragan, though the latter is also in this year’s Great American Race based on his qualifying speed from Wednesday night’s single-car qualifying session while McLeod failed to qualify for the main event.

    With his accomplishment, Grala, who is piloting a third Front Row Motorsports entry, will make his third career appearance in the Daytona 500. He will attempt to achieve both his first Cup Series and 500 victory on Sunday.

    Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “Just really proud of everybody at Front Row Motorsports,” Grala said. “They worked so hard the last 24 hours to get the car ready to race today. Some trouble yesterday. Really cool to be able to get it in the show for them. Real big opportunity for me. Excited to be here on Sunday again.”

    There were 13 lead changes for nine different leaders. The event featured one caution for four laps.

    Results.

    1. Christopher Bell, one lap led

    2. Austin Cindric

    3. Denny Hamlin, five laps led

    4. John Hunter Nemechek

    5. Harrison Burton, one lap led

    6. Zane Smith

    7. Brad Keselowski

    8. William Byron, five laps led

    9. Chase Briscoe

    10. Justin Haley

    11. Bubba Wallace, 21 laps led

    12. Kaz Grala

    13. AJ Allmendinger, two laps led

    14. BJ McLeod

    15. David Ragan

    16. Michael McDowell, 17 laps led

    17. Josh Berry – OUT, Fuel pump

    18. Ryan Blaney – OUT, Accident, one lap led

    19. Kyle Busch – OUT, Accident

    20. Riley Herbst – OUT, Accident, seven laps led

    21. Noah Gragson – OUT, Accident

    With the starting lineup for this year’s 66th running of the Daytona 500 officially set, the main event is set to commence on Sunday, Feb. 18, which will also mark the official start of NASCAR’s 76th season of premier series competition. The coverage for this year’s Great American Race is scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

  • Hamlin reigns supreme with fourth Busch Light Clash victory, first at The Coliseum

    Hamlin reigns supreme with fourth Busch Light Clash victory, first at The Coliseum

    Amid an off-season surgery that nearly placed his availability status for NASCAR’s exhibition event at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in question, Denny Hamlin responded with resurgence and early momentum after surviving a war of attrition evening to win the third annual Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday, February 3.

    The three-time Daytona 500 champion from Chesterfield, Virginia, led twice for 58 of 151 laps in an event where he claimed the pole position for The Clash based on setting the fastest lap during the event’s practice session that set the starting lineup. The event was bumped a day early from its original starting time on Sunday amid threat concerns of rain and flash flooding.

    Despite losing the lead to Joey Logano early, Hamlin regained the lead on the third lap and led through Lap 49 until he was overtaken by teammate Ty Gibbs. Amid a series of bumps and on-track chaos ensuing throughout the event, Hamlin would then capitalize on a 10-lap restart to overtake Gibbs and Logano for the lead. He retained the lead to fend off Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney during a two-lap shootout to achieve his fourth career victory at The Clash.

    The eligibility for the event included all NASCAR Cup Series chartered and non-chartered team competitors. The lineup for The Clash was initially set to be determined through each competitor’s fastest lap time from their final practice session that was originally scheduled to occur on Saturday. This would then be followed by four heat events and a Last Chance Qualifier Race between Saturday and Sunday that would feature 36 participants battling for 23 entrance spots.

    With the exhibition event being rescheduled to occur on Saturday night instead of Sunday due to the threat of rain and flooding on Sunday within the Southern California region, the starting lineup was instead determined through the event’s practice sessions separated into three groups, including the final session being a qualifying session, where the first 22 starting spots were determined based on practice speeds while the 23rd and final provisional spot was left for the top finisher in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series standings who has not qualified for the event.

    At the conclusion of the practice sessions that included qualifying, Denny Hamlin secured the pole position for the main event after posting a pole-winning speed at 68.498 mph in 13.139 seconds during his practice session. Joey Logano joined Hamlin on the front row after he posted the second-fastest speed at 67.925 mph in 13.25 seconds while Ty Gibbs, Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, William Byron, Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace and Justin Haley started in the top 10. The following names that included Tyler Reddick, Ryan Preece, Brad Keselowski, Chase Elliott, Todd Gilliland, Michael McDowell, Noah Gragson, Corey LaJoie, Martin Truex Jr., Ricky Stenhouse Jr., John Hunter Nemechek and Chase Briscoe started 11th through 22nd, respectively, while Ryan Blaney was awarded the provisional, 23rd and final, starting spot into the main event based on being last year’s Cup Series champion.

    The following names that include Josh Williams, Carson Hocevar, Josh Berry, Daniel Suarez, Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, Chris Buescher, Austin Cindric, Daniel Hemric, Christopher Bell, Kaz Grala, Harrison Burton and Zane Smith did not qualify for the main event.

    When the main event commenced under green, Hamlin and Logano dueled for the lead amid two tight-packed lanes entering Turn 1 until Logano used the outside lane to rocket his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead of Hamlin through Turn 2. Despite Hamlin’s efforts in side-drafting and making contact with Logano to stall his momentum, Logano managed to withstand his ground as he proceeded to lead the first lap. With Logano leading Hamlin, Ty Gibbs and Alex Bowman battled for third place before William Byron joined the battle along with Kyle Busch.

    Two laps later, Hamlin prevailed in his early battle and on-track skirmish with Logano to lead for the first time in his No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota Camry XSE, where he moved in front of Logano in Turn 3, as Ty Gibbs would assume the runner-up spot over Logano during the following lap. Gibbs would then find himself locked in a tight situation of fending off Logano, Byron and a bevy of competitors for the runner-up spot while teammate Hamlin retained the lead by the fifth lap mark.

    Through the first 10 laps of the event, Hamlin was leading by six-tenths of a second over teammate Ty Gibbs followed by Logano, Byron and Kyle Busch while Alex Bowman, Ryan Preece, Kyle Larson, Justin Haley and Ross Chastain were scored in the top 10. Behind, Bubba Wallace occupied 11th place in front of Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick, Martin Truex Jr. and Michael McDowell while Noah Gragson, Corey LaJoie, Todd Gilliland, Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. John Hunter Nemechek and Ryan Blaney rounded out the 23-car field.

    Ten laps later, Hamlin extended his advantage to nearly a second over teammate Gibbs while Logano, Byron and Busch occupied the top five in front of Bowman, Preece, Larson, Haley and Chastain. Meanwhile, Blaney, mired in 22nd place, was trying to carve his way up the leaderboard to avoid being pinned a lap down.

    Another 10 laps later, Hamlin lapped last-place Noah Gragson, all while having his advantage shrink to within four-tenths of a second over teammate Gibbs and nearly a second over third-place Logano. In the process, Byron and Busch remained in the top five ahead of Bowman, Larson, Preece, Haley and Wallace.

    At the Lap 50 mark and with the leaders mired in tight lapped traffic, the battle for the lead re-ignited as Gibbs used the lapped competitors of Gragson to move into the lead. Behind, Logano challenged Hamlin for the runner-up spot while Busch and Byron remained within close distance.

    Just past the Lap 60 mark, Gibbs stretched his advantage to more than two seconds over Logano while Busch, Larson and Byron moved into the top five. Meanwhile, Hamlin fell back to seventh behind Bowman while Haley, Wallace and Chase Elliott were mired in the top 10.

    Then 10 laps later, the first caution of the event flew after Todd Gilliland spun sideways into the Turn 1 outside wall as he became the first retiree of the event.

    With the event restarting on Lap 71, where Gibbs and Logano occupied the front row, Logano and Gibbs dueled for the lead through Turn 1 until Gibbs bounced off of Logano and nearly got loose, which allowed Busch to place Gibbs and Logano in a tight three-wide battle for the lead until the latter muscled ahead from the outside lane in Turn 2. Logano would retain the lead through Turns 3 and 4 over Busch while Gibbs fell back to third in front of Larson and Byron. During the following lap, Hamlin would overtake Bowman for sixth place while Wallace tried to follow suit.

    Then on Lap 74 and just as Logano was within reach of reaching the halfway segment under green flag conditions, the caution returned after John Hunter Nemechek was sent for a spin in between Turns 3 and 4 after Corey LaJoie threw a divebomb move beneath Nemechek entering Turn 3 that sent the latter into a spin.

    During a one-lap shootout to the halfway mark, Logano and Busch dueled for the lead through the first turn until Logano managed to pull ahead with the lead through Turn 2. Shortly after, Larson and Gibbs placed Busch in a tight three-wide battle for the runner-up spot through Turn 2, which resulted in Larson assuming the runner-up spot as Gibbs and Busch nearly got sideways amid light contact, which allowed Byron to join the battle while Logano retained the lead. As the field returned to the start/finish line to reach the halfway mark on Lap 75, the event was placed in a brief intermission period. By then, Logano was scored the leader followed by Larson, Gibbs, Byron and Busch while Hamlin, Wallace, Bowman, Reddick and Chastain were scored in the top 10.

    At the conclusion of the intermission period, the event restarted under green on Lap 76. At the start, Logano retained the lead over Larson, Busch and Ty Gibbs until Larson made his move on the inside lane as he challenged Logano for the top spot during the following lap. The caution, however, would return on Lap 77 after Bowman bumped Reddick into Wallace entering Turn 3 as Wallace spun his No. 23 Columbia Toyota Camry XSE in between Turns 3 and 4. Amid the incident, Elliott took his car to the Coliseum’s infield area due to a mechanical issue to his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

    When the race restarted on Lap 78, Logano and Gibbs dueled for the lead again while Reddick, who restarted in the top 10, made a bold three-wide move on the inside lane to move his No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota Camry XSE up within the top five just before entering Turn 1. Amid more bumps and side-by-side action within the field, the caution quickly returned after McDowell and Stenhouse bumped against one another and proceeded to send Chastain for a spin in Turn 1 while LaJoie slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting Chastain’s No. 1 Busch Light Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. The incident resulted in McDowell and Stenhouse rubbing fenders under a cautious pace to express their displeasure towards one another. Meanwhile, Reddick, who made the three-wide move during the restart, was assessed a restart violation and sent to the rear of the field for pulling out of line before reaching the start/finish line.

    During another Lap 78 restart, Gibbs muscled ahead of Logano and cleared the field through Turns 1 and 2. Entering Turn 3 and as Gibbs retained the lead, Larson bumped and sent Hamlin up the track and almost into the path of Byron, which enabled Larson to move into third place followed by Truex while Hamlin was left battling and bumping Busch for fifth place. Four laps later, Larson engaged in repetitive bumps into Logano’s rear bumper for the runner-up spot while Truex maintained his distance in fourth place. Amid the battles, Gibbs stretched his advantage to more than two seconds.

    By Lap 90, Gibbs was leading in his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE by more than two seconds over Logano, who was continuing to fend off Larson for the runner-up spot as Truex, Busch, Hamlin, Preece, Byron, Bowman and Blaney followed suit in a tight single-file line in the top 10.

    At the Lap 100 mark, Ty Gibbs continued to lead by more than two seconds over Logano while Larson, Truex, Busch, Hamlin, Preece, Byron, Blaney and Bowman continued to run in the top 10. Behind, Wallace occupied 11th place in front of Chastain, Bowman, Haley and Keselowski while Stenhouse, Reddick, McDowell, Nemechek, LaJoie and Gragson occupied the remaining top-21 spots on the track.

    With 35 laps remaining, Ty Gibbs retained the lead by within two seconds over Logano. By then, Busch was up in third place in his No. 8 Morgan & Morgan Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 followed by Hamlin and Truex while Blaney continued his late march to the front in sixth place. Meanwhile, Larson dropped to seventh ahead of teammate Byron, Briscoe and Wallace while Preece was down in 11th ahead of Chastain, Bowman, Haley and Keselowski.

    Down to the final 25 laps of the event and as the leaders were navigating through lapped traffic, Gibbs continued to lead despite having his advantage decreased to a second over a hard-charging Logano. Behind, Hamlin trailed in third place by two seconds while Busch and Truex followed suit in the top five. Gibbs would continue to lead Logano by more than a second with 20 laps remaining, all while trying to bump and place Chastain a lap down.

    With 14 laps remaining, Haley, who was having a steady run within the top 15, fell off the pace due to a mechanical issue to his No. 51 Walmart Ford Mustang Dark Horse. Amid the issue, he managed to coast his entry into the infield without drawing a caution. Amid Haley’s late issues, Gibbs retained the lead by a second over Logano.

    Then with 10 laps remaining, the caution flew after McDowell, who was battling Chastain for 13th place, made contact with Chastain through Turn 2, which resulted in the latter sending the former sideways as he spun his No. 34 Margaritaville at Sea Ford Mustang Dark Horse backward towards the outside wall in Turn 3.

    As the event restarted with 10 laps remaining, Gibbs and Logano briefly dueled for the lead through Turn 1 until Gibbs slipped and moved Logano up the track, which resulted with Logano getting sideways and losing his momentum as Hamlin issued his challenge for the lead beneath teammate Gibbs through Turn 2. Then in Turn 3, Hamlin moved into the lead over teammate Gibbs as Busch joined the battle and tried to shove Gibbs up the track in Turn 1 while Hamlin locked up his front tires. Hamlin, though, maintained his ground through Turn 2 over teammate Gibbs and Busch while Logano was mired back in sixth behind teammate Blaney and Larson.

    With seven laps remaining, Hamlin went wide entering Turn 1, which allowed teammate Gibbs to draw even with Hamlin entering Turn 2 until Hamlin quickly rocketed back ahead with the lead. Hamlin would continue to retain the lead by a tight margin over teammate Gibbs, Busch and Blaney with five laps remaining despite getting constantly bumped by Gibbs through the turns.

    With four laps remaining, however, Gibbs overshot Turn 1, which allowed Busch to draw even with Gibbs entering Turn 2. As Busch and Gibbs made contact entering Turn 3, Blaney tried to shove his way in between both, but Busch assumed the runner-up spot during the following lap. Blaney would follow suit into third place followed by Logano as Gibbs fell back to fifth. Then just as Hamlin was about to start the final lap of the event, the caution flew after Gibbs was bumped and sent for a spin off the front nose of Larson in Turn 3 as he plummeted below the leaderboard.

    With the field restarting under green for a two-lap shootout to conclude the event, where Hamlin and Blaney occupied the front row, Hamlin launched ahead from the inside lane as he fended off both Blaney and Busch through Turns 1 and 2. Despite locking up his tires entering Turn 3, which allowed Busch to try and get to Hamlin’s rear bumper, Hamlin maintained the top spot as he started the final lap of the event.

    During the final lap, Hamlin again locked up his front tires entering Turn 1, which nearly provided another opportunity for Busch to use the bumper. Hamlin, though, managed to pull away from the field through Turn 2. With Hamlin placing a reasonable gap between himself and Busch with the lead through Turn 3, he was able to smoothly navigate his way to the fourth turn and streak across the finish line to claim the first checkered flag of the 2024 Cup Series season.

    With the victory, Hamlin notched his fourth career victory in The Clash, which makes him the second-winningest competitor in The Clash behind Dale Earnhardt, who has six Clash victories, and his first in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. He also recorded the first NASCAR victory for the new Toyota Camry XSE Cup Series’ stock car as the nameplate racked up its eighth victory in The Clash. The 2024 Clash victory was also the fourth in five years and the 12th overall for Joe Gibbs Racing.

    “A lot of it was just what happened in front of me, with [Gibbs] and [Logano], and you just never know what was going to happen there, but I got a really good run off of Turn 2 and just got position and was able to hang on from there,” Hamlin said on FS1. “It’s so chaotic, the restarts, with everyone just bumping and banging, but it feels great to win here at [Los Angeles]. [The win]’s just a great momentum boost. It doesn’t do much more than that, but I’ve cleaned off all the trophies every January 1st into the entryway of the house and now, we get to add one pretty quick. Really happy about that.”

    Meanwhile, Kyle Busch, a two-time winner of The Clash, settled in the runner-up spot for the second time in three years while Ryan Blaney, the reigning Cup Series champion, navigated his way from the rear of the field to settle in third place. Amid the disappointment of ending up in second place in The Clash, Busch remained optimistic ahead of the 2024 season.

    “[The runner-up finish] definitely does sting,” Busch said. “I felt like the first half [of the race], we were better. [I] Had a better car than [Hamlin], but some of the adjustments we made weren’t as good, some of the adjustments they made were better. All in all, just glad to have a good night. Glad to come out of here in one piece, even with all the bumping and banging and everything else that happens. We’ll try to figure out rest of the year.”

    Logano, who led eight laps, came home in fourth place followed by Larson while Bowman, Briscoe, Brad Keselowski, Truex and Byron finished in the top 10. Notably, Ty Gibbs, who led a race-high 84 laps, ended up in 18th place, the final competitor on the lead lap.

    There were seven lead changes for four different leaders. The race featured a total of seven cautions.

    Results.

    1. Denny Hamlin, 58 laps led

    2. Kyle Busch

    3. Ryan Blaney

    4. Joey Logano, eight laps led

    5. Kyle Larson

    6. Alex Bowman

    7. Chase Briscoe

    8. Brad Keselowski, one lap led

    9. Martin Truex Jr.

    10. William Byron

    11. Ryan Preece

    12. Bubba Wallace

    13. John Hunter Nemechek

    14. Tyler Reddick

    15. Ross Chastain

    16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    17. Corey LaJoie

    18. Ty Gibs, 84 laps led

    19. Michael McDowell, one lap down

    20. Noah Gragson, three laps down

    21. Justin Haley – OUT, Engine

    22. Chase Elliott – OUT, Steering

    23. Todd Gilliland – OUT, Brakes

    The NASCAR Cup Series teams and competitors will be taking a one-week break before returning to action at Daytona International Speedway in preparation for the 66th running of the Daytona 500. Qualifying that will determine the front row for the main event will occur on February 14 and air at 8:15 p.m. ET on FS1 while the rest of the lineup will be determined through the Bluegreen Vacation Duels on February 15, beginning at 7 p.m. ET on FS1. The Daytona 500, which will officially launch NASCAR’s 76th season of competition, is scheduled to commence on February 18 with the event’s coverage to occur at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

  • Hamlin, Kyle Busch primed for milestone Clash starts

    Hamlin, Kyle Busch primed for milestone Clash starts

    With Kevin Harvick set to join the FOX Sports’ NASCAR broadcast team for the 2024 season following his retirement from full-time Cup Series competition, Denny Hamlin enters this year’s Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum weekend with the most starts in the Clash as an active Cup competitor at 18, all occurring in consecutive years.

    Hamlin and former teammate Kyle Busch, who has made 17 starts in the Clash, will also enter this weekend with potential milestone starts in the Clash set to occur. By earning a spot and competing in the main event at The Coliseum, Hamlin will tie Harvick, Ken Schrader and Rusty Wallace for having the fourth-most starts in the Clash at 19 while Busch will tie brother Kurt, Jimmie Johnson and Terry Labonte for eighth place in the Clash’s all-time starts list at 18.

    Hamlin’s debut in the Clash occurred during the 2006 season at Daytona International Speedway. By then, the Chesterfield, Virginia, native had made his first seven career starts in the Cup Series in Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 11 FedEx entry in the second half of the 2005 season, where he recorded three top-10 results and notched his first career pole position at Phoenix Raceway in November, the latter of which earned him a spot into the 2006 Clash.

    During his first Clash start, Hamlin pulled the upset by leading three times for 16 laps and fending off a bevy of Cup stars amid a two-lap shootout to win the event and become the first Rookie-of-the-Year candidate to win the Clash. The Clash victory would serve as a pivotal moment for Hamlin, who would proceed to win his first two Cup points-paying victories by sweeping both Pocono Raceway events, qualifying for the Playoffs, settling in third place in the 2006 final driver’s standings and capturing the Rookie-of-the-Year title.

    Following the 2006 season, Hamlin finished no higher than ninth place during his next three starts at The Clash as he would be involved in two final lap accidents during the three years. Then after finishing in fifth place during the 2010 Clash event, Hamlin was in a prime position to win the 2011 Clash as he pulled a slingshot move on drafting partner Ryan Newman entering the frontstretch on the final lap and came across the finish line dead even with Kurt Busch. With Hamlin overtaking Newman’s No. 39 Wix Filters Chevrolet by racing below the double yellow line boundary zone, however, he was relegated to 12th place, the final competitor scored on the lead lap, as Busch would be awarded the victory.

    Three years later, Hamlin achieved his second career Clash victory after overtaking teammate Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski amid a three-wide pass for the lead with two laps remaining before steering his No. 11 FedEx Toyota to victory in an event where he led a race-high 27 laps and where only eight of 18 starters finished the event. Another two years later, the Virginia veteran would fend off a late challenge from former teammate Joey Logano amid an overtime shootout to claim his third Clash victory after retaining the lead before a multi-car wreck on the final lap that concluded the event under caution. Ironically, Hamlin, who led a race-high 39 laps, rallied from being involved in an early incident with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. During the 2016 season, he would proceed to win the 58th running of the Daytona 500 and achieve his first Great American Race victory after edging Martin Truex Jr. across the finish line by 0.010 seconds, which stands as the closet margin of victory in a 500 event.

    Following the 2016 Clash victory, Hamlin would finish no higher than sixth three times in the next five Clash events that continued to occur at Daytona. Since the Clash’s move to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 2022, he has finished no higher than ninth, which occurred during the previous season’s event.

    Through 18 previous starts at The Clash, Hamlin has racked up a total of three victories, five top-five results, 10 top-10 results, 201 laps led and an average-finishing result of 9.89.

    Ironically, Kyle Busch’s first start in the Clash also occurred in 2006, a year after he won his first two Cup career victories, claimed his first pole position at Auto Club Speedway and achieved the 2005 Rookie-of-the-Year title. Driving the No. 5 CARQUEST Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, Busch ended up in 15th place despite leading four laps. The following season, the Las Vegas native led a race-high 39 laps and was leading with eight laps remaining until he was shoved out of both the lead and draft by Tony Stewart. Stewart would proceed to win while Busch, who dodged a final lap wreck, managed to finish seventh.

    After not being eligible to compete in the 2008 Clash due to not securing a pole position in 2007, Busch returned to the featured event in 2009. By then, he was campaigning in his second season piloting the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing and was coming off a season where he had notched 10 victories and finished in 10th place in the final standings. Ultimately, Busch would finish in 10th place after being involved in a final lap wreck and would finish fourth and 16th, respectively, during his next two Clash starts (2010-11).

    Then during the 2012 Clash, Busch achieved the impossible by rallying from two near spins amid a shower of sparks to draft Stewart to the lead on the final lap and pull a successful slingshot move on Stewart to win his first career Clash event by 0.013 seconds. By then, Busch recorded the fifth Clash career victory for Joe Gibbs Racing and the first for the Toyota nameplate. As noted earlier, Busch’s victory occurred after he slipped sideways twice on different occasions, but managed to straighten his car amid a shower of sparks to finish and ultimately, win the race.

    The first incident occurred with 28 laps remaining after Busch, who was carving his way to the front, attempted to turn left and move his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota in front of Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet amid the draft in Turn 1 when he made contact with Johnson and veered sideways twice through the superspeedway’s banked apron before managing to proceed without completely spinning sideways as the field scattered to avoid him. Then with two laps remaining, Busch was running in the runner-up spot behind Stewart and had Jeff Gordon drafting him through Turns 3 and 4 when Busch veered sideways off of Gordon’s No. 24 Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet and triggered a multi-car wreck.

    As a result, Gordon was turned across the outside wall and sent on his side before he slid across the track and barrel-rolled three times entering the frontstretch before coming to rest on his roof. Amid the carnage, Busch veered sideways three times across the apron in a shower of sparks before he fully spun below the track entering the frontstretch and managed to keep his car intact before he proceeded and eventually navigated his way to victory.

    During his next eight starts in the Clash, Busch notched two top-three results and four top-10 finishes in the Clash, with his best result being a runner-up result in 2017 after edging Alex Bowman and Danica Patrick in a three-wide photo finish. Then in 2021, when the Clash occurred on the Daytona road-course layout for the first time, Busch capitalized on a final lap incident involving Ryan Blaney and reigning Cup Series champion Chase Elliott to storm to his second Clash career victory.

    Busch’s 2021 Clash victory would serve as the final time where the exhibition event occurred at Daytona International Speedway. For the previous two seasons, where the Clash occurred at The Coliseum, Busch has finished in the top three during both events. He finished in the runner-up spot behind Logano despite leading a race-high 64 laps and ended up in third place during the 2023 Clash in his first event driving the No. 8 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing.

    Through 18 previous starts at The Clash, Busch has achieved two victories, seven top-five results, 12 top-10 results, 131 laps led and an average-finishing result of 7.71.

    Photo by David Myers for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    Currently, Hamlin and Kyle Busch are the top two active Cup Series competitors with the most starts in the Clash at 18 and 17, respectively, followed by Joey Logano (15), Martin Truex Jr. (12), Austin Dillon and Brad Keselowski (nine) and Kyle Larson (eight), as they attempt to race their way into the main event to extend their current starts streak in The Clash and contend for more victories.

    Hamlin’s three Clash victories place him in a four-way tie with Dale Jarrett, Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick for the second-most wins in The Clash while Dale Earnhardt holds the record for most Clash wins at six. Meanwhile, Busch is tied with Neil Bonnett, Ken Schrader, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Joey Logano for the third-most Clash victories at two.

    The starting lineup for the 2024 Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will be determined through four Heat Race qualifying events that will set the majority of the grid and occur on Saturday, February 3, beginning at 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1 followed by a 75-lap Last Chance Qualifying Race that will occur on Sunday, February 4, at 6:30 p.m. on FOX. Afterward, 23 competitors from a field of 40 will make the main event, The Clash, which will occur on Sunday and air at 8 p.m. ET on FOX.

  • Ryan Blaney crowned first NASCAR Cup Series championship; Ross Chastain wins finale at Phoenix

    Ryan Blaney crowned first NASCAR Cup Series championship; Ross Chastain wins finale at Phoenix

    As Ross Chastain concluded the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season on a strong note by winning the season-finale NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, November 5, Ryan Blaney captured the main spotlight by winning his first NASCAR Cup Series championship with a runner-up finish and by outdueling title rivals Kyle Larson, William Byron and Christopher Bell on the track.

    The 29-year-old, third-generation Blaney, who was born in Hartford, Ohio, but grew up in High Point, North Carolina, led two of 312-scheduled laps in a finale where he started the deepest of the four championship finalists in 15th place, but used the long runs to his advantage as he methodically carved his way through the field and found himself mixed within the battle for the title against Byron, Larson and Bell. With Bell falling out of contention amid an early incident and Blaney left to battle against two Hendrick Motorsports competitors for the title for the remainder of the finale, Blaney continued to persevere against the competition, even against a multitude of non-title contenders vying for the finale victory.

    Despite being overtaken by both Larson and Byron during the final pit stop during a caution period with less than 40 laps remaining, Blaney, who restarted inside the top 10 during the final restart with 31 laps remaining, drove his way back to the front and overtook Larson for both the runner-up spot and the lead in the championship battle with 20 laps remaining. From there, Blaney managed to pull away and remain ahead of Larson by more than a second for the remaining scheduled laps as he crossed the finish line in the runner-up spot behind race winner Chastain and captured his first championship in his eighth full-time season in NASCAR’s premier series.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, November 4, title contender William Byron notched his fourth Cup pole position of the 2023 season and the 12th of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 132.597 mph in 27.150 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Martin Truex Jr., who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 132.509 mph in 27.168 seconds. Byron’s title rivals, which included teammate Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney qualified fourth, 13th and 15th, respectively.

    Before the event, Brad Keselowski dropped to the rear of the field after being absent during Saturday’s qualifying session due to his wife going into labor, which resulted in this year’s Xfinity Series champion Cole Custer qualifying Keselowski’s No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing entry.

    When the green flag waved and the finale commenced, William Byron rocketed ahead with the lead over Martin Truex Jr. as the field fanned out through the frontstretch’s dogleg and the first two turns. With the field still fanning out through the backstretch, Byron proceeded to lead the first lap while Kevin Harvick challenged Truex for the runner-up spot followed by a hard-charging Kyle Larson.

    Then as Larson used the dogleg in an attempt to overtake both Harvick and Truex for the runner-up spot during the following lap, Harvick and Larson continued to battle for the runner-up spot through the first two turns while Bubba Wallace battled and overtook Truex for fourth place. As Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney tried to muscle their way into the top 10, Byron retained the lead by a steady margin over Harvick and teammate Larson through the fifth lap.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, title contender Byron was leading by more than a second over Harvick followed by teammate/title contender Larson, Wallace and Denny Hamlin as Truex, Ross Chastain, Erik Jones, Tyler Reddick and rookie Ty Gibbs were in the top 10. Behind, Ryan Preece and Chris Buescher were running in 11th and 12th followed by title contenders Bell and Blaney while Kyle Busch occupied 15th place in front of Daniel Suarez, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Michael McDowell and Austin Dillon. Meanwhile, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was in 21st ahead of Alex Bowman, Aric Almirola, Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland while Brad Keselowski, Chase Briscoe, Carson Hocevar, Austin Cindric and AJ Allmendinger were mired in the top 30 ahead of Justin Haley, Corey LaJoie, Ty Dillon, JJ Yeley, BJ McLeod and Ryan Newman.

    Ten laps later, Byron stabilized his advantage to a second over Harvick while third-place Larson trailed by more than three seconds. As Wallace and Truex continued to run in the top five on the track, title contenders Bell and Blaney were still mired back in 13th and 14th, respectively. Byron would continue to lead by more than a second over runner-up Harvick and by more than three seconds over teammate Larson by Lap 30 while Bell and Blaney were mired back in 11th and 14th, respectively.

    At the Lap 40 mark, Byron retained the lead by more than a second over Harvick. Behind, Wallace overtook Larson for third place followed by Chastain, Truex, Buescher, Erik Jones and Hamlin. Meanwhile, Bell cracked the top 10 as he was up to 10th place while Blaney battled Tyler Reddick for 11th place.

    By Lap 50, Byron’s advantage decreased to six-tenths of a second over runner-up Harvick, who started to gain ground on the former’s lead and used the inside lane through the turn to gain even more ground amid lapped traffic, while third-place Wallace trailed by a second. Behind, Larson was back in fifth after being overtaken by Chastain, Bell was running ninth behind Erik Jones and Blaney was battling Hamlin for 10th.

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 60, title contender Byron fended off a late charge from Harvick to claim his ninth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season and to strike first in his bid for his first Cup title. Harvick settled in second place after following Byron by four-tenths of a second followed by Chastain, Wallace and Larson while Buescher, Truex, Erik Jones, Bell and Blaney were scored in the top 10 on the track. By then, all four championship finalists that included Byron, Larson, Bell and Blaney were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Byron pitted for the first service of the afternoon. Following the pit stops, Byron retained the lead after exiting pit road first from the first pit stall ahead of Harvick and Chastain while Larson, Buescher, Wallace, Truex, Blaney, Bell and Hamlin followed suit. Amid the pit stops, Kyle Busch and BJ McLeod were sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.

    The second stage period started on Lap 68 as Byron and Harvick occupied the front row. At the start, Byron retained the lead from Harvick and Chastain as the field fanned out through the frontstretch’s dogleg before navigating their way through the first two turns and the backstretch. With Byron maintaining the lead through the frontstretch, Harvick and Chastain battled for the runner-up spot ahead of Larson and Wallace while Blaney moved up to sixth as Bell battled Buescher for seventh. Blaney would proceed to overtake Wallace for fifth place as Bell followed suit in sixth, leaving both to gain ground on Larson for fourth place. Meanwhile, Byron retained the lead in both the race and the championship battle by seven-tenths of a second over Harvick at the Lap 75 mark.

    Just past the Lap 80 mark, Byron extended his advantage to more than a second over Harvick followed by third-place Chastain, who trailed by two seconds. Behind, title contenders Larson, Blaney and Bell occupied fourth through sixth on the track while Wallace, Buescher, Truex and Hamlin were running in the top 10 ahead of Erik Jones, Daniel Suarez, Chase Briscoe, Reddick, and Ryan Preece. Byron would retain the lead by six-tenths of a second over Harvick and by a second-and-a-half over third-place Chastain by Lap 90 while Larson, Bell and Blaney retained fourth through sixth, respectively.

    Then on Lap 93, Harvick used the outside lane through the first two turns and entering the backstretch to rocket past Byron and move his No. 4 Busch Light Harvick Ford Mustang into the lead. Harvick would proceed to stretch his advantage by more than half a second over Byron while third-place Chastain tried to close in on Byron for the runner-up spot.

    At the Lap 100 mark, Harvick was leading by more than a second over Chastain followed by Byron, who now trailed the lead by one-and-a-half seconds but continued to lead the championship battle. Behind, however, Blaney moved up to fourth place and started to close in on Byron for the championship lead while Bell and Larson occupied fifth and seventh, respectively, on the track. With Buescher running sixth, Truex, Wallace and Erik Jones were in the top 10 while Hamlin, Suarez, Briscoe, Reddick and Keselowski followed suit in the top 15.

    Five laps later, Blaney drew himself into a side-by-side battle with Byron for third place on the track, but for the lead in the championship battle. After spending the next two laps battling Byron for the spot, Blaney managed to muscle his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang past Byron’s No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through Turns 3 and 4 assuming both third place on the track and the lead in the championship battle. By then, title contenders Bell and Larson trailed in sixth and seventh, respectively, while Harvick continued to lead the race over Chastain.

    Shortly after, the caution flew after Bell, who was running in sixth place and had radioed braking concerns a few laps earlier, went dead straight toward the outside wall in Turns 3 and 4 after his brake rotor exploded as he scraped and heavily damaged the right side of his No. 20 DeWalt/Rheem Toyota TRD Camry. The incident all but evaporated Bell’s hopes of winning this year’s Cup Series championship as he retired from the race in 36th place, dead last.

    Photo by David Myers for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “That was my first time I’ve ever exploded a rotor in my career,” Bell, who ended in fourth place in the final championship standings, said in the infield care center on NBC. “I was surprised. Just obviously a disappointing way to end, but super, super proud of this No. 20 team, all of our partners DeWalt, Rheem. To be in the Final Four, it’s something that we’re really proud of. It stinks to not have the shot at the end of it. Obviously, we were all four [title contenders] really close and we all four showed strengths at different times, so I think it’s gonna be a great championship race. Whoever’s [the championship] is his is gonna be well-deserving.”

    During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Harvick pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Harvick retained the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Chastain, Byron, Buescher, Larson, Truex and Blaney.

    With the race restarting under green on Lap 116, the field fanned out through the frontstretch’s dogleg as Harvick maintained the lead over Chastain and Byron. Through the first two turns and the backstretch, Buescher would move into third place and Chastain would move into the lead over Harvick while Byron was in fourth ahead of Truex, Larson, Erik Jones and Blaney. As the field navigated through the frontstretch, contact was made between teammates Briscoe and Preece as Preece slipped up the track. With the field still fanned out to four lanes through the dogleg, Chastain maintained the race lead over Harvick and Buescher while Byron, who was in fourth, retained the lead in the title battle over teammate Larson and Blaney.

    Just past the Lap 125 mark, Chastain was leading by half a second over Harvick followed by third-place Buescher, who trailed by more than a second, while Byron retained the lead in the championship battle in fourth place. Behind, Truex occupied fifth place ahead of title contenders Larson and Blaney while Wallace, Erik Jones and Hamlin were scored in the top 10 ahead of Suarez, Keselowski, Carson Hocevar, Kyle Busch, Logano and Reddick.

    Fifteen laps later, Chastain continued to lead by nearly eight-tenths of a second over Harvick followed by Buescher and Truex while Byron, who continued to lead the championship battle, fell back to fifth place in front of title rivals Larson and Blaney. Meanwhile, Austin Cindric, who got into the wall earlier, was on pit road and mired multiple laps down in 35th place.

    At the halfway mark on Lap 156, Chastain was leading by nine-tenths of a second over Buescher followed by Harvick and Truex while Byron maintained the lead in the championship battle while running fifth place on the track ahead of Blaney and Larson. Meanwhile, Wallace, Erik Jones and Keselowski occupied the remaining spots in the top 10 on the track while Suarez, Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Hocevar, Logano, McDowell, Bowman, Ty Gibbs, Aric Almirola and Austin Dillon were running in the top 20 ahead of Reddick, Chase Elliott, Preece, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Briscoe.

    Fourteen laps later, Chastain’s advantage decreased to two-tenths of a second over Buescher, who started to gain ground on the former for the top spot, while third-place Harvick trailed by three seconds. As Truex retained fourth place, Byron continued to lead the title battle and retain fifth place in front of Blaney and Larson. A lap later, Buescher muscled his No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang past Chastain’s No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the frontstretch to assume the lead for the first time. Buescher would stretch his advantage to half a second over Chastain by Lap 175 while Harvick, Truex, Byron, Blaney and Larson followed suit in the top seven.

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 185, Buescher, who was eliminated from the Playoffs following the Round of 8 finale last weekend, captured his second Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Chastain and Harvick settled in second and third followed by title contender Byron while Truex, Blaney, Larson, Wallace, Keselowski and Erik Jones were scored in the top 10.

    During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Buescher pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Chastain reassumed the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Byron, Truex, Larson, Blaney, Harvick, Keselowski and Buescher.

    With 119 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Chastain and Byron occupied the front row. At the start and with the field fanning out through the frontstretch’s dogleg, Chastain maintained the lead while Byron and Truex battled for the runner-up spot. As the field navigated back to the frontstretch, Byron fended off Truex to retain the runner-up spot on the track and the lead in the championship standings over Blaney and Larson, both of whom were running fourth and fifth, while Chastin continued to lead the race. Meanwhile, Harvick slipped to sixth as he was running in front of Wallace, Keselowski, Buescher and Hamlin.

    With 100 laps remaining, Chastain was leading the race by more than a second over Blaney, who overtook Byron two laps earlier to assume the lead in the championship battle. With Byron following pursuit of Blaney in third place, Truex slipped to fourth place on the track while Larson occupied fifth place ahead of Harvick, Wallace, Buescher, Keselowski and Hamlin.

    Twenty laps later, Chastain retained the lead by less than three-tenths of a second over Blaney, who started to close in on Chastain for the race lead and continued to lead the championship battle, while Truex was up to third place. Meanwhile, title contender Byron trailed in fourth place on the track and by more than four seconds followed by teammate/title contender Larson while Buescher, Harvick, Wallace, Keselowski and Hamlin occupied the top 10. Chastain would stabilize his advantage to three-tenths of a second over Blaney with 75 laps remaining while Byron and Larson continued to run fourth and fifth, respectively, behind Truex.

    Then with 73 laps remaining, green flag pit stops commenced as title contenders Byron and Larson pitted from the top five. The leader Chastain and Blaney would pit during the following lap along with Buescher, Harvick, Wallace, Keselowski, Bowman, Kyle Busch, Logano, Suarez, Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon, Reddick, Truex, Aric Almirola, Erik Jones, Hocevar, Michael McDowell, Chase Elliott, Justin Haley, Preece and others. Amid the green flag pit stops, Hamlin, who has yet to pit, was leading followed by Briscoe and Stenhouse while Chastain and Blaney, the first two competitors who pitted, followed suit in fourth and fifth.

    Hamlin would then surrender the lead to pit his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry under green with 61 laps remaining as Briscoe assumed the lead. Two laps later, however, Chastain rocketed past Briscoe to reassume the lead followed by a hard-charging Blaney, who retained the lead in the championship battle. By then, title contenders Larson and Byron were mired back in fifth and sixth on the track while Truex moved up to third place on the track before Briscoe pitted his No. 14 Mahindra Tractor Ford Mustang under green.

    With 55 laps remaining, the battle for the race lead intensified as Blaney attempted to make a move beneath Chastain entering the backstretch. With Chastain still running on the outside lane, Blaney drag-raced Chastain entering the frontstretch and led the following lap by a hair before Chastain fought back on the outside lane. Chastain then used the lapped competitor of Ryan Newman to muscle ahead through the backstretch, but Blaney fought back on the inside lane.

    Then with 53 laps remaining, Blaney gave Chastain a bump in the rear bumper, which allowed Truex to join the battle entering the backstretch. Amid the battles, Blaney and Chastain continued to duel for the lead through the frontstretch and the first two turns until Blaney muscled ahead with the lead on the inside lane. Chastain, however, pulled a crossover move on Blaney through the backstretch as both dueled for the lead through the frontstretch and in front of Truex. Chastain would then reassume the lead and pull away from Blaney through the backstretch entering the backstretch as Truex made his move beneath Blaney, who got loose, to assume the runner-up spot in his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota TRD Camry. Despite losing ground of the race lead, Blaney, who fell back to third, retained the lead in the championship fight as he was ahead of title rival Larson by more than two seconds and with Byron running in fifth place with 50 laps remaining.

    With 44 laps remaining, the battle for the lead between Chastain and Truex ignited as Truex made his move beneath Chastain for the lead through the frontstretch as Chastain was getting mired in lapped traffic. With both competitors dueling for the lead through the backstretch, Chastain used the outside lane to retain the lead as Blaney closed back in on the two leaders. Blaney then made his move beneath Truex entering Turns 3 and 4 to overtake the runner-up spot over Truex with 43 laps remaining before proceeding to regain ground on Chastain for the race lead.

    Then with 37 laps remaining and just as Blaney attempted to take the lead from Chastain, the caution flew after Kyle Busch spun his No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Turn 4. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Chastain and Blaney pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin and Erik Jones exited pit road first and second, respectively, after both opted for two-tire pit stops while title contender Larson exited in third place and as the first competitor with four fresh tires followed by Chastain, Byron, Blaney and Truex.

    Down to the final 31 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start and with the field fanning out through the frontstretch’s dogleg, Hamlin muscled ahead with the lead before Larson and Chastain attempted to pin Hamlin in a three-wide move for the lead through the first two turns. With all three leaders remaining in three-wide formation through the backstretch, Chastain used the outside lane to muscle ahead with the lead before Larson and Hamlin fought back in three-wide formation through the frontstretch.

    Then as Larson tried to muscle ahead from the inside lane with 30 laps remaining, he got loose entering Turns 1 and 2, which allowed title rivals Blaney and Byron to join the battle. As Chastain and Larson dueled for the lead through the backstretch, Chastain muscled ahead to control the race lead. Larson settled in the runner-up spot as Byron, Blaney and Hamlin battled for third place. As Chastain retained the race lead by a second with 25 laps remaining, the battle for the championship ignited as Larson, who was running second, had Blaney close in on his rear bumper while Byron trailed both by a second in fourth place.

    Then with 22 laps remaining, the battle for this year’s championship ignited as Blaney closed in on Larson’s rear bumper. Then as Larson got loose and nearly wrecked in the frontstretch during the following lap, Blaney moved to the outside lane and made his bid to overtake Larson through the first two turns. With both Larson and Blaney dueling against one another through the backstretch, Blaney then gassed his No. 12 Ford ahead of Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to the outside lane and to claim both the runner-up spot on the track and the lead in the championship battle with 20 laps remaining. Blaney would then move in front of Larson through the frontstretch and muscle ahead with a slight advantage through the backstretch. With Larson trying to use the outside lane to regain ground, Blaney, however, maintained his ground and remained in front of Larson during the following lap.

    With less than 15 laps remaining, Chastain continued to lead the race by two seconds over Blaney, who remained a half a second ahead of Larson in his bid to win the title, while Byron, who was in fourth, trailed his two title rivals by two seconds followed by Buescher, Truex, Harvick and Hamlin. Blaney would retain the runner-up spot on the track and the lead in the championship battle by eight-tenths of a second over Larson with 10 laps remaining while Chastain retained the race lead by nearly two seconds.

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Chastain stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Blaney, who continued to lead the title battle by more than a second over third-place Larson as fourth-place Byron trailed Blaney by nearly four seconds.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Chastain remained as the race leader by more than a second over Blaney, who remained as the championship leader by nearly two seconds over Larson and by four seconds over Byron. Following one final circuit around the Phoenix circuit, Chastain was able to cross the finish line in first place to claim the victory in the finale while Blaney was able to follow suit in the runner-up spot and win the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series championship.

    With the championship, Blaney became the 36th different competitor to win a NASCAR Cup Series championship and the third to do so while driving for Team Penske, which achieved its fourth Cup career title. Blaney, who became the eighth different competitor to win a Cup title since the inception of the current Playoff-elimination format in 2014, also recorded the second consecutive Cup driver’s title in recent years for Ford as the Ford nameplate achieved a sweep in driver’s titles across NASCAR’s top three national touring series (Ben Rhodes won the Craftsman Truck Series title and Cole Custer won the Xfinity Series title). The championship was also the first for crew chief Jonathan Hassler and Penske’s No. 12 entry.

    Overall, Blaney, who achieved his first Cup title in his eighth full-time season in NASCAR’s premier series, capped off the 2023 season with three victories (Charlotte Motor Speedway in May and Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway in October), which tallied his wins total to 10. He also earned six stage victories, eight top-five results, 18 top-10 results, 562 laps led and an average-finishing result of 14.1.

    Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “It was just time to go to work [on the final restart],” Blaney said on NBC. “We did a good job of getting where we needed to be and [Larson and Byron] had two good pit stops, so just needed to go to work. [I was] Hoping our car was good enough, which it was. Just so proud of this team. What an unbelievable year. What an unbelievable Playoffs for us. To win back-to-back Cup titles for Mr. [Roger] Penske, that’s so special, and to have my family here on my first Cup title. I got emotional in the car. I’m not a very emotional guy, but so cool. Thank you, [fans], for coming. I hope it was an awesome show. Can’t wait to celebrate with my guys.”

    “[I was praying] No yellow,” Blaney added. “[I] Didn’t want a caution and knew once I got to the white [flag], I felt pretty good about us just getting there and finishing it off. I just didn’t want a yellow and luckily, everyone kept it straight. We were going good. I wanna shout out also to Kyle [Larson] and William [Byron]. That was fun racing those guys all day, and [Christopher] Bell. Racing those two guys at the end there, racing clean. That’s what racing’s all about. That was a lot of fun. I think in the summer, we were struggling a little bit, but we never gave up. We just went to work and I’ve said that all week. This group goes to work and they figure out problems. That’s why they’re such an amazing group to be with the Team Penske folks because they just put their heads down and do the work and accept the challenge. It was a lot of hard work by a lot of amazing men and women over at our race shop and I can’t thank them enough for that. They deserve this [championship] just as much as the guys who travel here as much as me. They’re just a big part of it.”

    Upon receiving the championship trophy on the championship stage, Blaney echoed his praise towards his crew chief, team owner Roger and his team for the hard work and perseverance towards achieving this year’s Cup title while paying homage to his family’s deep background of racing that includes his grandfather, Lou, and father, Dave.

    “I think we did an amazing job on [never giving up],” Blaney said. “It was somewhat of an up and down year, but you’re gonna have those moments and through the summer we just worked really hard to get back to where we needed to be and set a deadline for the playoffs and we met that deadline. I’m just super proud of the effort by everybody at Team Penske who put in tons and tons of hours of hard work and nobody really got down. They just put their heads down and decided to really put in a lot of work and it showed up, especially these playoffs and especially the last five weeks. It’s so cool to have all of their hard work pay off, so they should be proud. Obviously, I come from a family of racers – my grandfather and dad and uncle. Dad is obviously who I grew up watching and admiring and wanted to be like, so to be able to do what he did because as a kid I just wanted to do what dad did, so to be able to race and let alone compete for wins and championships and still have my parents around and people that you look up to that are still around it makes it even more special.”

    “It’s, obviously, a great place to be here today,” Roger Penske, team owner of Penske Racing, added. “The job that Blaney did racing clean with [Larson, Byron and Bell] was a pleasure to be in this race. To race my best friend, [owner] Rick Hendrick and Joe Gibbs, what a team. You can’t beat this. That’s why we do this every day. At the end of the day, [Blaney]’s a champion. That’s what counts.”

    “It’s incredible,” Jonathan Hassler, Blaney’s crew chief, added. “It’s just a huge testament to the whole organization and this No. 12 team, working hard day in and day out and never being afraid to be a little bit better.”

    “Yes, I believe it,” Dave Blaney, Ryan Blaney’s father and former NASCAR competitor, added. “A huge day. I don’t even know how to describe it. I thought [Ryan Blaney] was gonna win it five times and lost it five times. He just kept getting after it and did it. Proud of him and everybody on the team. He’s so talented. It’s just building confidence and if this doesn’t do it, I don’t know what will. I’ve seen it for a long time. Great kid. I’ve seen a lot of races, but this was the coolest one.”

    As Blaney celebrated his first Cup Series title, Larson and Byron, both of whom finished third and fourth, respectively, on the track, were left disappointed on pit road after both fell short of winning their second and first title, respectively, while representing Hendrick Motorsports in the finale. For Larson, the 2021 champion who ended up in the runner-up spot in the final standings for the first time in his career, he concluded this season with four victories, eight stage victories, two poles, 15 top-five results, 18 top-10 results, 1,127 laps led and an average-finishing result of 14.6.

    Photo by David Myers for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “[Blaney]’s car was really fast, really the last few months, and especially today,” Larson, who applauded the competitive and clean racing with Blaney and who commended the fast pit services from his pit crew, said. “Our pit crew and pit road just really kept us in the game. We weren’t the greatest on the track, but I was just hoping for pit stops because I knew the way our team executed our lights and the way our pit crew can execute a fast pit stop, I knew it was gonna be our only shot to win. They did everything in their power to give us the winning job there, so huge thank you to them. I needed to come out [as] the leader on that restart. I’m not sure if it would’ve made a difference. I was just not as good as a few guys, especially Blaney and Ross [Chastain], probably. It would’ve been difficult, but my team did a really good job all season, so I’m extremely proud of them. We had an up-and-down year and we finally put together two solid weeks in a row. We’ll come back next year and try to be stronger. A lot of fun there. Congrats to Ryan. He’s a deserving champion. Him and his team have done an amazing job. It’s been fun to kind of come up through the ranks with him and now, you see him be a champion. Congrats to Team Penske and their whole team. We’ll try and beat them next year.”

    For Byron, who led 95 laps, won the first stage, and achieved a career-best third place in the final standings, he concluded the 2023 season with a career-high six victories, a season-high nine stage victories, four poles, 15 top-five results, 21 top-10 results, 1,016 laps led and an average-finishing result of 11.0.

    Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “Once the track rubbered out, we got really tight,” Byron said. “Especially when we lost the lead on track, we just had a big balance shift and got tight back in second through fifth and just couldn’t gain a lot of speed through [Turns] 1 and 2 and just kind of having to really over-slow the car and get it to the bottom [lane]. That’s all we had there. Just really proud of our AXALTA team. Just a great season. It stinks to come up short, but I’d like to think we’re gonna be back in this position and we’re gonna have more shots at it. Just gotta keep working, gotta keep working on the short track program for us. It was definitely the tough part of our season, but I felt like we brought a good car this weekend and really until the track kind of changed, I thought we were in the game. All we had there. We’ve had a great season. Lots to be proud of and we’re gonna keep digging hard, so this was a great season for us.”

    Amid Blaney’s championship celebration, Ross Chastain celebrated in Victory Lane for the first time at Phoenix and for the second time in the 2023 Cup Serie season after leading a race-high 157 of 312 laps. Chastain’s fourth career victory in NASCAR’s premier series and the sixth overall for Trackhouse Racing was enough for the 30-year-old native from Alva, Florida, to conclude this season in ninth place in the final standings as he became the first competitor not vying for the title to win the finale since Denny Hamlin won the 2013 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

    Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “We did something else that’s never been done before, for everybody on this Worldwide Express team,” Chastain said in Victory Lane. “This vision for Trackhouse [Racing] and what this was was goals like this and they were lofty. I couldn’t think of anything I would want to do more as to try to be like Kevin Harvick and race with him early in the race was bucket list, little kid in me, racing that 2005 GameCube game. I am beside myself that we were able to do that. That last caution, we were really tight and it saved us. [Crew chief] Phil Surgen and this group at Trackhouse, all our GM support staff, SIM staff and everybody at Trackhouse, somehow, came up with a way to make this thing turn and we drove off into the sunset.”

    On the track, Chris Buescher finished in fifth place while Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Michael McDowell and Bubba Wallace completed the top 10.

    Notably, Harvick finished seventh in his 826th and final career start in the Cup Series while teammate Aric Almirola finished 13th in his 460th and final full-time event as a Cup competitor. In addition, Ty Gibbs, the 2023 Cup Series Rookie of the Year, finished 21st in front of Reddick, Carson Hocevar finished 19th in his final event with Legacy Motor Club, Ty Dillon finished 28th in his final event with Spire Motorsports and Justin Haley finished 29th in his final event with Kaulig Racing. Denny Hamlin, who finished eighth, claimed fifth place in the final standings while Chase Elliott, who finished 16th, settled in 17th place in the standings over Ty Gibbs, Daniel Suarez and teammate Alex Bowman.

    There were 18 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 27 laps. In addition, 24 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Results.

    1. Ross Chastain, 157 laps led

    2. Ryan Blaney, two laps led

    3. Kyle Larson

    4. William Byron, 95 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    5. Chris Buescher, 18 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    6. Martin Truex Jr., one lap led

    7. Kevin Harvick, 23 laps led

    8. Denny Hamlin, 14 laps led

    9. Michael McDowell

    10. Bubba Wallace

    11. Daniel Suarez

    12. Austin Dillon

    13. Aric Almirola

    14. Ryan Preece

    15. Brad Keselowski

    16. Chase Elliott

    17. Alex Bowman

    18. Joey Logano

    19. Carson Hocevar

    20. Erik Jones

    21. Ty Gibbs

    22. Tyler Reddick

    23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    24. Chase Briscoe, two laps led

    25. Kyle Busch, one lap down

    26. Harrison Burton, one lap down

    27. JJ Yeley, one lap down

    28. Ty Dillon, two laps down

    29. Justin Haley, two laps down

    30. Todd Gilliland, three laps down

    31. Corey LaJoie, four laps down

    32. AJ Allmendinger, four laps down

    33. BJ McLeod, six laps down

    34. Ryan Newman, seven laps down

    35. Austin Cindric, 11 laps down

    36. Christopher Bell – OUT, Accident

    *Bold indicates championship finalists

    Final standings

    1. Ryan Blaney

    2. Kyle Larson

    3. William Byron

    4. Christopher Bell

    5. Denny Hamlin

    6. Tyler Reddick

    7. Chris Buescher

    8. Brad Keselowski

    9. Ross Chastain

    10. Bubba Wallace

    11. Martin Truex Jr.

    12. Joey Logano

    13. Kevin Harvick

    14. Kyle Busch

    15. Michael McDowell

    16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    The NASCAR Cup Series teams and competitors enter an off-season period before returning to action at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the Busch Light Clash on February 4, 2024, that will air at 8 p.m. ET on FOX. This event will be followed by the 66th annual running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, which will occur on February 18, 2024, at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX and officially commence Cup Series’ 76th season of competition.

  • Blaney achieves first Championship 4 berth with dominant Cup victory at Martinsville; Byron rounds out Championship 4 field

    Blaney achieves first Championship 4 berth with dominant Cup victory at Martinsville; Byron rounds out Championship 4 field

    For the first time in his career, Ryan Blaney earned a spot into the Championship 4 round after capping off a dominant performance by winning the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, October 29.

    The third-generation racer from High Point, North Carolina, led four times for 145 of 500 scheduled laps in an event where he started 11th and methodically worked his way to the front in the early stages. After finishing in the runner-up spot behind Playoff rival Denny Hamlin during the first stage’s conclusion, Blaney made his presence at the front known as he led for the first time on Lap 194. After swapping and bumping with Hamlin for the lead on several occasions, Blaney took care of business by winning the second stage period and claiming more valuable stage points.

    Then after pitting during a late caution period with less than 178 laps remaining, Blaney, who restarted outside the top 10 with 168 laps remaining, spent the remainder of the event carving his way back to the front. After reassuming the lead from Aric Almirola with 22 laps remaining, Blaney was able to navigate his way through lapped traffic and beat Almirola by nearly nine-tenths of a second to grab his third checkered flag of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season and clinch a Championship 4 berth, where he will be one of four competitors who will contend for this year’s championship in next weekend’s season-finale event at Phoenix Raceway.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, October 28, Playoff contender Martin Truex Jr. notched his third Cup pole position of the 2023 season and the 23rd of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 94.153 mph in 20.112 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate and rookie Ty Gibbs, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 94.115 mph in 20.120 seconds.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Truex launched his No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota TRD Camry ahead from the outside lane as he jumped to an early lead through Turns 1 and 2 while teammate and Playoff rival Denny Hamlin battled Ty Gibbs for the runner-up spot. Amid the early battles ensuing behind, Truex proceeded to lead the first lap as Hamlin and Gibbs continued to battle for the runner-up spot in front of Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace.

    By the third lap, Hamlin managed to move his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry in front of Ty Gibbs’ No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry and assume the runner-up spot to his sole possession. Behind, Playoff contender Kyle Larson cracked the top five as he moved into fifth place followed by Kevin Harvick while Truex stretched his advantage to more than a second by the fifth lap mark.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Truex was leading by a second over teammate Hamlin followed by teammate Ty Gibbs, Briscoe and Larson while Harvick, Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney and Ryan Preece were running in the top 10. Behind, Playoff contender William Byron was in 13th while Playoff contenders Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher were mired in 18th and 19th, respectively.

    Fifteen laps later, Truex stabilized his advantage to nearly a second over teammate Hamlin while teammate Ty Gibbs retained third in front of Briscoe and Harvick. Behind, Playoff contenders Bell, Larson and Blaney trailed in sixth through eighth while Preece and Wallace occupied the remaining top-10 spots. Behind, Chase Elliott was in 11th ahead of Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Byron and Aric Almirola while Ross Chastain, Todd Gilliland, Reddick, Buescher and Austin Cindric were scored in the top 20 in front of Michael McDowell, Harrison Burton, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Alex Bowman and Austin Dillon.

    Another 15 laps later, Truex, mired within lapped traffic, was leading by half a second over teammate Hamlin while third-place and teammate Ty Gibbs trailed by more than a second. With Briscoe and Harvick continuing to run in the top five, Playoff contenders Bell, Larson and Blaney remained in sixth through eighth while Byron was mired back in 14th. In addition, Reddick and Buescher continued to run 18th and 19th, respectively.

    At the Lap 50 mark, Hamlin, who overtook Truex for the race lead two laps earlier, was leading by two-tenths of a second over teammate Truex. Behind, Ty Gibbs retained third place ahead of Briscoe and Harvick while Bell, Blaney, Larson, Preece and Wallace continued to run in the top 10. By then, Byron, Reddick and Buescher retained 14th, 18th and 19th, respectively, while Elliott, Keselowski and Logano were running 11th through 13th. In addition, the following names that included Almirola, Chastain, Gilliland and Cindric continued to run within the top 20.

    Twenty-five laps later, Hamlin continued to lead by half a second over teammate Truex and by eight-tenths of a second over teammate Ty Gibbs while Briscoe and Harvick remained in the top five. With Playoff contenders Bell, Blaney and Larson continued to run sixth through eighth, Playoff contenders Byron, Reddick and Buescher retained 14th, 18th and 19th, respectively while Preece and Wallace continued to run in the top 10 on the track.

    At the Lap 100 mark, Hamlin extended his advantage to more than a second over teammate Truex as teammate Ty Gibbs, Briscoe and Harvick remained in the top five. Behind, Playoff contenders Blaney, Bell and Larson along with Preece and Wallace continued to run in the top 10 as Byron was in 15th behind Elliott, Keselowski, Logano and Almirola. In addition, Reddick was in 17th and Buescher was in 19th in front of Cindric.

    Three laps later, the first caution of the event flew when Harrison Burton, who was bumped and overtaken by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for 22nd place in Turn 3, was getting bumped by Alex Bowman in Turn 1, which ignited a brief stack-up as Burton then turned back into Bowman and got Bowman loose before he got bumped by Austin Dillon as Dillon turned Burton into Bowman’s No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, with the latter two spinning and Bowman getting hit by Corey LaJoie as the field scattered to avoid the carnage in the backstretch. The incident occurred just in front of Hamlin, who was in the process of lapping the competitors.

    During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Hamlin peeled off the track and onto pit road for service for the first time. Following the pit stops, Hamlin retained the lead after exiting pit road first ahead of teammate, Truex, Briscoe, Blaney, Bell, Keselowski and Harvick.

    When the race restarted on Lap 111, Hamlin retained the lead following a strong start on the outside lane while Blaney challenged and overtook Truex for the runner-up spot. As the field jostled for spots amid two stacked lanes, Hamlin continued to lead over Blaney and Truex while Briscoe, Keselowski, Bell and Ty Gibbs battled for fourth place in front of Preece, Logano, Larson, Harvick, Elliott and Byron, with the event surpassing the Lap 115 mark.

    By the Lap 120 mark, the battle for the lead slowly brewed between Hamlin and Blaney, with the latter keeping the former close within his front windshield and by nearly half a second as third-place Truex trailed by more than a second. Behind, Briscoe and Keselowski continued to run in the top five in front of Bell, Ty Gibbs, Preece, Logano and Harvick.

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 130, Hamlin, who came into the event 17 points below the top-four cutline to make this year’s Championship 4 field, captured his eighth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Blaney settled in second followed by Truex, Briscoe and Keselowski while Bell, Ty Gibbs, Preece, Logano and Harvick were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Larson, Byron, Buescher and Reddick were mired in 11th, 12th, 17th and 19th, respectively, and without the first wave of stage points.

    Under the stage break, some led by Keselowski and including Playoff contenders Larson, Byron, Buescher and Reddick pitted while the rest led by Hamlin remained on the track.

    The second stage period started on Lap 140 as Hamlin and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Hamlin gained another strong start, this time on the inside lane, as he retained the lead while Blaney fended off Truex to retain the runner-up spot. Behind, Briscoe and Ty Gibbs battled for fourth place in front of Bell, Logano and Preece while Elliott and Harvick trailed in the top 10. Further back in the pack, Larson was in 15th, Byron was mired in 18th behind Buescher and Reddick was down in 21st.

    Just past the Lap 150 mark, Hamlin was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Blaney while third-place Truex trailed by nearly two seconds. Behind, Bell was in sixth while Buescher, Larson and Reddick were mired within the top 20. Meanwhile, Byron had dropped to 21st. Byron would remain in 21st place behind McDowell and Reddick, who nearly spun a few laps earlier while dealing with water pressure issues to his No. 45 The Beast Unleashed Toyota TRD Camry, would drop to 24th place by the Lap 160 mark as Hamlin retained the lead by eight-tenths of a second over Blaney and nearly two seconds over Truex. By then, Bell retained sixth place, Buescher was in 15th place amid a battle with Wallace and Larson was down in 18th place behind Daniel Suarez.

    By Lap 175, Hamlin retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over Blaney while Truex was trailing by more than a second in third place. Behind, Ty Gibbs and Briscoe were in the top five ahead of Bell, Preece, Logano, Harvick and Keselowski while Buescher and Larson were scored in 15th and 18th, respectively. Meanwhile, Byron remained in 21st place while Reddick, who was rubbing fenders and bumpers with Erik Jones earlier, was down in 25th place.

    At the Lap 200 mark, Blaney, who overtook Hamlin for the lead six laps earlier, was leading in his No. 12 Discount Tire Ford Mustang by a second over Hamlin followed by Truex, Ty Gibbs and Briscoe while Bell, Preece, Logano, Harvick and Keselowski were scored in the top 10. Behind, Elliott, Almirola, Gilliand, Cindric and Buescher were running in the top 15 while Suarez, Wallace, Larson, Chastain and McDowell were running in the top 20 ahead of Austin Dillon, Byron, Erik Jones, LaJoie and Reddick.

    Fourteen laps later, the caution flew after Ryan Newman spun after he was hit by Playoff contender Bell in Turn 4. The caution flew moments after Blaney rubbed and lapped Playoff contender Reddick, with Reddick receiving the free pass to cycle back on the lead lap. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Blaney pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin cycled back into the lead after exiting pit road first ahead of teammate Truex, Blaney, Briscoe, Todd Gilliland, Logano, Ty Gibbs and Harvick. Amid the pit stops, however, Truex was sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road. Austin Dillon was also sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 225, Hamlin fended off Blaney to retain the lead by a narrow margin and both would make slight contact during the following lap as Blaney tried to take the lead from the inside lane. Blaney would lead the Lap 227 mark before Hamlin pulled a crossover move and fought back on the inside lane, with both refusing to give an inch. As Hamlin and Blaney continued to rub fenders and fight for the lead, Briscoe trailed in third while Logano and Keselowski were mired in the top five ahead of Gilliland, Ty Gibbs, Preece, Harvick and Bell. Then just past the Lap 230 mark, Blaney would muscle ahead of Hamlin to regain the lead and have both lanes to his control.

    Just past the Lap 240 mark, Blaney was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Hamlin while Briscoe, Logano and Keselowski remained in the top five. Behind, Bell was in 10th, Buescher was in 14th and Larson was scored in 17th. Meanwhile, Truex was mired in 22nd behind Playoff rivals Byron and Reddick as Blaney retained the lead by six-tenths of a second over Hamlin at the halfway mark on Lap 250.

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 260, Blaney, who came into the event 10 points above the top-four cutline, captured his sixth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Hamlin settled in second followed by Briscoe, Logano and Keselowski while Ty Gibbs, Preece, Gilliland, Harvick and Bell were scored in the top 10. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Buescher, Larson, Byron, Reddick and Truex were mired in 14th, 17th, 20th, 21st and 22nd, respectively.

    During the stage break, some led by Briscoe and including Playoff contenders Truex, Byron, Bell, Buescher and Reddick pitted while the rest led by Blaney and Hamlin remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Truex’s car fell off the jack, which cost him time.

    With 230 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Blaney and Hamlin occupied the front row. At the start, Blaney retained the lead over Hamlin through the first two turns and the backstretch before he almost got turned by Hamlin exiting the backstretch. Amid the contact, Blaney and Hamlin continued to bump and jostle for the lead in front of Logano and Ty Gibbs, with Blaney managing to retain the lead. Then two laps later, the caution returned after Logano bumped and sent third-place Gibbs spinning in Turn 3 before Gibbs was hit hard by Suarez and Keselowski, with a stack-up that collected McDowell, Gilliland, Chastain, Cindric, LaJoie, Truex and Erik Jones.

    As the race restarted under green with 216 laps remaining, Blaney and Hamlin dueled for the lead for a full lap and they continued to battle dead even for another lap until Blaney cleared Hamlin for the lead with 214 laps remaining. As Blaney retained the lead over Hamlin, Wallace moved into third place followed by Logano and Cindric while Reddick was in sixth ahead of Larson, Preece, Almirola and Bell as Harvick tried to overtake Bell for 10th place. By then, Buescher was in 12th while Byron and Truex battled for 16th.

    With 200 laps remaining, Playoff contender Blaney was leading by more than a second over Hamlin while Wallace, Logano and Cindric were running in the top five. Behind, Playoff contender Reddick was in sixth ahead of Playoff rivals Bell and Larson along with non-Playoff contenders Almirola and Preece while the remaining Playoff contenders that included Buescher, Byron and Truex were mired in 12th, 16th and 17th.

    Two laps later, the caution flew after Ty Gibbs spun for a second time, this time in Turn 2 after getting hit by Carson Hocevar. During the caution period, some led by Larson pitted while the rest led by Blaney and Hamlin remained on the track.

    With the race restarting with 190 laps remaining, Blaney fended off Hamlin and Wallace to retain the lead. Wallace and Hamlin would battle for the runner-up spot as Blaney retained the lead ahead of the field. The caution, however, returned with 178 laps remaining after McDowell spun amid contact with Erik Jones in Turn 2. During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Blaney and Hamlin pitted amid mixed strategies while the rest led by Chase Elliott remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, the Dillon brothers along with Bowman and Newman were penalized for speeding on pit road.

    During the proceeding restart with 168 laps remaining and following a brief delay due to the primary pace car being towed due to a mechanical issue, the race restarted under green. At the start, Elliott and Corey LaJoie dueled for the lead for a full lap and they continued to battle dead even for the lead while Erik Jones and Almirola made contact while battling for third place in front of Larson and Buescher. As the field slowly fanned out and bumped while jostling for late spots, Hamlin was trying to carve his way back into the top 10 along with Blaney and Bell while Elliott was leading by half a second over LaJoie.

    With 150 laps remaining, Elliott was leading by two seconds over LaJoie as Almirola, Erik Jones, Larson and Buescher were running in the top six in front of Briscoe, Hamlin, Blaney and Gilliland. Behind, Bell was in 11th while Playoff rivals Byron, Reddick and Truex were running 20th through 22nd, respectively.

    Twenty-five laps later, Elliott continued to lead by more than a second over LaJoie while Almirola, Erik Jones and Larson continued to run in the top five. With Larson currently being scored as the highest-running Playoff contender, Playoff rivals Buescher, Hamlin, Blaney and Bell followed suit in sixth, seventh, eighth and 10th while Byron, Reddick and Truex were back in 19th, 21st and 22nd, respectively.

    Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Elliott retained the lead by more than a second over Almirola while third-place LaJoie trailed by more than three seconds. Behind, Erik Jones and Larson were in the top five followed by Buescher, Hamlin, Blaney, Briscoe and Bell while Gilliland, Logano, Stenhouse, Cindric, Preece, Chastain, McDowell, Wallace, Byron, Harrison Burton, Reddick and Truex trailed in the top 22.

    Ten laps later, the battle for the lead ignited between Elliott and Almirola as the latter challenged the former for the top spot. Another lap later, Almirola, who pitted during the previous caution period and announced his departure from Stewart-Haas Racing at this season’s conclusion a day ago, moved his No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang into the lead after clearing Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the frontstretch. With LaJoie retaining third in front of Erik Jones, Larson and Buescher, Blaney battled Hamlin for seventh place while Bell trailed in 10th. In addition, Byron was still mired back in 18th in front of Truex while Reddick was down in 22nd.

    With less than 70 laps remaining, Almirola retained the lead by more than a second over Elliott followed by LaJoie and Erik Jones while Blaney moved up to fifth place in front of Larson, Hamlin, Buescher, Briscoe and Bell. Behind, Byron and Truex were mired in 18th and 19th while Reddick was in 22nd as Almirola proceeded to extend his advantage by more than three seconds over Elliott with 60 laps remaining. By then, Blaney moved up to third place while Hamlin was mired in seventh behind Larson.

    With 50 laps remaining, Almirola continued to extend his advantage as he was leading by more than four seconds over Elliott while third-place Blaney trailed by more than six seconds. Behind, LaJoie and Hamlin were in the top five while Briscoe, Logano, Erik Jones, Larson and Bell trailed in the top 10 followed by Buescher. Behind, Truex and Byron swapped spots in 18th and 19th while Reddick was still mired in 22nd.

    Fifteen laps later, Almirola stabilized his advantage to two-and-a-half seconds over Blaney while third-place Elliott trailed by more than five seconds. Another 10 laps later, however, Blaney, who was carving his way back to the front, was only trailing the leader Almirola by three-tenths of a second. Blaney would proceed to reassume the lead from Almirola another three laps later as Hamlin was up to third place and trailing the lead by more than five seconds.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Blaney was leading by more than a second over Almirola while Hamlin, Logano and Briscoe were scored in the top five as Elliott pitted under green. By then, 13th-place Byron was lapped by Blaney while Truex was scored the final competitor a lap down in 12th place.

    With five laps remaining, Blaney stabilized his advantage by nearly a second over Almirola while third-place Hamlin trailed by more than four seconds followed by Logano and Briscoe. By then, Byron, who was still back in 13th in his No. 24 PODS Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, still occupied the fourth and final vacant spot over Hamlin while Truex was still mired in 12th as Larson, Bell and Buescher were running sixth through eighth. Meanwhile, Reddick, who pitted under green, was down in 26th as his Playoff hopes were slowly coming to an end.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Blaney remained as the leader by a second over Almirola and more than four seconds over Hamlin. Despite being mired within lapped traffic and amid late concerns of not having enough fuel to finish, Blaney was able to coast his No. 12 Ford around the Martinsville circuit smoothly for a final time and cycle back to the frontstretch victorious as he claimed the checkered flag and punched his ticket into the Championship 4 round.

    With the victory, Blaney scored his 10th career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series, his third of the season, his first since winning at Talladega Superspeedway in early October and his first at Martinsville. Above all, Blaney, who raced his way into the Championship 4 round for the first time in his career and will represent Team Penske in this year’s title fight, will officially race for his first Cup Series championship next weekend at Phoenix Raceway.

    Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “It’s awesome,” Blaney said on NBC. “I grew up in High Point [North Carolina], so not too far from here. [It is] Closer to High Point, honestly, to Martinsville than Charlotte. It’s really cool. I’ve been wanting to win here for a long time. [I have] Just been super close for many years and awesome to close one out. We probably put together a really solid, strong Playoffs, especially in the Round of 8. We had a good run the whole Round of 8. Just overall, really proud of the whole effort. This is awesome. Can’t wait to get to Phoenix next week.”

    Amid Blaney’s celebration and automatic transfer into the Championship 4 round, William Byron, who came home in 13th place, was left relieved on pit road as he claimed the fourth and final transfer spot into the Championship 4 by eight points over Hamlin, who ended up in third place and led a race-high 156 laps but missed the Championship 4 cutline for a second consecutive season. As a result, Byron and Blaney will both be newcomers in the Championship 4 as they will square off against one another along with Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson for the 2023 Cup Series championship.

    Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “Obviously, we were not very good,” Byron said. “It’s our worst race of the year, but these guys deserve it so much. They worked so hard. With 50 [laps] to go, I felt really, really bad and I just had to drive the hell out of it. The guys stuck with me. They just kept motivating me through little bits and pieces and just kind of keeping my mind straight. I’m just really thankful for them. It was a slugfest. Just appreciate everyone racing me good there at the end. Man, we just had to hang on. I just had to dig a little bit deeper. The result just means more than anything. These guys work so hard and we’ve worked so hard all season. I’m just really proud of them.”

    “Ultimately, the mechanical failure last week, with the power steering, that’s our fate,” Hamlin said. “Really proud of this whole FedEx Toyota team for showing up today when we really needed to and having probably a mid-50-point day. [The team] did great. They did absolutely great. [Blaney] was the best car today, so congrats to them and all the final four [competitors] that made it. They’re all deserving. It’s gonna be a great show next week, but hate we’re not in [the Championship 4], for sure, with our FedEx Camry, but I was happy with the performance we had today and really, all around. Just in the Round of 8, you just can’t have one bad week and unfortunately, mechanical failure takes us from running really well to in the 30s and that’s it.”

    In addition to Hamlin, teammate Martin Truex Jr., Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher were eliminated from the Playoffs as their hopes of advancing into the Championship 4 for this season evaporated.

    “If we couldn’t find a way to flip track position pit stop-wise, we were never gonna get there,” Truex said. “Our car was good, but the field’s so tight and so close. Your car just drives so much worse in traffic. I felt like we did really good to get back where we did. You just burn the tires off so much worse back there, that hot dirty track and dirty air. You’re in more rubber. It’s just a dogfight, so we gave it a hell of an effort. I feel like we had a really strong car. I don’t think we could’ve beat [Blaney]. He was really, really strong, but we were definitely close. Something to work on for next time, but just really disappointed. I thought I was well under speed leaving that box. Clearly, we were speeding. Obviously, we got something to look at there and it’s devastating, but that’s racing.”

    “I’m really proud of everybody at [Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing],” Buescher said. “It’s been a heck of a season. We knew what we had to do today and we knew it was gonna be hard. We moved up, we got close there. Had some good strategy calls, some good stops from pit road. Had some good fire-off speed and really put ourselves in position where we were close. Just couldn’t quite pass like we needed to. Regardless, that was a good fight from everybody. Proud of that effort. Proud of everybody for the entire season we’ve had.”

    “We just didn’t have the handling we were expecting to have today,” Reddick said. “The car was really solid in practice, so we thought some of that would translate into the race. Obviously, our qualifying effort wasn’t ideal, but all day long, the Beast Unleashed Toyota Camry TRD, just really struggled with a number of things. We tried a number of different things to try and help one of the issues and go to the other. I felt like the more we tried, the worse it kind of got, which was really frustrating. It’s a tough day for us, but as a whole, everyone at 23XI’s [Racing] really come to the table. I love this team and what it’s about. It’s been a good first year. To be here a year early and just missing the Championship 4, I think that’s a really, really good start to my tenure at 23XI.”

    On the track, Almirola notched a strong runner-up result in his penultimate event as a Cup Series competitor for Stewart-Haas Racing while Briscoe and Logano finished fourth and fifth behind Hamlin.

    “I just needed my rear tires to hang on a little bit longer,” Almirola, who led 66 laps, said. “So frustrated. I had my family here, the people that helped me get my start in racing. I wanted so bad to celebrate with them in Victory Lane. Just proud of my race team. I wanted to celebrate with them too. They deserve it. I wanted to go out with a bang and just came up one spot short. Sad and frustrated, but still proud of the effort. This has been quite the journey and I’m just very thankful.”

    Larson, Bell, Buescher, Cindric and Todd Gilliland finished in the top 10 ahead of Wallace, Truex and Byron while Reddick ended up 26th, two laps down.

    *Notably, Chevrolet secured its third consecutive Cup Series’ manufacturers title and the 42nd overall, which completed a clean sweep for the manufacturer after previously securing its 11th Craftsman Truck Series manufacturers title and its 25th Bill France Performance Cup in the Xfinity Series.

    There were 12 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 61 laps. In addition, 12 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap.

    Results.

    1. Ryan Blaney, 145 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    2. Aric Almirola, 66 laps led

    3. Denny Hamlin, 156 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    4. Chase Briscoe

    5. Joey Logano

    6. Kyle Larson

    7. Christopher Bell

    8. Chris Buescher

    9. Austin Cindric

    10. Todd Gilliland

    11. Bubba Wallace

    12. Martin Truex Jr., 47 laps led

    13. William Byron, one lap down

    14. Ross Chastain, one lap down

    15. Harrison Burton, one lap down

    16. Kevin Harvick, one lap down

    17. Chase Elliott, one lap down, 83 laps led

    18. Ty Gibbs, one lap down

    19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap down

    20. Ryan Preece, one lap down

    21. Erik Jones, one lap down

    22. Corey LaJoie, one lap down, three laps down

    23. Austin Dillon, one lap down

    24. Ty Dillon, one lap down

    25. Michael McDowell, one lap down

    26. Tyler Reddick, two laps down

    27. Kyle Busch, two laps down

    28. AJ Allmendinger, two laps down

    29. Ryan Newman, three laps down

    30. Justin Haley, three laps down

    31. Carson Hocevar, four laps down

    32. Alex Bowman, four laps down

    33. Brad Keselowski, 194 laps down

    34. Daniel Suarez – OUT, Dvp

    35. JJ Yeley – OUT, Accident

    36. BJ McLeod – OUT, Overheating

    *Bold indicates Playoff contenders

    Playoff standings

    1. Ryan Blaney – Advanced

    2. Christopher Bell – Advanced

    3. Kyle Larson – Advanced

    4. William Byron – Advanced

    5. Denny Hamlin – Eliminated

    6. Martin Truex Jr. – Eliminated  

    7. Tyler Reddick – Eliminated

    8. Chris Buescher – Eliminated

    The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season is set to conclude next Sunday, November 5, at Phoenix Raceway, where a champion will be crowned. The event’s broadcast is slated to occur at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.