The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series will be in action at Dover International Speedway while the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is off. The Monster Energy Series heads to the first race of the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Playoffs, while the Xfinity Series Playoffs enters the final race of the Round of 12. Check out the full schedule below, which is subject to change.
Note: All times are ET
FRIDAY, Oct. 5
11-11:50 a.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series first practice, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Follow live)
12:05-12:55 p.m.: Xfinity Series first practice, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Follow live)
2:30-3:20 p.m.: Xfinity Series final practice, NBC Sports App (Follow live)
3:40 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Busch Pole Qualifying, NBC Sports App – Canceled – Lineup
PRESS PASS (Watch live) 9:30 a.m.: Ryan Blaney
9:45 a.m.: Joey Logano
10 a.m.: Jimmie Johnson
10:40 a.m.: Justin Allgaier, Ross Chastain and Austin Cindric
12:15 p.m.: Kyle Larson
12:30 p.m.: Bubba Wallace
1:30 p.m.: Chase Briscoe
4:30 p.m.: Post-Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying
SATURDAY, Oct. 6 11-11:50 a.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series second practice, CNBC/NBC Sports App (Follow live)
12:05 p.m.:Xfinity Series Pole Qualifying, NBCSN comes on 12:30 p.m. ET/NBC Sports App carries at noon ET (Follow live)
1:30-2:20 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series final practice, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Follow live)
3 p.m.: Xfinity Series Bar Harbor 200 presented by Sea Watch International (200 laps, 200 miles), NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Follow live)
PRESS PASS (Watch live) 5 p.m.: Post-NASCAR Xfinity Series race
SUNDAY, Oct. 7 2 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Gander Outdoors 400 (400 laps, 400 miles), NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Follow live)
PRESS PASS (Watch live)
5:15 p.m.: Post-Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competed in their fifth race of the 2018 season at Dover International Speedway. Here are four takeaways from the JEGS 200 event on Friday.
Johnny Sauter Continues Series Domination – Sauter got his second win of the 2018 season this past Friday. It was his first win since the season-opening race at Daytona. Since then, he has finished third at Atlanta, second at Las Vegas and only finished outside the top 10 once at Martinsville, finishing 19th. Friday’s victory was the 19th of his career. He’ll look to get his first victory at Kansas Speedway since 2010, eight years ago.
Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland Score Top Five/Ten Finishes – Burton and Gilliland who drive for Kyle Busch Motorsports earned a fifth and 10th place finish, respectively at Dover. Burton came from the back after starting 17th and finished seventh in Stage 1, while ultimately finishing in the top five. Todd, on the other hand, finished second in the first stage and eighth in the second, before finishing 10th.
Justin Haley Earns Third Place Finish – Haley earned his second top five of the 2018 season after finishing third. He started in the fourth position and finished third in Stage 1, with a second-place finish in Stage 2. As the JEGS 200 came to a close, the scoring pylon showed the No. 24 FOE Chevy third. A nice Dover outing for the GMS Racing team.
Close Battle For The Win Ends Under Caution – Sauter and Noah Gragson battled it out all the way to the end until the last corner with two laps to go. Both of them swapped the lead from lap 124 to lap 210. While it looked like Gragson could score his second career win, he would, unfortunately, get loose and end up finishing 20th due to a spin. Gragson and the No. 18 Tundra will look to rebound this week at Kansas Speedway and get his second career victory.
To call Kyle Larson’s run a roller coaster day would be an understatement.
He dropped to the rear for the initial start, because his car failed pre-race inspection three times. Starting 38th, he was up to 36th after caution flew for the first time on the third lap. He worked his way up to 28th, when Corey LaJoie’s blown engine brought out the caution on Lap 21.
Larson and Alex Bowman opted to stay out while the leaders pitted, and restarted second. He spun his tires on the restart and briefly held up the inside line. While he recovered and held off Keselowski’s attempt to get him loose on Lap 35 and Lap 39, he couldn’t do it a third time and Keselowski usurped him for second in Turn 4 on Lap 42. Staying out got Larson to the front, but his used tires were no match for the leaders that pitted under the second caution.
A cycle of green flag stops on Lap 95 allowed him an opportunity to stay in the Top-10, when it cycled out, but an uncontrolled tire penalty forced him to serve a pass through penalty and trapped him two laps down in 31st.
Larson was 30th when the caution flew for the conclusion of the first stage. With most of the field pitting under the caution, he took a wave-around, regained a lap and moved up to 26th.
Larson came a car short of the lucky dog when caution flew on Lap 154. While he was in position to get it at the end of the second stage, Harvick put more cars down a lap in the closing laps, a result of a long green flag run, and Larson remained trapped a lap down in 22nd.
He got back on the lead lap when Kyle Busch suffered an engine failure with 129 to go and worked his way up to 15th when rain put the field under the red flag with 84 to go.
Larson restarted 10th with 75 to go. In the final 50 laps, however, the handling of his car went towards the freeside and fell out of the Top-10. He broke back into the Top-10 when Bowman made an unscheduled stop, and brought his car home to a 10th-place finish.
“Yeah, it was a hard-fought top 10 for sure,” Larson said. “We were three laps down at one point. I guess happy about the Top-10. I was hoping we could pick off some cars there that last run once we finally got on the lead lap, but it was just so hard to pass. Everybody was the same speed until the very end of the run and then you could kind of move around. Found a little bit of time and was catching a few of them in front of me, but just ran out of time.”
Larson’s 10th-place finish was his seventh Top-10 finish at Dover International Speedway, a track at which he maintains an 8.2 finishing average.
He leaves Dover 10th in points, 159 back of Kyle Busch.
Dominant victories are just routine now for the driver that carries the nickname “The Closer.” While the smoke and confetti rained down on Kevin Harvick’s victory lane celebration at the Monster Mile, he maintained an expression that said “Been there, done that.”
“The first thing I’ve got to do is just thank everybody on my team — everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing, Roush Yates Engines, everybody from Ford for just continuing to put the effort that they put into these cars,” Harvick said. “Three cars in the top five says a lot about where we are as a company, but everybody from Jimmy John’s and Busch and Ford, Fields, Haas, Mobil 1, Morton Buildings, Textron Off-Road, Liftmaster and the fans, especially. It was great to see those fans stick around for the finish, but it’s fun racing your teammate. That says a lot about our company and one of your good friends as well.”
Harvick led a race high of 201 laps on his way to scoring his 41st career victory in 621 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts, and second at Dover International Speedway.
He mentioned in victory lane that his son Keelan broke the arm of the Miles the Monster trophy he got from his first win at Dover in 2015.
“Miles is pretty popular, as you can imagine, with the kids. We took the last‑‑ the first one that we won, we took it home and put it in his play room, and I said, you can keep it in your play room,” Harvick said. “First day I came home and he had the arm broke in half off of the thing. When we talked‑‑ when I talked to him after the race, he said, “Dad, are you bringing that trophy home?” I said, “I’m bringing it home, but do not break the arm off this one. I have no idea how he broke it, but it is hollow, so he must have landed on it or hit something with it.”
He then revealed that his line to his son about not breaking this trophy was more tongue-in-cheek.
“Oh, he can break it, it’s fine. Yeah, we’ll put it in the same spot. We’ll put it in the same spot in the playroom for a while,” Harvick added. “We’ll have to go hose it off first because it smells like beer. It’s always strange trying to explain to people why his playroom smells like beer.
“But no, we’ll clean it up and put it in his playroom. We glued the other one back together. It’s fine.”
Teammate Clint Bowyer led 40 laps, on his way to a runner-up finish.
“Well the biggest thing was just if we had a chance to adjust our car in clean air, like he (Harvick) did. He had that luxury all day long, and that was the first shot at tires, and clean air,” Bowyer said. “It took off and it was turning really, really good. It really kind of needs to be kind of tight and work into that. I knew when it took off as good as it did and it was rotating as good as it did, I was in trouble. Sure enough, I just got way, way, way too loose.
“But awesome Ford Fusion, Rush Truck Centers, Haas Demo Day. We won with that Haas Demo Day on the car at Martinsville. I thought maybe it was going to be again.
“But the opportunity Gene (Haas) and Tony (Stewart) give all of us at Stewart-Haas Racing makes this a lot of fun. It’s fun to be running like this and competitive and upfront in the limelight.”
Daniel Suarez, Martin Truex Jr. and Kurt Busch rounded out the Top-five.
DOVER, Del. – MAY 06: Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe’s for Pros Chevrolet, leads a pack of cars during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway on May 6, 2018 in Dover, Delaware. Photo: Jerry Markland/Getty Images
“It was good,” Suarez said of his run. “Very proud of everyone on this team, Scott Graves, the rest of the guys, Stanley (Tools), everyone that makes this happen. We had a little rough start in the first few weeks, month and a half. Now we’re definitely moving in the right direction. So just very proud of this team, Joe Gibbs Racing, TRD Engines, everyone that makes this possible. It’s pretty cool to finally get moving in the right direction.”
“Frustrated a little bit. We could never make it any better,” Truex said of his day. “We talked at the rain delay there, just so tight on exit. Just couldn’t get the thing turning off the corner. And I could catch anybody who was in front of me, at any point in time. After 15 to 20 laps into a run, I just stuck there. So it was very frustrating. And the harder I tried, just the more I hurt my tires. It didn’t go any faster. At the end, I was really struggling hanging on. We took a swing at it there, at the last caution, and it was definitely a swing and a miss, because if anything, it was worse.
“Frustrating day, but battling back from that tire issue and then having to do some things to compensate for that definitely hurt us. And as bad as our car drove, I’m surprised we finished fourth. So everyone else’s must’ve been really bad.”
“It’s all about the team effort. Good day for us,” Kurt Busch said. “The way that the pit stops went we had to come back from a penalty. Restarts went fair the early part of the race and went good in the latter part. Those restarts are close quarters and you need to grab spots then. These cars are really aero-sensitive. Thanks to Haas Automation and Ford we had a top-five day.”
Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Larson rounded out the Top-10.
RACE SUMMARY
DOVER, Del. – MAY 06: Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Jimmy John’s Ford, takes the green flag to start the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway on May 6, 2018 in Dover, Delaware. Photo: Robert Laberge/Getty Images
Because Kyle Larson failed pre-race inspection three times, he was sent to the tail-end of the field for the initial start. This moved Kevin Harvick up to first for the green flag at 2:01 p.m. He led the first lap, while Martin Truex Jr.
The leaders ducked onto pit road on Lap 22, after Corey LaJoie brought out the caution for a blown engine. Austin Dillon exited pit road first, but Alex Bowman opted not to pit and led the field back to green on Lap 26. His used tires were no match for Brad Keselowski on new tires, as Keselowski passed him down the backstretch to take the lead on Lap 52. Lap traffic allowed Truex to reel him in, but he surrendered second to pit on Lap 95 and triggered a cycle of green flag stops.
Keselowski and the others didn’t pit right away. He wanted to ride out for a caution or the end of the first stage. Regardless, Harvick ran him down and passed him exiting Turn 4 to retake the lead on Lap 110. Even as he and others ran out of gas in the closing laps of the stage, he rode it out and won the first stage.
Back to green on Lap 128, Harvick pulled away from Keselowski. The over two-second gap was erased when Derrike Cope spun out and slammed the inside wall in Turn 4 on Lap 154.
DOVER, Del. – MAY 06: Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Jimmy John’s Ford, leads a pack of cars during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway on May 6, 2018 in Dover, Delaware. Photo: Robert Laberge/Getty Images
Keselowski exited pit road with the lead and led the field back to green on Lap 159. Harvick reeled him in after 20 laps, but couldn’t make the high line work to pass Keselowski. On Lap 200, however, Keselowski’s loose car allowed Harvick to hug the bottom and pass him exiting Turn 4 to retake the lead and win the second stage.
It was more of the same on the ensuing restart, with Harvick pulling away from Keselowski. He surrendered the lead to pit under caution with 129 laps to go, brought out by Kyle Busch’s engine failure.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. opted not to pit and led the field back to green with 119 to go. While he initially pulled away, his old tires couldn’t hold off Clint Bowyer, who passed him exiting Turn 2 to take the lead with 103 to go.
Caution flew with 84 to go for rain. The field was brought down pit road and the race was red-flagged with 80 to go. It was lifted after 41 minutes and one second.
DOVER, Del. – MAY 06: Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Jimmy John’s Ford, celebrates with a fan as he is handed the checkered flag after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway on May 6, 2018 in Dover, Delaware. Photo: Jerry Markland/Getty Images
Back to green with 75 to go, Harvick took advantage of Bowyer getting loose going into Turn 1 with 63 to go and passed him the following lap going into Turn 3 to retake the lead and drive on to victory.
“Well, I was holding my own as loose as I was and I about lost it off of 2, and I was obviously going for a win and giving it my all. But I knew you just can’t buzz the tires like that on a track like this, and every time you do that, it’s a step. It wasn’t, what, two laps after that and he was all over me, and then I was in trouble,” Bowyer said. “When you’re loose like that getting into the corner and those guys get behind you, you’re in trouble. Then obviously when you’re loose and they get to your outside, you’ve got to give it to them. They’re going to turn you around. But he’s obviously a champion of this sport, and you hate to lose him, know what I mean? We could beat him at this racetrack. We come back in the fall, and when all the marbles are on the line, maybe we can.”
NUTS & BOLTS
The race lasted three hours, 28 minutes and 37 seconds, at an average speed of 115.044 mph. There were 17 lead changes among six different drivers, and eight cautions for 48 laps.
Kyle Busch leaves Dover with a 40-point lead over Joey Logano.
Justin Allgaier, driving his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, brought home his first Xfinity Series win this season and his first ever at Dover International Speedway Saturday afternoon.
Elliott Sadler made the last lap exciting by trying to get a run on Allgaier but ended up getting loose and falling back enough to give Allgaier the win in the OneMain Financial 200. Allgaier made it look easy by dominating the competition and leading 104 of 200 laps during the race. He topped it off by winning the final Dash 4 Cash prize of $100,000. It was a great way to finish the week off for Allgaier’s car owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who just had his first baby (a girl) with wife, Amy.
Allgaier commented on that last lap stating, “Well, unfortunately, I thought the 15 was going to go to the bottom and he went to the top, I got on my brakes and almost spun myself out.” He added, “ That race, I couldn’t ask for anything better, these guys and everyone at JR Motorsports have done a fantastic job. I think we have a great shot at going for the championship.”
Stage 1 was fairly uneventful only having two cautions, one for Matt Tifft spinning and the second when Josh Bilicki tagged the wall. Sadler was the dominant car in this stage of the race, but Allgaier and Brandon Jones were right up there fighting for the lead. Sadler would win Stage 1 followed by Allgaier, Brandon Jones, Daniel Hemric, and Ryan Truex rounding out the top five.
Stage 2 would see Tyler Reddick come to the front and take the lead, but 25 laps into the stage Allgaier would take the lead back and finish out the stage taking the win. The top five in Stage 2 were Allgaier, Reddick, Austin Cindric, Christopher Bell, and Tifft.
The final stage is where it really started to heat up. The drivers started going three wide trying to get to the front for the win, and that’s when the cautions started coming out. There were three cautions in this stage involving drivers such as John Hunter Nemechek, Cindric, Alex Labbe, Dylan Lupton, and Ty Majeski.
Allgaier would dominate the final stage leading most of the laps. Sadler did his best to get to Allgaier to make a pass for the lead and the two of them were side by side on the last lap, when they got together. Sadler got loose and backed off giving Allgaier the win.
A dejected Sadler commented, “ I gave it my best, I’m just proud of everyone on my team. I really want to give these guys a win, I’m tired of finishing in the top five but don’t have any checkered flags to show for it. I did the best I could but it just wasn’.t good enough today.”
Hemric ran in the top 10 most of the race and came home in third. A frustrated Hemric commented, “My Lord, we’re doing everything we can to put ourselves in a good position. I just want to figure out what it takes to close one of these things out, but I hate finishing third.”
Bell and Reddick round out the top five. Johnny Sauter, Noah Gragson, Tifft, Cindric, and Jones finished sixth through 10th, respectively.
Sadler leads the Xfinity Series standings with 401 points. Allgaier is in second with 368 points followed by Reddick in third with 363 points, Bell is in fourth with 349 points and Hemric rounds out the top five with 343 points.
The Xfinity series heads next to Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 26.
Kyle Larson scored his first Busch Pole Award of the season at Dover International Speedway with a 158.103 mph lap and will lead the field to the green flag in Sunday’s AAA 400. It is his fifth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career pole.
He spoke about the adjustments the team made after the first two rounds of qualifying to fine tune his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.
“The first round caught me off guard. I was really loose getting in, but they made great adjustments on the DC Solar Chevy throughout the next two rounds,” he said. “The second round we were probably a little too tight, but they kind of found the happy medium there for the final round. So, I’m happy about that.”
Larson has four top fives and six top 10s with an average finish of 7.875 at the Monster Mile with a runner up finish in this race last year. After capturing the pole, he heads into the weekend with confidence.
“We’ve always qualified good here,” he added. “I had yet to get a pole. I’ve raced well here but have yet to get a win. Maybe we’ll get both out of the way this weekend.”
Kevin Harvick will join Larson on the front row after a qualifying lap of 157.494 mph.
“We’re feeling good about qualifying well,” Harvick said. “That’s not been something that we’ve done 100-percent great here. We’ve qualified OK. It definitely goes a long way in helping get your day started.
“This is definitely a race track that can take a while to work your way up the field, so you don’t want to dig yourself a hole early on. They made the car better all three rounds. We ran our fastest lap at the end. I lost a lot of time in (Turns) 1 and 2. I got myself hung a little higher and longer than I needed to finish the corner. Still a good lap for us and I’m looking forward to race runs.”
Martin Truex Jr. will start in third after a lap of 157.432 mph.
“Yeah, Turn 4 we just got a little too tight both second and third round,” he said. “Thought maybe second round I could just drive the car a little different. If it hit it right, we’d be really good and I had an awesome lap going until I got there that last round. I thought I had a shot at it and just got tight off 4 again, so missed it a little bit there, but overall it was another good solid day for us on a Friday, looking forward to getting ready to race tomorrow.”
Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will round out the top five starting positions.
Of note, Jimmie Johnson, an 11-time winner at Dover, is hoping to find victory lane for the first time this season. One more checkered flag would put him in a three-way tie with Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip on the all-time list, with 84 wins. However, he will have his work cut out for him as Johnson did not make it through to the third round of qualifying and will start 19th.
Tune into the AAA 400 Drive for Autism Sunday at 2 p.m. on FS1 with radio coverage by MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Follow @angiecampbell_ for the latest NASCAR news and feature stories.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series finally returns to action this week at Dover International Speedway after a five-week off period.
So far for 2018, there have been four different Truck Series races with four different winners. Drivers will be itching at the bit to get back behind the wheel after a long rest period. At Dover, there have been five different winners in the past five races.
There are 34 trucks listed on the preliminary entry list this week.
Here’s a look at who might end up taking the checkered flag tomorrow night at Dover.
Matt Crafton – Currently in 2018, Crafton and the No. 88 Ford has zero wins to start the season. However, Dover just might be the place where he’ll snap a winless streak just like Joey Logano did last weekend at Talladega. In five races, Crafton has one win, three top fives and three top 10 finishes, along with 181 laps led with an average start of 6.0 and an average finish of 8.4. The last time he went to victory lane was two years ago. Dover could be the track in which Crafton punches his ticket into the Playoffs. He’ll need some work to do so as he was 13th and 10th, respectively in the two practice sessions on Thursday.
Johnny Sauter – Dover is another one of Sauter’s best race tracks. He is the defending race winner from last year’s race after leading just 33 laps and he still has momentum from the Daytona season opener win. Sauter will have to pull double duty this weekend after Spencer Gallagher was indefinitely suspended from NASCAR. Sauter is the highest active driver among all drivers when it comes to Dover. He has one win, three top fives and three top 10 finishes with 33 laps led. Sauter has an average start of 11.6 and an average finish of 4.8. In the two practice sessions today, he was second and third fastest respectively. Keep an eye out for the No. 21 GMS Racing Chevy team.
Todd Gilliland – Gilliland will return this weekend to drive the No. 4 Pedigree Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports. In his only start at this track which came last year, he was running a smart race until an incident took place on Lap 115 as Gilliland had suspension issues. Despite the woes, he was able to lead 25 laps after starting 15th. He’ll look to rebound and challenge for the win on Friday night. Gilliland was fourth in both practice sessions Thursday afternoon.
Brett Moffitt – Moffitt is having a stellar 2018 season so far. He collected the second win of his career at Atlanta back in February and collected three top fives, and three top 10 finishes this year. While Moffitt will be making his track debut in a truck at Dover, he does have some experience racing cup cars and in the K&N East Pro Series. In fact, Moffitt has even taken the checkered flag here way back in 2009. His first cup start here was for Jay Robinson Racing and he ended up finishing 22nd. While he doesn’t have any race experience with a truck, Moffitt will be using his past experiences to figure this place out. He was eighth and first fastest in both practice sessions.
Noah Gragson – Gragson has one start here at Dover in the Truck Series which came last year. After starting eighth, he finished fifth in Stage 1 but fell outside the top 10 in Stage 2. Gragson stayed around the top 10 for the rest of the race, as he would wind up finishing ninth, one lap down. He was sixth and second fastest in two practice sessions.
Qualifying will be especially important at Dover. In the last five races, the winner has come from a starting spot no lower than 11th which happened last year when Johnny Sauter took the checkered flag.
Qualifying is slated for Friday afternoon at 1:05 p.m. ET live on Fox Sports 1.
The JEGS 200 can be seen live on FS1 with race coverage beginning at 5:00 p.m ET and on MRN Radio. The approximate green flag is 5:18 p.m. ET.
NASCAR officials announced Wednesday morning that driver Spencer Gallagher has been indefinitely suspended from NASCAR for violating the sanctioning body‘s substance abuse policy.
Gallagher recently won his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega on Saturday afternoon in the No. 23 GMS Racing Chevrolet with a last lap pass on competitor Tyler Reddick. Later that week, Gallagher violated Section 19 of the 2018 NASCAR rule book, which discusses NASCAR’s zero-tolerance substance abuse policy. According to a press release by NASCAR, Gallagher has been indefinitely suspended from participating in any sanctioned event.
He has agreed to participate in the Road to Recovery Program, a requirement before he is eligible to be cleared to race again.
The Las Vegas native is not the first to be suspended for substance abuse. AJ Allmendinger was one of the more recent stories of failing NASCAR’s random drug test back in 2012. Allmendinger was racing for Penske Racing in the No. 22 Ford in the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series at the time. He pled not guilty, but went on to complete NASCAR’s recovery program and was reinstated back into the series. He returned to Penske in the Xfinity Series in 2013, and raced full-time for JTG Daugherty Racing. In 2014, he won his first career race at the Cup level at Watkins Glen.
Gallagher released the following statement shortly after the breaking news. “I recently have had a positive result in a NASCAR drug screen which has violated NASCAR’s substance abuse policy. I want to assure everyone in the NASCAR community this one time error in judgement will never happen again. I am taking the steps to enroll in the Road to Recovery program supported by NASCAR. I would like to say that I am sorry to all of the GMS organization for my actions, especially my team and team owner, who have worked so hard this year and have put faith in me. I also want to apologize to NASCAR, Chevrolet and my fans for letting them down. I have not upheld the behavior that is expected of me. I promise you all here and know, I will do whatever it takes to make this right.”
Mike Beam, president of GMS Racing, issued this as part of a team statement: “GMS fully supports NASCAR’s policy on substance abuse and we do not condone this type of behavior. First and foremost, our entire organization wants to apologize to NASCAR, our sponsors, teammates and fans due to this policy violation.
“A substitute driver will be announced at a later date.”
Additionally, Gallagher and GMS Racing are no longer eligible for the Dash 4 Cash field this week at Dover International Speedway. Ryan Sieg, driver of the No. 39 RSS Racing, will replace Gallagher after finishing sixth at Talladega.
“Hate the circumstances but just got word from NASCAR we are in the Dash 4 Cash at Dover,” Sieg shared on Twitter later in the morning.
Gallagher has made 49 starts in the Xfinity Series and an additional 59 starts in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. He has five top-five finishes and 22 top-10 finishes combined across both series.
Kyle Busch ran down and passed Chase Elliott with two laps remaining to win the Apache Warrior 400 at Dover International Speedway.
Elliott took over the race lead after Larson’s car shutoff under the second stage break and, as a result, was sent back in the running order for not maintaining pace with the caution car. After the final round of green flag stops finished up, Elliott cycled back to the lead and was on his way to his first career victory. But thanks to pitting five laps later than Elliott, Busch cut the lead to under a second with less than 15 laps to go. Lap traffic made the difference, in the end, as Busch pulled alongside and passed Elliott, exiting Turn 4, coming to the white flag and drove on to victory.
“That was hard fought. That was everything I had, obviously,” Busch said. “I was trying to get there. Got stuck there for a few laps. Wasn’t sure I was going to make it all the way. And then, I was like ‘You know what? I gotta try the top again.’ The top had been working. It kind of got me there. I got up there. Got to the top and got rim-riding. Got the momentum on the straightaways and that carried me by the 24 (Elliott). Man, just an awesome, awesome M&M’s Caramel Camry! Wasn’t that great at the beginning of the day. We definitely made a lot of gains on this car. Made a lot of gains throughout the runs. Got it a lot better and put on a heck of a show for the fans. So one’s right here in Dover.”
Elliott finished second and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the podium.
“I’m just so disappointed with myself,” Elliott said. “Couldn’t have had it any easier. Ran green from the stage break, all the way to the end and gave it away. I appreciate my team and their efforts today. Our pit stops were great and they kept us in the ball game today, and I didn’t.”
“Yeah, we had a very competitive car today,” Johnson said.
“The car was good we just kind of fought track position and I wish I had done a better job on Friday and got us up in that front three sooner. It was so tough to pass, I think whoever came off pit road or had control of a restart was really in the catbird seat. But, a great day for our Lowe’s Chevy. These banked tracks seem to suit us much better than a lot of the flat we saw during the summer. Usually, if you run well at Dover, you run well at Charlotte, so we are excited to go to next week as well.”
Martin Truex Jr. and Larson rounded out the top-five.
“It was a really good race,” Larson said. “I won that second stage and was the leader off pit road and then my engine was kind of struggling firing up when I would cycle the engine and cool it down under yellows. It just didn’t re-fire that one time and had to restart fifth and feel back to sixth. Kind of hard to pass when I got back there I couldn’t really move up the race track because I would be in dirty air. We short pitted, got to third, but fell back and finished fifth. I felt like if I could have restarted the leader I probably would have had a shot to win like the No. 24, but once I had restart on the inside of the third row I was kind of done unless I had a caution, which there wasn’t any left the rest of the race.”
Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Daniel Suarez, Jamie McMurray and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-10.
RACE SUMMARY
Martin Truex Jr. led the field to the green flag at 2:17 p.m. After leading the first 25 laps, Larson pinned him behind a lapped car exiting Turn 4, which allowed Larson to drive under him to take the lead on Lap 26. Truex worked his way back around Larson, passing under him in Turn 1, to retake the lead on Lap 62. He surrendered the lead to pit under green, as did a number of other cars around Lap 82, just before caution flew for the first time on Lap 87 (Jeffrey Earnhardt rear-ended the sand barriers along the leading edge of the outside pit wall).
Kyle Busch was the race leader when the caution flew, but lost it to Brad Keselowski on pit road, who drove on to win the first stage.
Retaking the lead on pit road, Busch led the field back to green on Lap 128. Larson powered around the outside of Busch entering Turn 3 to retake the lead on 141. Reed Sorenson brought out the third caution on Lap 168 when he blew an engine in Turn 3.
Truex exited the pits with the lead, but Larson used an excellent restart to take back the lead entering Turn 1 on the Lap 174 restart and drove on to win the second stage. This setup the run to the finish.
TIDBITS
Kevin Harvick pitted from fifth on Lap 219 for a loose wheel, and Denny Hamlin pitted with 27 to go after hitting the backstretch wall and breaking a rear-axle.
NUTS & BOLTS
The race lasted three hours, five minutes and 48 seconds, at an average speed of 129.171 mph. There were 15 lead changes among six different drivers and four cautions for 24 laps (including one red flag for 15 minutes and nine seconds).
Truex leaves with an 18-point lead over Kyle Busch, following the conclusion of the Round of 16. Ryan Newman, Austin Dillon, Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch fail to advance.
