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Larson edges Buescher in closest-recorded Cup Series finish at Kansas

In the blink of an eye, Kyle Larson went from being beaten to a photo finish that set a new record for the closest margin of victory in the NASCAR Cup Series division after edging Chris Buescher to score a wild win y in the rain-delayed AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, May 5.

The 2021 Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, led six times for 63 of 268 over-scheduled laps in an event where he was competitive from his fourth-place starting spot as he battled against NASCAR’s elite towards the front for the majority of the event. Then, after initially being poised for a top-six run, a caution for a spin involving Kyle Busch with seven laps remaining generated an opportunity for Larson, who opted for a two-tire pit stop to line up in third place behind Denny Hamlin and Chris Buescher. After attempting to make a three-wide move on both during the start of an overtime shootout, Larson settled behind Buescher, who would fend off an early challenge by Larson to retain the lead and start the final lap.

During the final lap, however, Larson then seized an opportunity to make a move to Buescher’s outside entering the final turn and despite getting both rubbed and squeezed by Buescher towards the wall, he managed to muscle ahead by a hair. With Buescher fighting back and both drivers refusing to step off the throttle as they made contact twice approaching the finish line, Larson and Buescher crossed the finish line dead even. Larson would be declared the race winner by 0.001 seconds, which eclipsed the previous margin of finish record of 0.002 seconds, as he notched his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2024 season in dramatic fashion.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, May 4, Christopher Bell notched his first Cup pole position of the 2024 season and the 11th of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 183.107 mph in 29.491 seconds in his No. 20 Yahoo! Toyota Camry XSE. Joining him on the front row was Ross Chastain, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap time at 182.704 mph in 29.556 seconds.

When the green flag waved and the event commenced following a delay period of more than three hours due to inclement weather, Bell and Chastain battled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch as the field behind fanned out to three lanes. With the field still fanned out, Bell managed to edge Chastain to lead the first lap from the outside lane, but Chastain kept his car dead even against Bell for the following lap and in an early bid for the lead.

Prior to the third lap, Chastain, who edged Bell to lead the second lap, managed to muscle his No. 1 Busch Light Crocs Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ahead of Bell through the backstretch as he had both lanes to his control. With Chastain leading Bell, Noah Gragson followed suit in third place followed by Kyle Larson while a three-wide battle for fifth place occurred between Kyle Busch, Austin Cindric and Ty Gibbs. Gibbs would prevail while running the outside lane as he muscled away from Busch and Cindric as Chastain proceeded to lead the fifth lap mark.

Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Chastain, who nearly lost the lead to Bell a few laps earlier, was leading by a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Larson, who assumed the runner-up spot from Bell a lap earlier, as Bell followed suit in third while Gibbs, Gragson, Busch, Chris Buescher, Cindric, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. were running in the top 10. Behind, Michael McDowell trailed in 11th ahead of Alex Bowman, Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott and Joey Logano as John Hunter Nemechek, Chase Briscoe, Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. trailed in the top 20 ahead of Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, rookie Carson Hocevar, William Byron and Corey Heim.

Ten laps later, Chastain stabilized his early advantage to two-tenths of a second over Larson while Bell, Gibbs and Buescher were scored in the top five ahead of Gragson, Busch, Hamlin, Cindric and Truex. Meanwhile, Jimmie Johnson, who qualified 19th, had fallen to 32nd as he was trailing rookie Josh Berry and Daniel Suarez on the track while Austin Hill, Derek Kraus, Daniel Hemric, Harrison Burton, Riley Herbst and Ryan Preece were running towards the rear of the 38-car field.

Another 12 laps later, a cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Truex pitted his No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry XSE along with Alex Bowman, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace. The leader Chastain would pit under green on Lap 33, followed by Larson, Gibbs, Buescher, Gragson and a bevy of competitors as Bell and Busch remained on the track. While more drivers, including Bell, pit by Lap 35, Chastain and Larson engaged in a heated battle to emerge as the first competitor who recently pitted on the track while Derek Kraus, who has yet to pit, was leading.

On Lap 41, Chastain zipped by Kraus to reassume the race lead on the track as Larson, who was battling Chastain tightly for the lead a few laps earlier, followed suit in second. Both Chastain and Larson would be separated by a tenth of a second by the Lap 45 mark while Gibbs, who moved into third place, trailed the two leaders by more than two seconds as Buescher and Bell trailed in the top five by three seconds.

At the Lap 50 mark, both Chastain and Larson continued to engage in a heated battle for the lead with both swapping lanes, remaining dead even against one another’s entries, pulling crossover moves on one another through the turns and refusing to give an inch to one another. With Chastain and Larson continuing to battle dead even for the lead during the proceeding laps, third-place Gibbs started to close in as he trailed the two leaders by six-tenths of a second while fourth-place Hamlin only trailed by a second. Larson would then manage to emerge ahead by two-tenths of a second over Chastain by Lap 53 and he would proceed to extend his advantage to a second over Chastain just past the Lap 55 mark.

By Lap 60, Hamlin muscled his No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota Camry XSE past Chastain for the runner-up spot as he started to close in on Larson for the lead as he only trailed by less than half a second. Gibbs and Buescher would trail the lead by a second in the top five as Hamlin challenged Larson for the lead on Lap 63. With Larson retaining the top spot while running his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 on the outside lane, Hamlin tried to overtake Larson again during the following lap, but was denied by Larson as Chastain tried to close back in to join the battle. Eventually, Hamlin would overtake Larson to assume the lead by Lap 68 as Chastain battled and also overtook Larson to assume the runner-up spot.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 80, Hamlin, winner of last weekend’s Cup event at Dover Motor Speedway, captured his third Cup stage victory of the 2024 season after fending off a last-lap charge from Chastain, who ended up second. Larson settled in third ahead of Bell and Buescher while Gibbs, Truex, Busch, Gragson and Chase Elliott were scored in the top 10. By then, 33 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.

Under the stage break, the field led by Hamlin returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Bell edged Chastain to emerge as the first competitor off of pit road with the lead from the first pit box as Larson, Gibbs, Buescher, Truex and Busch followed suit as Hamlin, who was blocked by Austin Hill while trying to exit his pit stall, exited eighth ahead of Elliott and Gragson. Amid the pit stops, John Hunter Nemechek was penalized for speeding on pit road.

The second stage period started on Lap 88 as Bell and Chastain occupied the front row. At the start, both Bell and Chastain mirrored their early performance from the event’s start by battling dead even against one another and in front of the fanned pack through the first two turns and the backstretch. Shortly after, Larson, who rocketed his way up to the two leaders, made a bold three-wide move beneath Bell and Chastain, who got loose through Turns 3 and 4, to assume the lead through the frontstretch’s apron. Bell and Chastain were then pinned in a five-wide battle with Gibbs, Buescher and Truex across the start/finish line as the latter three overtook both Bell and Chastain for positions along with Kyle Busch. Chastain and Bell would continue to battle for sixth place and Buescher would battle Truex for the runner-up spot in front of Gibbs and Busch while Larson retained the lead by the Lap 90 mark.

Through the Lap 100 mark, Larson was leading by nearly two seconds over Buescher followed by Gibbs, Busch and Truex while Bell, Gragson, Chastain, Hamlin and Bowman were racing in the top 10 ahead of Michael McDowell, Reddick, Wallace, William Byron and Elliott. As Brad Keselowski, Blaney, Cindric, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Carson Hocevar trailed in the top 20, Joey Logano was mired in 21st ahead of Austin Dillon, Justin Haley, Jimmie Johnson and rookie Zane Smith as Suarez was mired in 32nd behind Corey LaJoie, Hill and Chase Briscoe.

Ten laps later, Larson slightly stretched his advantage to three seconds over Buescher while third-place Gibbs trailed by four seconds. Behind, Busch occupied fourth place ahead of ex-teammates Truex, Bell and Hamlin while Chastain slipped to 10th as he trailed Gragson and Bowman on the track.

Another six laps later, another cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Todd Gilliland and Ryan Preece pitted their respective Ford entries. Blaney would then pit along with Kraus, Briscoe, Harrison Burton, Logano, Byron and others before select front-runners like Buescher, Gibbs and Hamlin pitted by Lap 119. Larson would then surrender the lead to pit by Lap 120 as he was followed by Busch, Truex, Bell, Gragson and others while 23XI Racing’s Reddick and Wallace remained on the track.

On Lap 125, Reddick surrendered the lead to pit his No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE. By then, his teammate Wallace and Daniel Hemric pitted while Buescher, who split Bell and Chastain through the middle as part of the five-wide battle during the start of the second stage period, cycled his No. 17 Castrol Edge Ford Mustang Dark Horse into the lead. Gibbs trailed Buescher in the runner-up spot, followed by Busch and Larson, who endured a slow pit stop after his front-tire changer had issues tightening the left front tire. Meanwhile, Truex trailed in fifth while Hamlin was in sixth.

At the halfway mark in between Laps 133 and 134, Buescher was leading by more than a second over Busch followed by Gibbs, Larson and Truex while Hamlin, Bowman, Gragson, Bell and Chastain occupied the top-10 spots on the track. Behind, Elliott was in 11th place as he was running ahead of teammate Byron, Keselowski, McDowell and Reddick as Cindric, Blaney, Hocevar, Stenhouse and Wallace trailed in the top 20 as they were running ahead of Logano, Austin Dillon, Gilliland, Zane Smith and Jimmie Johnson.

By Lap 145, Buescher continued to lead by more than a second over a side-by-side battle between Larson and Busch for the runner-up spot while Gibbs and Hamlin trailed by within four seconds in the top five. Buescher’s advantage slightly decreased to nine-tenths of a second over Larson while third-place Busch trailed by a second by Lap 150.

Between the Laps 155 and 160 marks, Buescher stabilized his advantage within less than a second over a hard-charging Larson while Busch retained third place ahead of Hamlin and Gibbs. Behind, Chastain and Reddick battled dead even for a top-10 spot while Elliott and Bell battled for 11th place.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 165, Buescher captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Larson settled in second followed by Hamlin, Busch and Truex while Gibbs, Bowman, Reddick, Chastain and Gragson were scored in the top 10 on the track. By then, 29 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.

During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Buescher pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Larson returned atop the leaderboard after he edged Buescher off of pit road first while Busch, Gibbs, Truex, Chastain, Reddick, Elliott, Gragson and Bell followed suit in the top 10. Amid the pit stops, however, Buescher, who had part of a windshield tear off floating atop his car, was penalized for his pit crew jumping over the pit wall too soon prior to his service and was sent to the rear of the field.

With 94 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Larson and Busch occupied the front row. At the start, Larson fended off Busch and Truex to retain the lead through the first two turns and through the backstretch as the field behind fanned out. With the field fanning out as wide as four lanes during the following lap, Larson was ahead of Busch with the lead while Truex, Gibbs and Reddick were running in the top five. Another lap later, however, the caution returned after Jimmie Johnson was hit by LaJoie in Turn 1 and sent for a spin before he veered back across the track and crashed hard against the outside wall as Hemric and Hill were also collected. The incident left Johnson disappointed with LaJoie as he ended up with his first DNF of the season and strapped in 38th place, dead last.

During the following restart period with 84 laps remaining, Larson and Busch again battled dead even for the lead through the first two turns until Larson muscled ahead from the inside lane. Busch, however, crossed over to the inside lane in his bid to claim the lead, which he led the following lap by a mere margin as Truex closed in. Shortly after, however, the caution returned for a multi-car crash through the backstretch that started when Hamlin, who was running within the top 10, went up the track and was squeezed into the backstretch’s outside wall by teammate Bell into Cindric, where Cindric veered sideways before he spun his No. 2 Snap-On Ford Mustang Dark Horse back down the track and clipped both Wallace and McDowell as all three were sent spinning while the rest of the field scattered to avoid the carnage.

The next two restart periods, one with 77 laps remaining and another with 71 laps remaining, were quickly halted with two caution periods. The first with 77 laps remaining occurred during the following lap when Harrison Burton, who was running towards the rear of the field, spun his No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse entering the backstretch as he needed a wrecker to tow his car back to pit road after he flattened his rear tires. The second caution period with 71 laps remaining also struck a lap after the restart when Logano spun his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse entering Turn 4 as he too flattened his rear tires.

During the initial caution period for Burton’s incident, select names including Hamlin, Buescher and McDowell pitted while the rest led by Busch and Larson remained on the track. During the latest caution period for Logano’s incident, however, a majority of the field led by Larson and Busch pitted while select names led by Gilliland and including Hamlin and Buescher remained on the track.

As the event restarted with 62 laps remaining, the field quickly fanned out to multiple lanes through the frontstretch as Hamlin used the outside lane to muscle ahead with the lead through the first two turns. Buescher followed suit in the runner-up spot through the backstretch and Wallace challenged Gilliland for third place while Busch was trying to fight his way back to the front as he was up to fifth place in front of McDowell, Bell and the field.

Down to the final 60 laps of the event, the battle for the lead between Hamlin and Buescher ignited as Buescher used the apron to overtake Hamlin from the frontstretch to the first two turns. As Busch carved his way up to third place, Hamlin would reassume the lead from Buescher with 54 laps remaining. By then, Busch retained third place while Larson carved his way up to fourth place.

With 50 laps remaining, Hamlin was leading by two-tenths of a second over Buescher, who continued to stalk Hamlin for the lead amid their side-by-side battle earlier, while third-place Hamlin trailed by a second and fourth-place Larson trailed by more than a second. Behind, Gilliland continued to run in fifth place ahead of teammate McDowell, Wallace, Bell, Truex and Elliott while Hocevar, Reddick, Haley, LaJoie, Keselowski, Gragson, Blaney, rookie Josh Berry, Stenhouse and Byron trailed in the top 20.

Ten laps later, Hamlin continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Buescher while Busch and Larson continued to trail the lead by more than a second. Buescher then transitioned to the outside lane as he drew even alongside Hamlin for the following lap before Hamlin rocketed back ahead and blocked Buescher through the frontstretch’s apron with 38 laps remaining. Not long after, Larson overtook Busch for third place as Truex overtook Gilliland to move into the top five while Bell carved his way into seventh place ahead of McDowell.

With less than 30 laps remaining, Hamlin stabilized his advantage to within two- and three-tenths of a second over Buescher while third-place Larson trailed by a second. Behind, Busch retained fourth place ahead of Truex while Bell, Gilliland, Elliott, Keselowski and McDowell were scored in the top 10 ahead of Blaney, Haley, Reddick, Wallace and Hocevar.

Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Hamlin and Buescher, both of whom were running on fumes with concerns about not having enough fuel to the scheduled distance, continued to run first and second on the track, with Hamlin leading by three-tenths of a second ahead of Buescher. Behind, Larson, who has enough fuel to finish, continued to trail in third place by while Busch and Truex occupied the top five.

Five laps later, Hamlin slightly stretched his advantage to six-tenths of a second over Buescher while third-place Larson continued to trail by more than a second. Hamlin would then extend his advantage to more than a second over Buescher while Larson, Truex and Busch trailed within three seconds with 10 laps remaining.

Two laps later, Truex, who was charging strong after overtaking both Larson and Busch, overtook Buescher for the runner-up spot through the frontstretch. Larson would then drop to sixth as Busch and Keselowski overtook him for top-five spots while Truex started to close in on teammate Hamlin for the lead amid lapped traffic.

Then with seven laps remaining, the caution flew after Kyle Busch, who was running in the top five, got loose and spun his No. 8 Cheddar’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 towards the apron from the first two turns and through the backstretch. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Hamlin pitted for service. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategies, Hamlin exited pit road first following a two-tire pit stop as he was followed by Buescher, Larson, Elliott, Blaney, Gragson, Bowman, John Hunter Nemechek and Corey Heim, all of whom elected for a two-tire pit service, while Truex exited in 10th place with four fresh tires.

With the event restarting in overtime, Hamlin and Buescher, both of whom restarted on the front row in front of Larson and Elliott, led the field to the start until Larson, who restarted behind Hamlin, quickly made a move beneath Hamlin in a three-wide bid for the lead. With Elliott joining the battle, Buescher managed to muscle ahead from the outside lane to emerge with the lead ahead of Larson, Hamlin and Elliott through the backstretch. Larson then tried to make a move beneath Buescher entering Turns 3 and 4, but Buescher blocked Larson, which caused the latter to move up the track and regain his momentum as Hamlin was pinned in a three-wide battle with Elliott and Truex for third place.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Buescher remained as the leader by a tenth of a second over Larson while Truex was trying to muscle away from Hamlin and Elliott to occupy third place. Then after stalking Buescher through the first two turns and through the backstretch, Larson gained a draft on Buescher and made his move to the outside lane as Buescher was trying to squeeze Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 against the outside wall through Turns 3 and 4. Despite being rubbed and squeezed towards the wall, Larson then started to emerge ahead as both he and Buescher made contact while Truex and Elliott were trying to join the battle. Larson then veered left and rammed into the side of Buescher’s No. 17 Castrol Edge Ford Mustang Dark Horse to stall his momentum, which nearly got Buescher loose, but Buescher kept his foot in the gas, as both he and Larson crossed the finish line dead even ahead of Truex and Elliott.

When the dust settled, Larson, who was initially told that Buescher had won, emerged as the race winner by 0.001 seconds over Buescher, which set a new closest-recorded finish in the history of NASCAR’s premier series. Larson’s margin of victory over Buescher broke the previous record of 0.002 seconds that was made twice: once by Ricky Craven at Darlington Raceway in 2003 and the second made by Jimmie Johnson at Talladega Superspeedway in 2011.

Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.

With the victory, Larson notched his 25th career win in NASCAR’s premier series, which placed him in a tie with Jim Paschal and Joe Weatherly on the all-time wins list. He also recorded his second victory at Kansas Speedway, his second of the 2024 Cup Series season after winning his first of the year at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March, and his 19th driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. In addition, the victory was the sixth of the season for Hendrick Motorsports and the seventh for the Chevrolet nameplate as Larson became the third competitor to repeat as a race winner alongside teammate William Byron and Denny Hamlin through the first 12 events on the 2024 schedule.

“That was wild,” Larson said on FS1. “I was obviously thankful for that last caution [with seven laps remaining]. We were dying pretty bad. [I] Was happy to come out third and figured my best shot was me choosing the bottom [lane] and just try and split three wide to the inside. [It] Worked out. My car turned well and was able to get some runs. Got through [Turns] 1 and 2 really good down the backstretch and had a big tow on Chris [Buescher]. I just committed really hard up top and wasn’t quite sure if we were gonna make it to the other side. I got super loose in the center and then, I’m trying not to get too far ahead of him to where he can side-draft. Then I was trying to kill his run, so it was just crazy. That race from start to finish was amazing. You [fans] got your money’s worth today. I’m just proud to be a part of the show.”

“I didn’t know if I won or not,” Larson added. “I was pumped for the finish. I got to about Turn 3 and [spotter] Tyler [Monn] was going crazy up on the [spotter’s] roof, so just incredible finish there. I wish we have more mile-and-a-halfs [tracks]. These mile-and-a-halfs, these cars just race so amazing. This is so cool. Month of May is gonna be great for us, so hopefully, this just starts some momentum.”

As Larson was left beaming and celebrating on the frontstretch, Buescher was left dejected on pit road after coming up a nose shy of etching the first victory of the season for himself, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing and the new Ford Mustang Dark Horse stock car.

“I don’t know what to say right now,” Buescher said. “That sucks to be that close. It was a great finish for us. A really strong day, a lot of speed in this Castrol Edge Ford Mustang. We really needed that. Needed a win more. [I] Thought I might have had that one. [I] Tried to cover what I could and gave [Larson] half a lane too much, I suppose, but good hard race there right there down to the line, but that hurts.”

Meanwhile, Chase Elliott edged Martin Truex Jr. to finish third while Denny Hamlin, who led a race-high 71 laps, ended up in fifth place.

Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Noah Gragson and Michael McDowell finished in the top 10.

There were 27 lead changes for 10 different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 43 laps. In addition, 31 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the 12th event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Kyle Larson leads the regular-season standings by 29 points over Martin Truex Jr., 55 over Chase Elliott, 56 over Denny Hamlin and 93 over Tyler Reddick.

Results.

1. Kyle Larson, 63 laps led

2. Chris Buescher, 54 laps led, Stage 2 winner

3. Chase Elliott

4. Martin Truex Jr.

5. Denny Hamlin, 71 laps led, Stage 1 winner

6. Christopher Bell, five laps led

7. Alex Bowman

8. Kyle Busch, 14 laps led

9. Noah Gragson

10. Michael McDowell

11. Brad Keselowski, one lap led

12. Ryan Blaney

13. John Hunter Nemechek

14. Todd Gilliland, four laps led

15. Josh Berry

16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

17. Bubba Wallace

18. Justin Haley

19. Ross Chastain, 43 laps led

20. Tyler Reddick, seven laps led

21. Chase Briscoe

22. Corey Heim

23. William Byron

24. Carson Hocevar

25. Austin Dillon

26. Corey LaJoie

27. Daniel Suarez

28. Ryan Preece

29. Zane Smith

30. Daniel Hemric

31. Derek Kraus, six laps led

32. Ty Gibbs, one lap down

33. Austin Hill, one lap down

34. Joey Logano, two laps down

35. Riley Herbst, two laps down

36. Harrison Burton, six laps down

37. Austin Cindric – OUT, Accident

38. Jimmie Johnson – OUT, Accident

Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, May 12, and air at 3 p.m. ET on FS1.

May 5, 2024
Chase Elliott snaps one-year winless drought by claiming a wild Cup victory at Texas

After striving to rebound on the track following a difficult 2023 season, Chase Elliott made a triumphant return to Victory Lane in the NASCAR Cup Series division for the first time in over a year after motoring his way to win the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, April 14, amid two overtime shootouts.

The 2020 Cup Series champion from Dawsonville, Georgia, led three times for 39 of 276 over-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified 24th but implemented an early strategic move by remaining on the track during an early cycle of green flag pit stops and leading for the first time on Lap 41. An ensuing caution on Lap 50 for an on-track incident played into the favors for Elliott and the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team, where they then pitted and proceeded to claim a top-10 result and a handful of stage points during the first stage period.

Then amid a bevy of on-track chaos, caution periods and dramatic restarts, Elliott, who maneuvered his way through the chaos, was left to fend off Denny Hamlin and Ross Chastain through three late-race restarts, the latter two being overtime shootouts. After Hamlin wrecked during the first restart with two laps remaining, Elliott managed to muscle ahead of Chastain during the second overtime shootout and take the white flag to start the final lap before Chastain got wrecked by William Byron, which concluded the event under caution and delivered Elliott an emotional return to the Cup Series Victory Lane for the first time both at Texas and in 42 races.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, April 13, Kyle Larson notched his third consecutive Cup pole position in recent weeks and the 250th series pole for Hendrick Motorsports after he posted a pole-winning lap at 190.369 mph in 28.366 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Ty Gibbs, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 190.134 mph in 28.401 seconds.

Prior to the event, Kyle Busch dropped to the rear of the field in a backup car after he wrecked his primary car during Saturday’s practice session. Kaz Grala and Jimmie Johnson, who also wrecked during the practice session, also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective cars.

When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Kyle Larson muscled ahead in his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 with the lead through the first two turns. With the field behind fanning out and jostling for early positions, Larson proceeded to lead the first lap ahead of Ty Gibbs while Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick and Chase Briscoe trailed in the top five. Larson would proceed to lead by eight-tenths of a second over Gibbs by the fifth lap mark.

Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Larson was leading by a second over Gibbs followed by Bell, Reddick and Briscoe while Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Austin Cindric, Bubba Wallace and Michael McDowell followed suit in the top 10. Behind, Martin Truex Jr. occupied 11th place ahead of teammate Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain and rookie Carson Hocevar while Chris Buescher, Austin Dillon, Noah Gragson, Daniel Suarez and rookie Zane Smith were running in the top 20.

Ten laps later, Larson stabilized his advantage to a second over Gibbs while Bell, Reddick and Briscoe continued to run in the top five ahead of Blaney, Byron, Cindric, Wallace and McDowell.

Just past the Lap 30 mark, Larson continued to lead by nearly a second over Gibbs as Bell, Reddick and Blaney trailed in the top five. Behind, Byron occupied sixth place ahead of Briscoe, who was running ahead of Cindric while Wallace and Hamlin were in the top 10 ahead of Bowman, McDowell, Chastain, Truex and Hocevar.

By Lap 35 and with the leader Larson starting to approach lapped traffic, a cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Hamlin, who was running 10th, pitted his No. 11 Yahoo! Toyota Camry XSE. More names including Cindric, Wallace, McDowell, Truex, Chris Buescher, Ryan Preece and Noah Gragson pitted during the proceeding lap before the leader Larson led a bevy of front runners to pit road for service by Lap 37.

On Lap 40 and with the cycle of green flag pit stops still occurring, Gibbs, who led the previous five laps, pitted as Chase Elliott cycled into the lead. Behind, Todd Gilliland, Austin Hill and Daniel Hemric, all of whom have yet to pit, were running second to fourth, respectively, while Larson was running fourth as he was trying to cycle his way back to the front.

Then on Lap 50, the event’s first caution period flew after Jimmie Johnson, who was running 36th, got sideways and spun his No. 84 AdventHealth Toyota Camry XSE in Turn 4. The caution occurred as Elliott, Todd Gilliland, Hill and Hemric had yet to pit. During the caution period, select names that included Elliott, Gilliland, Hill, Wallace, Blaney, Hemric, Truex, Chastain and McDowell pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track. Truex would then pit for a second time to address a loose wheel along with teammate Gibbs.

As the event restarted under green on Lap 55, Larson muscled ahead from Bell to retain the lead as the field fanned out through the first two turns and the backstretch. With Reddick, Hamlin and Briscoe trailing in the top five as Byron dropped to sixth, Larson would continue to lead just past the Lap 60 mark.

Nearing the Lap 75 mark, Larson was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Bell while Hamlin, Reddick and Briscoe continued to run in the top five ahead of Elliott, a hard-charging Blaney, McDowell, Byron and Wallace. By then, Truex was in 13th and Gibbs was mired in 21st ahead of Nemechek.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 80, Larson captured his fifth Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Bell settled in second ahead of teammate Hamlin, Reddick and Briscoe while Blaney, Elliott, McDowell, Byron and Wallace were scored in the top 10. By then, 32 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.

Under the stage break, select names led by Blaney remained on the track while the rest led by Larson pitted for service, where Truex would then manage to beat Larson off of pit road following his pit service. Amid the pit stops, Gilliland was penalized for equipment interference while Zane Smith was also penalized for removing equipment from his pit stall.

The second stage period started on Lap 88 as Blaney and Hill occupied the front row. At the start, Blaney and Hill battled for the lead through the first two turns. Blaney would then muscle his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead with the lead from Hill as Gibbs and Buescher followed suit in third and fourth, respectively, while Larson was scored in fifth place on four fresh tires. As Blaney led through the Lap 90 mark, Elliott occupied sixth place ahead of teammate Byron and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Hamlin, Truex and Bell while Larson overtook Buescher and Gibbs to boost up to third place.

At the Lap 100 mark, the caution returned when Bell, who was running 10th, snapped sideways and backed his No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE into the outside wall in Turn 4. Amid Bell’s incident, a chain reaction within the middle of the field ensued as Alex Bowman got turned before he received a hard hit by John Hunter Nemechek, thus leaving all three competitors with significant damage to their respective cars. By then, Blaney was leading by a narrow margin over a hard-charging Larson while Hamlin, Gibbs and Elliott were running in the top five. In addition, Hill, who was running towards the front, had pitted his No. 33 United Rentals Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry due to a steering issue, an issue that would send Hill to the garage.

During the caution period, nearly the lead lap field led by Blaney pitted for service while Gilliland remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Larson exited with the lead followed by Hamlin, Truex, Elliott, McDowell, Reddick and Chastain, respectively, as Blaney exited out of pit road in eighth place ahead of Byron and Wallace. Amid the pit stops, Buescher was penalized for equipment interference.

As the event restarted on Lap 106, the field fanned out through the first two turns, where Wallace lost a bevy of spots as he went wide through the turns following contact with Gibbs. Back at the front, Larson would overtake Gilliland to reassume the lead through the frontstretch and during the following lap. Truex and Hamlin would follow suit in second and third, respectively, while Reddick and Chastain battled for fifth. Meanwhile, Larson retained the lead by nearly a second over Truex by the Lap 110 mark.

Then following another caution period that started on Lap 113 after Hocevar, who was mired in 23rd, spun in Turn 1, trouble struck for the leader Larson, who lost a right-rear wheel on the track entering Turn 1. The issue cost Larson two laps for a penalty as Hamlin cycled into the lead followed by teammate Truex, Gilliland, Reddick and Chastain.

During the following restart period on Lap 118, the field fanned out again through the first two turns as teammates Hamlin and Truex battled for the lead. Hamlin would fend off Truex to retain the lead by the Lap 120 mark, where Larson then returned following his two-lap penalty. By Lap 121, however, the caution returned after rookie Josh Berry spun his No. 4 Miner Ford Mustang Dark Horse in Turn 2 after Ricky Stenhouse Jr. came across Berry’s nose, which got the latter loose, from 12th place.

With the event restarting on Lap 125, teammates Hamlin and Truex battled for the lead for a second time, with Hamlin prevailing after nearly a full lap of battle while the rest of the field behind also fanned out and jostled for positions. Behind, Ross Chastain nearly made contact with Reddick as he claimed third place followed by Gilliland while Reddick was overtaken by Gilliland, McDowell, Blaney and Elliott amid his near-contact with Chastain. Amid the battles, Hamlin retained the lead by nearly a second over teammate Truex while third-place Chastain trailed by a second in third place by Lap 130.

At the halfway mark in between Laps 133 and 134, Hamlin was leading by more than a second over Chastain, who overtook Truex for the spot, while Front Row Motorsports’ Gilliland and McDowell trailed in fourth and fifth ahead of Blaney, Elliott, Byron, Joey Logano and Reddick. Behind, Stenhouse occupied 11th place ahead of Ryan Preece, Briscoe, Erik Jones and Noah Gragson while Austin Cindric, Zane Smith, Gibbs, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski followed suit in the top 20.

A few laps later, the caution returned after Berry spun and wrecked against the outside wall in Turn 2 for a second time. Compared to his first incident, Berry’s latest incident was enough for the Tennessee native to steer his car to the garage and retire with a DNF. During the caution period, some led by Chastain remained on the track while the rest led by Hamlin and Truex pitted.

With the event restarting under green on Lap 142, Chastain and McDowell battled for the lead in front of a stacked field for nearly a full lap until the caution quickly returned after McDowell snapped sideways while running on the outside lane and backed his No. 34 Love’s Travel Stop Ford Mustang Dark Horse hard into the outside wall as the field scattered to avoid McDowell’s wrecked car. The caution enabled Larson to acquire one of his two lost laps in the process.

With 18 laps remaining in the second stage period, the event restarted under green. At the start, Chastain muscled his No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead through the first two turns while Stenhouse and Jones battled for second in front of Wallace, Keselowski, Hocevar and Hamlin. Jones would overtake Stenhouse during the following lap as Chastain extended his advantage to more than a second, all while Wallace retained fourth in front of Hocevar, Keselowski and Hamlin.

By Lap 155, Chastain continued to lead by nearly a second over Jones while Wallace, Keselowski and Stenhouse trailed in the top five. Behind, Chase Briscoe, the first competitor running on four fresh tires, was mired in ninth behind Hocevar, Harrison Burton and Blaney while Hamlin was in 10th and trying to fend off teammate Ty Gibbs for the spot.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 165, Chastain captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Wallace, who overtook Jones for the runner-up spot earlier, settled in second followed by Blaney, Erik Jones and Briscoe while Keselowski, Burton, Stenhouse, Gibbs and Elliott were scored in the top 10. By then, 32 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap while Reddick, Hamlin and Byron mired from 11th to 13th, respectively. In addition, Truex was mired back in 21st in between Logano and Daniel Suarez.

During the stage break, some led by Chastain pitted while the rest led by Wallace remained on the track. By then, Larson, who was the first competitor scored a lap down during the second stage’s conclusion, cycled back onto the lead lap.

With 95 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Wallace and Briscoe occupied the front row. At the start, Wallace and Briscoe battled for the lead through the first two turns until Harrison Burton stretched the battle to three lanes as he made his bid for the top spot. Then through Turns 3 and 4, the caution returned after Wallace got loose and slipped his No. 23 Columbia Toyota Camry XSE up the track, where he slid sideways as Briscoe also got sideways in his No. 14 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang Dark Horse and was sent for a spin as both he and Wallace dropped within the leaderboard while Burton assumed the lead ahead of Reddick, Hamlin, Elliott and Zane Smith.

During the following restart with 90 laps remaining, Burton rocketed ahead and retained the lead from both Hamlin and Reddick through the first two turns. Behind, Elliott fended off Zane Smith and Byron to retain fourth in front of a stacked field while Burton was trying to fend off Reddick for the lead, but Reddick prevailed with 88 laps remaining. The caution, however, returned a lap later after Blaney, who was running 15th, spun and wrecked hard against the Turn 2 outside wall amid contact with Preece.

As the event restarted with 83 laps remaining, Reddick and Burton battled for the lead until Reddick retained the lead in front of the field. Behind, Hamlin would then move into the runner-up spot followed by Elliott, teammate Byron and Zane Smith while Burton dropped to sixth in front of Gibbs. With numerous contenders trying to aggressively carve their way back to the front amid a stacked field, Reddick retained the lead by six-tenths of a second over owner Hamlin with 80 laps remaining.

With 70 laps remaining, Reddick was leading by a second-and-a-half in his NO. 45 The Beast Unleashed Toyota Camry XSE over Hamlin followed by Elliott, Byron and Smith while Gibbs, Gragson, Truex, Buescher and Stenhouse were running in the top 10 ahead of Erik Jones, Burton, Chastain, Keselowski, Preece, Logano, Austin Cindric, John Hunter Nemechek, Gilliland and Corey LaJoie. Meanwhile, Larson was mired in 23rd in front of Kyle Busch, Wallace and Briscoe, Jimmie Johnson was in 28th behind Hocevar and Austin Dillon was mired in 30th in between Daniel Suarez and Daniel Hemric.

Ten laps later, Reddick extended his advantage to five seconds over Hamlin while Elliott, Byron and Smith continued to run in the top five, but trail by within 11 seconds. Behind, teammates Gibbs and Truex battled for sixth place in front of Stenhouse, Noah Gragson, Chastain and Jones while Logano, Keselowski, Preece and Nemechek occupied the top 15 spots.

Then with approximately 55 laps remaining, a cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Byron pitted followed by teammate Elliott and Gragson. By then, Cindric, Justin Haley and Buescher pitted before the leader Reddick pitted with 54 laps remaining along with Hamlin, Stenhouse, Smith, Gibbs and Jones. Amid the pit stops, Hamlin overtook Reddick and exited ahead of him on pit road after the latter endured a slow pit stop towards the right-rear end. With more names including Truex and Stenhouse pitting, Chastain, whose previous pit stop occurred with 99 laps remaining, was leading. Chastain would then pit with 50 laps remaining along with Larson as Joey Logano cycled into the lead.

With 40 laps remaining, Logano, who last pitted with 92 laps remaining and has yet to make another pit stop to finish, continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over Keselowski followed by Preece, LaJoie and Busch while Briscoe, Suarez, Hocevar, Austin Dillon and Hemric were racing in the top 10. Behind, Reddick was running 13th ahead of Hamlin, both of whom were racing on four fresh tires, while Truex was mired towards the rear of the field after making a second pit stop under green to address a loose wheel.

A lap later, the caution flew after Nemechek snapped sideways while battling Cindric and backed his No. 42 Romco Toyota Camry XSE into the outside wall in Turn 4, which sent him into the garage area and out of the event. During the caution period, some led by Logano pitted while the rest led by Reddick remained on the track as Reddick cycled back into the lead.

Down to the final 33 laps of the event, the field restarted under green. At the start, Reddick received a push from Elliott to briefly muscle ahead of Hamlin until Elliott made his move and overtook both to assume the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. With Elliott leading, Hamlin settled in second ahead of Chastain while Reddick slipped to fourth in front of a multi-car battle between Byron, Keselowski, Briscoe, Preece, Suarez and Busch.

With 25 laps remaining, Elliott retained the lead by nearly a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Hamlin. Two laps later, however, Hamlin battled and overtook Elliott amid a fierce battle for the lead. Another lap later and just as Hamlin muscled ahead of Elliott entering the backstretch, Reddick, who was trying to muscle his way back to the lead, slid into the outside wall towards the backstretch and dropped from third to eighth, though the event remained under green flag conditions.

Down to the final 15 laps of the event, Hamlin was leading by six-tenths of a second over Elliott while Brad Keselowski, who was slowly clocking in lap times that were faster than Hamlin and Elliott, trailed in third place by seven-tenths of a second. Meanwhile, fourth-place Chastain trailed by three seconds along with teammate Suarez while Byron, Reddick, Briscoe, Preece and Logano followed suit in the top 10.

Then two laps later, the caution flew after Stenhouse, who was locked into a fierce battle with Ty Gibbs, went wide through Turns 1 and 2 before he slid his No. 47 Boost by Kroger Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the outside wall and spun before coming to a stop in Turn 2. During the caution period, select names including Wallace, Jones, Bell, Gragson, Burton, Truex and Jimmie Johnson pitted while the rest led by Hamlin remained on the track.

Just as the event restarted under green with eight laps remaining, the caution quickly returned after Zane Smith and Larson made contact that sent Larson loose and sliding up toward the outside wall in Turn 1. At the moment of caution, Elliott managed to reassume the lead from Hamlin while Chastain, Keselowski and Byron were scored in the top five.

Then during the following restart with two laps remaining, the event was sent into overtime after Hamlin, who battled dead event with Elliott for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch, slipped sideways in between Turns 3 and 4 and spun as he backed his car into the outside wall. Amid the carnage, Elliott escaped with the lead while Chastain, Keselowski, Byron and Suarez were scored in the top five.

The start of the first overtime period did not last long as Burton and Kaz Grala wrecked in Turn 1, where Elliott fended off Chastain to retain the lead followed by Keselowski, Byron and Suarez. The start of the second overtime period generated a different outcome as Elliott and Chastain battled dead even through the first two turns and the backstretch before Elliott cleared Chastain to assume the lead and have both lanes to his control entering the frontstretch.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started amid a bevy of on-track battles, Elliott remained as the leader by a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Chastain. Then in the backstretch, Byron, who charged his way up to third, turned Chastain sideways into the outside wall in the backstretch as Chastain was left spinning across the middle of the track. The incident was enough for NASCAR officials to display the caution and conclude the event under caution as Elliott, who muscled his No. 9 Hooters Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 away from the carnage, was able to coast his car back to the frontstretch and claim the checkered flag for a triumphant return to the Cup Series Victory Lane.

With the victory, Elliott, who became the sixth winner through the first nine events on the 2024 schedule, recorded his 19th career win in the NASCAR Cup Series level, his first at Texas Motor Speedway and his first since winning at Talladega Superspeedway in October 2022 as he snapped a 42-year winless drought in the process. The victory, which also snapped a one-year winless drought for Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 9 team led by championship-winning crew chief Alan Gustafson, marks the sixth of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate and the fifth for Hendrick Motorsports as Elliott placed himself in a guaranteed spot of making the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs.

During his victory celebration on the frontstretch, Elliott, who piloted his sponsor Hooters to the race win, took a moment to recognize the late Alan Kulwicki, who piloted his own-operated Hooters-sponsored entry to the 1992 Cup Series championship by beating Chase Elliott’s father, Bill, during the season-finale event at Atlanta Motor Speedway, by doing a Polish Victory Lap, Kulwicki’s on-track trademark victory celebration, across the frontstretch.

Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.

“Man, [the win] couldn’t feel any better,” Elliott, who received a chorus of cheers from the grandstands, said on FS1. “[Sponsor] Hooters has been a partner of ours for a number of years now and it’s been a dream of mine to pay respect to the late Alan Kulwicki. Driving this car to victory and being able to do a Polish Victory Lap. Just really crazy how things came full circle there in that moment. It was pretty emotional for me. [Kulwicki] beat dad [Bill Elliott] back in the day and here we are sharing his sponsor and having an opportunity to win today. Just couldn’t be more grateful for this journey and the path that hasn’t always been fun, but certainly have enjoyed working with our guys. We’ve been working really hard and really well together. We’ve enjoyed the fight together.”

Following an extensive review of the finishing order amid the final lap caution, Brad Keselowski, who is still seeking his first Cup victory since 2021 and his first as a co-owner of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, ended up in second place followed by William Byron while Tyler Reddick and Daniel Suarez ended up in the top five.

Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace rallied from their on-track incident to finish sixth and seventh, respectively, while Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch and rookie Carson Hocevar ended up in the top 10.

Notably, Joey Logano ended up 11th, Ty Gibbs settled in 13th ahead of teammate Martin Truex Jr., Christopher Bell finished 17th, Kyle Larson came home in 21st and Jimmie Johnson finished 29th in his second Cup start of the 2024 season. In addition, Denny Hamlin settled in 30th while Ross Chastain, who was unable to limp his damaged car to the finish line, ended up 32nd with a DNF.

There were 23 lead changes for 13 different leaders. The race featured 16 cautions for 72 laps. In total, 31 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the ninth event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Kyle Larson leads the regular-season standings by 18 points over Martin Truex Jr., 29 over Denny Hamlin, 33 over Chase Elliott and 39 over William Byron.

Results.

1. Chase Elliott, 39 laps led

2. Brad Keselowski

3. William Byron

4. Tyler Reddick, 37 laps led

5. Daniel Suarez

6. Chase Briscoe

7. Bubba Wallace, five laps led

8. Austin Dillon

9. Kyle Busch

10. Carson Hocevar

11. Joey Logano, 14 laps led

12. Ryan Preece

13. Ty Gibbs, five laps led

14. Martin Truex Jr.

15. Chris Buescher

16. Ty Dillon

17. Christopher Bell, one lap led

18. Noah Gragson

19. Erik Jones

20. Daniel Hemric

21. Kyle Larson, 77 laps led, Stage 1 winner

22. Corey LaJoie

23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

24. Justin Haley

25. Austin Cindric

26. Zane Smith

27. Kaz Grala

28. Harrison Burton, seven laps led

29. Jimmie Johnson

30. Denny Hamlin, 37 laps led

31. Todd Gilliland, three laps led

32. Ross Chastain – OUT, Accident, 33 laps led, Stage 2 winner

33. Ryan Blaney, eight laps led, 17 laps led

34. John Hunter Nemechek – OUT, Accident

35. Michael McDowell – OUT, Accident

36. Josh Berry – OUT, Accident

37. Alex Bowman – OUT, Accident

38. Austin Hill – OUT, Steering, one lap led

Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, April 21, and air at 3 p.m. ET on FOX.

April 14, 2024
NASCAR: History of Leap Day Racing

Today marks Leap Day, February 29, where an extra day is included in the calendar every four years and occurs due to Earth taking 365 days and an extra six hours to orbit around the Sun. The gain of an extra day within the 365-day calendar ensures the calendar itself remains aligned with Earth revolving around the Sun.

With Leap Day providing its share of historic events and birthdays throughout human history, the holiday date has also provided a handful of significant moments within NASCAR history.

The first known NASCAR competition to occur on Leap Day dates to February 29, 1976, at North Carolina Motor Speedway, where the Cup Series’ Carolina 500 occurred. During the event, Richard Petty won for the first time of the season after claiming the checkered flag by two laps over runner-up Darrell Waltrip and dodging a late multi-car pileup that resulted in Bobby Allison flipping. The victory was redemption for Petty, who was involved in a wild final lap accident and finish with David Pearson two weeks earlier that resulted in Pearson managing to nurse his damaged No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Mercury across the finish line in first place ahead of Petty, whose car was unable to restart.

The 1976 victory at Rockingham’s North Carolina Motor Speedway would serve as Petty’s 178th of 200 overall Cup victories he would achieve, where he still stands as NASCAR’s “The King” with the most career victories all-time to coincide with his seven championships, which is tied for the most in the Cup Series history alongside Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson. Currently, Petty, who retired from NASCAR competition following the 1992 season, serves as a team ambassador for Legacy Motor Club, a team he formerly owned and is currently owned by Johnson and Maury Gallagher. The team was rebranded from Petty GMS Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports, both names that stood out over the last 14 years.

Sixteen years later (1992), another Leap Day event at North Carolina Motor Speedway occurred. On this occasion, the Xfinity Series hosted the Goodwrench 200. During the event, Ward Burton scored his first Xfinity career win after leading the final 22 laps and beating Mark Martin by nine-tenths of a second. The Rockingham victory would serve as Burton’s first of four total victories he would achieve in his Xfinity career, with his latter three occurring in 1993. To date, Burton has made 161 career starts in the Xfinity Series, with his latest occurring in 2007. The South Boston, Virginia, native has also made a single start in the Craftsman Truck Series, which occurred in 2012 and marks his final national touring series career start, and 375 in the Cup Series, where he has achieved five victories, including the 2002 Daytona 500 and the 2001 Southern 500.

In 2008, there were no NASCAR race day competitions that occurred on Leap Day. Instead, the Cup Series held a qualifying session for the upcoming UAW-Dodge 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. During the qualifying session, hometown hero Kyle Busch, who was making his third career start driving the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing, secured his first pole position of the season after posting a pole-winning lap at 182.325 mph in 29.613 seconds. During the main event two days later, Busch, who led twice for 56 laps, ended up in 11th place while Carl Edwards would fend off Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a two-lap dash to win for the ninth time in his career and second in recent weeks.

Today, Edwards, who would proceed to win eight additional events and settle in the runner-up spot behind Jimmie Johnson in the 2008 final standings, is retired with 28 Cup career victories added to his resume after electing to step away from full-time competition following the 2016 season. Earnhardt Jr., who would end up in 12th place in the 2008 standings, also retired following the 2017 season as he stands at 26 Cup career victories, including two Daytona 500 titles. Meanwhile, Busch, who ended up in 10th place in the 2008 standings despite winning a total of eight races, is currently campaigning in his 20th season as a Cup Series competitor and second driving for Richard Childress Racing. He currently has achieved two Cup Series championships (2015 & 2019) and holds 230 victories across NASCAR’s top-three national touring series (65 in Craftsman Truck Series, 102 in Xfinity Series and 63 in Cup Series).

The third and latest NASCAR competition to occur on Leap Day was in 2020 at Auto Club Speedway in the Xfinity Series. During the year’s event, Harrison Burton, Ward Burton’s nephew who was campaigning in his first full-time Xfinity campaign and driving the No. 20 Toyota Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing, scored his first Xfinity victory in his 12th series start after he led twice for 40 laps and managed to retain the top spot during a restart with 19 laps remaining before fending off late challenges from teammate Riley Herbst and Austin Cindric. The Fontana victory would serve as the first of four victories accumulated for Burton throughout the 2020 Xfinity season, with the Huntersville, North Carolina, native securing a spot in the 2020 Xfinity Playoffs. Despite being eliminated from Playoff contention following the Round of 12, Burton, who won twice in the final four-scheduled events, proceeded to finish in eighth place in the final driver’s standings and secured the Rookie-of-the-Year title.

Currently, Burton is campaigning in his third full-time season in the Cup Series for Wood Brothers Racing and as the driver of the No. 21 Ford Mustang Dark Horse. He has made 75 starts in NASCAR’s premier series and has racked up a single top-five result and four top-10 results.

Prior to Harrison Burton’s first Xfinity victory, the Cup Series generated a dramatic moment earlier in the day when Clint Bowyer edged seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson by 0.007 seconds to claim what would be his fourth and final Cup career pole position at Fontana. Bowyer’s pole-winning lap, overall, occurred at 179.614 mph in 40.086 seconds. During the main event, Bowyer, who led the first 10 laps, ended up in 23rd place and Johnson settled in seventh place while Johnson’s teammate, Alex Bowman, won for the second time in his career after leading a race-high 110 laps.

Bowyer and Johnson have since retired from full-time NASCAR competition, which occurred following the 2020 season, while Bowman is currently campaigning in his ninth season in the Cup Series and seventh driving for Hendrick Motorsports.

Photo by David Myers for SpeedwayMedia.com.

For this season, there are no NASCAR-sanctioned events that are scheduled to occur on Leap Day, with the Craftsman Truck Series, Xfinity and Cup divisions set to run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as part of a triple-header weekend between March 1-3. With Leap Day 2028 scheduled to occur on a Tuesday and with race day events primarily occurring on weekends, Leap Day 2032 is scheduled to occur on a Sunday, which leaves the futuristic possibility of another addition to NASCAR competition on Leap Day to be made.

February 29, 2024
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.

February 19, 2024
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.

February 16, 2024
NASCAR Cup Series: First-time winner(s) in 2024?

In 75 years of NASCAR competition, a total of 204 competitors have achieved at least one victory in the sport’s premier series: the Cup Series.

The commencement of the list of Cup Series winners dates back to June 19, 1949, when Jim Roper, a native of Halstead, Kansas, won NASCAR’s first-ever event at Charlotte Speedway after initial winner Glenn Dunaway was disqualified due to illegal springs being detected in his race-winning car during the post-race inspection process.

The most recent occurrence of a first-time Cup Series winner was during NASCAR’s inaugural event on the Streets of Chicago this past July when Shane van Gisbergen, a three-time Supercars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, won in his series debut while driving Trackhouse Racing’s Project 91 entry. In winning at Chicago, van Gisbergen became the seventh different competitor to win in a Cup Series debut, a feat that includes Roper, Jack White, Harold Kite, Leon Sales, Marvin Burke and Johnny Rutherford.

Over the last decade (2014-23), 22 competitors won for the first time in the Cup Series, minus the 2015 season that featured no first-time winners. The list of 22 first-time winners between the 2014-23 seasons is more than the list between the 1974-83 seasons (14), the 1984-93 seasons (15) and the 2004-13 seasons (17), but the same as between the 1994-2003 seasons combined. Currently, the season that holds the all-time record of occurrences of first-time Cup winners is 1950, which featured 12 first-timers, including the season’s eventual champion Bill Rexford.

During the last decade (2014-23), a Cup Series season featured on average two first-time winners, minus the 2017 and 2021 seasons that featured three. Another season within the last decade that did not feature two first-time winners is 2022. Instead, it was a season that featured five first-timers (Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric, Tyler Reddick and Daniel Suarez) stapling their names among NASCAR’s elite, from the past to the present and future, as winners in NASCAR’s premier series. The previous season with the most first-time winners was back in 2011, which also featured five first-time winners (Marcos Ambrose, Trevor Bayne, Paul Menard, David Ragan and Regan Smith).

To date, the 2011 and 2022 seasons along with the 2001 and 2002 seasons hold the record with the most first-time winners in the modern era of NASCAR at five each. Between 2001 and 2002, the following names that include Johnny Benson Jr., Kurt Busch, Ricky Craven, Robby Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman, Elliott Sadler and Michael Waltrip each scored their first Cup career victory.

Additional names that have won in the Cup Series for the first time from 2003 to 2023 include AJ Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Christopher Bell, Greg Biffle, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, Chris Buescher, William Byron, Cole Custer, Austin Dillon, Carl Edwards, Chase Elliott, Justin Haley, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Erik Jones, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, Michael McDowell, Casey Mears, Juan Pablo Montoya, David Reutimann, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Martin Truex Jr., Brian Vickers and Bubba Wallace.

From the list of 49 first-time winners between 2001 to 2023, 37 would proceed to win multiple Cup events. In addition, 10 would become Cup Series champions and 12 would become Daytona 500 champions.

With the 2024 season set to present a new season of Cup Series competition, beginning this upcoming weekend for the third annual running of the Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, it also presents an array of opportunities for a bevy of competitors, new and familiar, to elevate their names and achieve the title of race winner in NASCAR’s premier series.

The competitor who leads the group of potential first-time Cup Series winners entering the 2024 season is Ty Gibbs. The 21-year-old Gibbs, who is the grandson of NASCAR championship-winning team owner and Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs from Charlotte, North Carolina, is coming off his first full-time campaign in the Cup Series, where he achieved the 2023 Rookie-of-the-Year title on the strength of four top-five results, 10 top-10 results, 112 laps led, an average-finishing result of 18.4 and an 18th-place finish in the final standings.

A former champion of both the NASCAR Xfinity Series and the ARCA Menards Series divisions, Gibbs’ highest finish in the Cup Series is fourth place, which occurred at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course last October. He also displayed a strong performance at Bristol Motor Speedway last September, where he led 102 laps before finishing fifth. Having completed his first full-time Cup season, new goals await for Gibbs and the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry XSE team in the form of achieving a first Cup victory, making the Playoffs and continuing to make the presence of running towards the front known frequently.

Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

Another name that stands out as a potential first-time winner is Josh Berry. The 33-year-old Berry from Hendersonville, Tennessee, graduates to the Cup Series to drive the No. 4 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing as he replaces the 2014 Cup champion Kevin Harvick, who retired at the 2023 season’s conclusion. Berry, a former champion of the CARS Late Model Stock Tour is the all-time wins leader in the series and spent the bulk of his career competing in late models and earning his way toward the top level of stock car competition.

He spent the previous three seasons as an Xfinity Series competitor for JR Motorsports, where he made the Playoffs during the last two seasons, made the Championship 4 round in 2022, and notched five series victories. He has also made 10 career starts in the Cup Series, with his first two occurring with Spire Motorsports in 2021.

This past season, he made 10 Cup starts as an interim competitor between Hendrick Motorsports and Legacy Motor Club, where he filled in for top names that included Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman and Noah Gragson. During the short stint, he piloted Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 48 Chevrolet to a non-points victory in the NASCAR All-Star Race Open at North Wilkesboro Speedway that allowed him to compete in his first All-Star Race in May. He also piloted the No. 9 Chevrolet to a career-best runner-up finish behind teammate Kyle Larson at Richmond Raceway in April. With a new opportunity in the form of a new seat in a new team earned for him in 2024, the next goal for Berry is to earn a first Cup career victory.

Next is Harrison Burton, who returns to pilot the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse for a third consecutive Cup season. A 23-year-old, second-generation racer from Huntersville, North Carolina, Burton, who is also the 2017 ARCA Menards Series East champion and a four-time Xfinity Series race winner, is coming off two consecutive seasons in the Cup Series. During those two seasons, he has tallied only a total of four top-10 results, 60 laps led, average-finishing results outside the top-20 mark and final points results below the top-25 mark. His best on-track result was a third-place finish at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in July 2022.

Amid the on-track difficulties, Burton remains optimistic about turning the tide and regaining his competitiveness from his early racing career that would enable him to join his father Jeff, and Uncle Ward, as Cup Series winners. Should Burton accomplish his goal of winning in 2024, he would also strike gold in recording the elusive 100th Cup career win for Wood Brothers Racing, a goal that has eluded the organization since 2017.

After relinquishing his full-time seat at Front Row Motorsports for select events but managing to compete the entire 36-race schedule with select starts with Rick Ware Racing last season, Todd Gilliland reclaims his seat in FRM’s No. 38 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for the entire 2024 season. Like Burton, the 23-year-old, second-generation Gilliland from Sherrills Ford, North Carolina, is also a two-time ARCA Menards Series West champion and a three-time Craftsman Truck Series race winner. is coming off two full-time Cup seasons, where he has only achieved a single top-five result, six top-10 results, 11 laps led, average-finishing results outside the top-20 mark and two consecutive 28th-place finishes in the final standings, with his best result being a fourth-place finish at Indianapolis in July 2022.

Compared to his rookie season in 2022, Gilliland steadily improved his stats to notch 11 top-15 results this past season, which is seven more than the 2022 season, and he tallied a total of 554 points at this season’s conclusion, which is 23 points extra than the previous season. With Front Row Motorsports slowly becoming competitive on a weekly basis and coming off a dominant victory at Indianapolis with teammate Michael McDowell that enabled them to contend in the first round of the 2023 Cup Playoffs, the next step for Gilliland remains to gain more consistency that would enable him to contend for victories with FRM and become the first member of the Gilliland racing family to win in the Cup Series.

Photo by Chad Wells for SpeedwayMedia.com.

Coming off his strongest Cup Series season to date, Corey LaJoie enters the 2024 season with an aim to continue to elevate both himself and Spire Motorsports from the midfield to the front on a consistent basis that would enable both to motor their way to Victory Lane. The 32-year-old, third-generation LaJoie from Kannapolis, North Carolina, is coming off his fifth full-time season in NASCAR’s premier series, second piloting the No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Spire Motorsports, where he recorded career-high stats in top fives (two), top 10s (three) and laps led (66) as he also notched a career-best average-finishing result of 20.8 on the strength of 18 top-20 results and a career-best 25th place in the final standings. Throughout the season, he scored a career-best fourth-place finish twice, the first at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March and the second at Talladega Superspeedway in October, and made a single start in Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 9 entry in place of the suspended Chase Elliott at World Wide Technology Raceway in June, where he finished 21st.

LaJoie’s closet opportunity to win a first Cup event still dates back to July 2022 at Atlanta, where he led 19 laps and was leading during a three-lap shootout until he was overtaken by Elliott during the final lap and wrecked on the final lap while trying to overtake Elliott through the first turn as he plummeted to 21st place in the final running order. Compared to the 2022 season, where he ended up with eight DNFs throughout the 36-race schedule, LaJoie was the only competitor to sustain no DNFs throughout the 2023 campaign, which marks a drastic level of improvement amid a rocky start to his career as the driver strives to march closer to the front and contend for the first Cup victory regularly beyond superspeedway venues.

Coming off a difficult first-time campaign with Stewart-Haas Racing, Ryan Preece aims to turn the tide amid the on-track struggles directed to SHR and Preece’s No. 41 Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry entering the 2024 Cup season. The 33-year-old Preece from Berlin, Connecticut, who is the 2013 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion and a race winner across the Truck and Xfinity Series divisions, made his return to full-time Cup competition after previously competing in the series from 2019 to 2021 with JTG-Daugherty Racing.

Amid five DNFs throughout the 2023 season, including a harrowing barrel-roll accident at Daytona in August while contending for a Playoff berth, Preece managed to pilot SHR’s No. 41 entry to 12 top-15 results and 19 top-20 results throughout the 36-race campaign before settling in 23rd place in the final standings. With Richmond Raceway in late July providing his best run of the season in fifth place, he notched his first pole at Martinsville Speedway in April in an event where he led the first 135 laps before he was penalized early for speeding on pit road and rallying up to 15th place. He also displayed a strong performance during last year’s Busch Light Clash at The Coliseum, where he led a race-high 43 laps before fading to seventh place. After concluding the 2023 season with a steady gain in the form of five top-15 results in the final eight-scheduled events, the next step for Preece involves steadily gaining consistency within the top-10 mark that would enable him to contend and add a Cup Series victory next to his accomplished modified tour resume.

Within this year’s list of potential first-time Cup Series winners, the series will also feature two future stars who have been elevated from Truck Series competition to full-time Cup Series rookies in 2024.

The first is Zane Smith, the 2022 Truck Series champion who won nine series races, including twice at Daytona, in four seasons (92 starts) and made 12 career starts in the Xfinity Series. The 24-year-old Smith from Huntington Beach, California, will pilot the No. 71 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Spire Motorsports in collaboration with Trackhouse Racing, a team which Smith is under contract with on a multi-year basis. While Smith enters the Cup Series as a first-time full-time competitor, he does so with limited Cup starts noted on his resume as he made his series’ debut at World Wide Technology Raceway as an interim competitor for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing in 2022 before making eight starts between Front Row Motorsports and Rick Ware Racing this past season. His best result in the Cup circuit is a 10th-place run at Charlotte Motor Speedway during the Coca-Cola 600 in May followed by a 13th-place finish during the 65th running of the Daytona 500 in February. Having made his name known within the top ranks of NASCAR based on his Truck Series performance and championship, the next step for Smith will involve elevating himself amongst NASCAR’s elite as he contends for both his first series victory and the Rookie-of-the-Year title.

Photo by Kirk Schroll for SpeedwayMedia.com.

Another Cup Series rookie contender who has been elevated from the Truck Series is Carson Hocevar, a 21-year-old native from Portage, Michigan, who comes with three full-time seasons of Truck competition and a total of five Xfinity starts within his resume. A former winner of the Winchester 400, Hocevar is coming off a career year to date, where he notched his first four career victories in the Truck Series and transferred to the Championship 4 round before ending up in third place in the final standings while competing for Niece Motorsports. Amid his full-time Truck campaign, Hocevar made his first nine career starts in NASCAR’s premier series in 2023, with his first occurring at World Wide Technology Raceway in June. He then competed in eight of the final 10 races for Legacy Motor Club, where he achieved a season-best 11th-place result at Bristol in September. Driving the No. 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Spire Motorsports for the 2024 season, Hocevar aims to implement the select Cup starts gained throughout the 2023 season along with his early Truck Series success to gain consistency in NASCAR’s premier series that would enable him to contend for both a first Cup victory and this year’s Rookie-of-the-Year title.

This year’s growing list of potential first-time winners also features a host of names who re-enter the series and aim for redemption by being consistently competitive against NASCAR’s elite. One of the names from this category is Noah Gragson, a competitor who was deemed a prominent star at the start of the 2023 season before his career was placed on a hiatus amid an off-track action that nearly derailed his path to becoming a future Cup Series winner and champion. After graduating to the Cup level with a full-time ride at Legacy Motor Club this past season, the 25-year-old Gragson from Las Vegas, Nevada, competed in 21 events, where he recorded an average-finishing result of 28.2 and a season-best 12th-place finish at Atlanta in March, before being suspended indefinitely from both Legacy Motor Club and NASCAR for violating the sport’s member conduct policy and liking an offensive meme on social media in early August.

A month later, Gragson was reinstated by NASCAR after completing the sport’s diversity and inclusion program. Another three months later, the opportunity for him to return to the Cup level arrived when he was selected as the driver of the No. 10 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing on a multiyear basis, beginning in 2024, as he replaced veteran Aric Almirola, who scaled back to competing on a part-time basis in the Xfinity Series.

Before his suspension, Gragson had already developed a name for himself within the NASCAR ranks, having achieved victories across both the ARCA Menards Series East and West divisions along with the Truck and Xfinity circuits. His best results in championship standings are a pair of runner-up finishes, the first occurring during the 2018 Truck season and the second occurring during the 2022 Xfinity season. The Las Vegas native also campaigned in half of the Cup events throughout the 2022 season between Beard Motorsports, Kaulig Racing and Hendrick Motorsports, where he notched a strong fifth-place run at Daytona while driving the No. 62 Beard entry. With his past success, Gragson strives to make the most of a second opportunity and transform a hard-working, off-season period into success with a championship-winning organization.

Another competitor who returns to full-time Cup Series competition for a second opportunity amid a five-year absence is Daniel Hemric. The 33-year-old Hemric from Kannapolis, North Carolina, who also won the 2010 Legends Million, made his first two Cup career starts in 2018 with Richard Childress Racing before achieving a full-time Cup ride in RCR’s No. 8 entry in 2019. Despite claiming the rookie title, Hemric, who only notched one pole, two top-10 results with an average-finish result of 22.5, was replaced by Tyler Reddick before the 2020 season.

Since the 2020 season, the North Carolina native scaled back down to the Xfinity Series, a series in which he made two Championship 4 appearances in 2017 and 2018, where he started as a part-time competitor for JR Motorsports before returning as a full-time competitor in 2021 with Joe Gibbs Racing. During his series’ return, Hemric achieved a breakthrough moment by achieving both his first Xfinity victory and championship during the 2021 finale at Phoenix. He also recorded a pole, 31 top-five results, 65 top-10 results and nearly 800 laps led while also achieving three Playoff appearances.

With Hemric coming off two full-time Xfinity seasons with Kaulig Racing, where he made the Playoffs and ended up in the top 10 in the final standings during both seasons, an opportunity to return to Cup competition for this season was announced last August as he replaces the departing Justin Haley in Kaulig’s No. 31 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry. With his new Cup ride, the next step for Hemric involves striving to both keep his name in the series and continue to have the final word against his doubters for years to come.

Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images.

Like Hemric, John Hunter Nemechek experienced a similar path in having a first full-time Cup season marred with on-track challenges that resulted in him scaling back down in NASCAR’s divisional ranks and working his way back up to the top to obtain another opportunity to compete against NASCAR’s elite.

A 26-year-old, second-generation racer from Mooresville, North Carolina, Nemechek’s inaugural presence in the Cup Series occurred in the final three events of the 2019 season, where he replaced Matt Tifft to drive for Front Row Motorsports before becoming a full-time FRM competitor in 2020.

After only obtaining three top-10 results and finishing 27th in the final standings with an average-finishing result of 22.4, Nemechek made the big decision to scale back down to the Truck Series and join forces with Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2021 with a goal to win races and regain his competitiveness. Having previously achieved six Truck Series victories and two Playoff appearances in 2016 and 2017, Nemechek quickly regained his competitive form as he notched six victories between 2021 and 2022 with KBM, won the 2021 Truck Series Regular Season championship, clinched a Playoff berth during both seasons and the Championship 4 round in 2021, where he ended up in third place in the final standings.

This past season, Nemechek, who competed for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series, nabbed seven victories and made it to the Championship 4 round, where he contended for the series’ title until a final lap incident during an overtime shootout resulted with the North Carolina native settling in fourth place in the final standings. Nonetheless, this past season marked Nemechek’s strongest in the Xfinity circuit as he ended up with an average-finishing result of 9.5 and finished in the top 10 in all but nine of the 33-race schedule. Now set to pilot the No. 42 Toyota Camry XSE for Legacy Motor Club for the 2024 Cup season amid a rejuvenated, three-year climb back to the top, Nemechek next strives to both etch a new legacy towards his racing family and a new chapter to his racing career in the form of winning in the Cup Series.

Lastly, this year’s list of potential first-time Cup winners features a host of names who will campaign in NASCAR’s premier series on a part-time basis, but remain on the radar for any element of potential on-track surprises. The first name within this category is Anthony Alfredo, who is currently scheduled to make two Cup starts in the No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry for Beard Motorsports, which includes this year’s 66th running of the Daytona 500. The 24-year-old Alfredo from Ridgefield, Connecticut, makes a limited return to the Cup circuit after campaigning in two events with Live Fast Motorsports this past season.

Previously, he competed on a full-time Cup basis with Front Row Motorsports in 2021, where he recorded a single top-10 result, a total of five top-20 results and a 30th-place result in the final standings. To date, he has also made a total of 85 starts in the Xfinity Series and 13 in the Truck Series. Despite having his overall average-finishing result in the Cup circuit hovering outside of the top-25 mark, the Connecticut native’s previous successes of strong runs on superspeedway venues across NASCAR’s top three national touring series along with Beard Motorsports’ grit in vying for spots on superspeedway venues, including the Daytona 500, gives Alfredo a strong sense of optimism to place himself in a potential spot of vying for a victory in the Great American Race. Aside from his part-time Cup campaign, Alfredo is set to compete on a full-time basis in this year’s Xfinity season with Our Motorsports.

After making select premier series starts in three of the previous four seasons, Kaz Grala will campaign in an expanded Cup slate of 26 races, 25 in the No. 15 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Rick Ware Racing and one in the No. 36 Front Row Motorsports Ford Mustang Dark Horse throughout Daytona Speedweeks as he attempts to qualify for this year’s 66th running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.

The 25-year-old Grala from Boston, Massachusetts, notches Cup Series rides for the majority of the 2024 season after competing in this past season’s Xfinity Series circuit with Sam Hunt Racing, where he ended up in 17th place in the final driver’s standings on the strength of nine top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 19.1. In total, Grala has 77 Xfinity career starts and 51 Truck Series starts within his racing resume, with a single victory occurring during the Truck opener at Daytona in 2017.

Meanwhile, the Boston native has only made seven Cup career starts, with his first occurring during the series’ inaugural event at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course in 2020, where he achieved an impressive seventh-place result as a fill-in competitor for Austin Dillon and the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet team after Dillon was absent following a positive COVID-19 test. His other Cup starts include three with Kaulig Racing in 2021 and three with The Money Team Racing in 2022, where he competed in the Daytona 500 during both seasons and notched a career-best sixth-place finish at Talladega in 2021.

Amid his limited Cup starts, the newly formed alliance for Rick Ware Racing with Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, a championship-winning organization that achieved three victories and placed both owner Brad Keselowski and veteran Chris Buescher into the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs, gives both the team and driver a sense of optimism and excitement approaching the new season, with Grala striving to claw his way to the top amongst NASCAR’s elite. Grala’s 2024 campaign with Rick Ware Racing commences with this weekend’s Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum followed by Atlanta Motor Speedway in late February. The rest of his schedule with RWR remains to be determined.

Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.

More than two months after scoring a full-time seat in Kaulig Racing’s No. 11 entry for this year’s NASCAR Xfinity Series season, Josh Williams has scored again by notching a part-time Cup Series ride in Kaulig’s No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry, beginning this upcoming weekend at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the Busch Light Clash. The 30-year-old Williams from Port Charlotte, Florida, leaps into the spotlight amongst NASCAR’s elite with only three previous Cup starts listed in his extensive racing resume that includes 186 career starts in the Xfinity circuit, two in the Truck Series and 102 in the ARCA Menards Series.

Within his three Cup career starts, all occurring with Live Fast Motorsports in 2022, the Floridian managed to finish on average 10 spots better than where he started, with his best results being a pair of 25th-place runs at the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Course and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. Having full confidence in the team’s model and management amid the intensity to boost his performance, Williams strives to capitalize on the biggest opportunity of his racing career by being both consistent and competitive on the track that would enable him to contend for an Xfinity Series championship and potentially become a future Cup Series star. Following The Clash, Williams will make his first points-paying start of the season at Atlanta Motor Speedway in late February while the rest of his schedule remains to be determined. He will have race-winning crew chief Travis Mack as his crew chief and share the No. 16 ride with veteran AJ Allmendinger while the rest of the entry’s driver lineup also remains to be determined.

The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season is set to commence this Sunday, February 4, with the third annual running of the Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum that will air at 8 p.m. ET on FOX. Afterward, the 66th running of the Daytona 500 will follow suit on February 18, which will serve as the first points-paying event on the schedule and provide one of 36 opportunities for any competitors listed above to achieve a first-time win in NASCAR’s premier series. The 2024 Daytona 500’s broadcast time is set to air at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

January 31, 2024
Harrison Burton confirms return to Wood Brothers Racing for 2024 Cup Series season

Harrison Burton will remain with the Wood Brothers Racing and continue to drive the No. 21 Ford Mustang in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, as confirmed during this weekend’s activities at Talladega Superspeedway.

The news comes as the 22-year-old Burton from Huntersville, North Carolina, is currently campaigning in his second full-time season in NASCAR’s premier series for the legendary organization, where he is currently ranked in 31st place in the driver’s standings on the strength of two top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 24.5.

“At the end of the day, it’s fairly easy for me because I am happy where I’m at, and I hope to continue to race where I’m at,” Burton said. “You know, it’s fairly easy for me to kind of just go to work with the guys that I’ve worked with for the last year and a half or so, and yeah, it’s not super distracting at this point.”

During the 2021 season, Burton, who was campaigning in his second full-time stint in the Xfinity Series for Joe Gibbs Racing, made his inaugural presence in the Cup Series at Talladega Superspeedway in April 2021 for Gaunt Brothers Racing, where he finished 20th. Three months later, Burton was named a full-time Cup competitor for Wood Brothers Racing for the 2022 season, where he replaced Matt DiBenedetto and piloted the iconic No. 21 Ford Mustang. In his first full-time Cup season, Burton notched a career-best third-place finish at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. He proceeded to collect two top-10 results, lead 35 laps and record an average-finishing result of 22.8 before settling in 27th place in the final standings and runner-up to the Rookie-of-the-Year battle behind Austin Cindric.

This season, Burton’s highest on-track results include a sixth-place finish at Darlington Raceway in May and an eighth-place run at Pocono Raceway in July. After spending the first 26 scheduled events with crew chief Brian Wilson, who was with Burton since last season, Burton has been paired with veteran crew chief Jeremy Bullins as part of a Team Penske-Wood Brothers crew chief swap that involved Austin Cindric since the start of the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs and the duo are coming off a 20th-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway. Both Burton and Bullins are scheduled to remain together with the No. 21 team for the 2024 season.

Through 67 Cup starts, Burton has notched one top-five result, four top-10 results, 60 laps led and an average-finishing result of 23.5 as he continues his pursuit for his first victory in NASCAR’s premier series.

With his plans for next season set, Burton’s next scheduled Cup start is slated to occur at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, October 1. The event’s coverage is scheduled to air at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.

September 30, 2023
Reddick advances to Playoff’s Round of 12 in thrilling overtime Cup victory at Kansas

A week after being left disappointed with a runner-up finish in the Playoff opener at Darlington Raceway, Tyler Reddick capitalized on a late caution period and an overtime shootout to emerge out in top and race his way into the second round of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs by winning the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, September 10.

The two-time Xfinity Series champion from Corning, California, led the final two of 268 over-scheduled laps in an event where he started fifth, scored stage points during both stage break periods and ran a consistent event while keeping pace with the leaders. Initially set to finish in the runner-up spot behind team owner and Playoff contender Denny Hamlin, an opportunity presented itself for Reddick and the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota team when the caution flew with seven laps remaining after Playoff contender Chris Buescher blew a right-rear tire.

Amid mixed strategy among the leaders, Reddick, who opted for a four-tire pit stop, exited pit road sixth and lineup alongside Hamlin on the third row for an overtime shootout. During overtime, Reddick managed to quickly carve his way up to third before he pulled a bold three-wide pass on both Erik Jones and Joey Logano through the frontstretch to assume the lead as he also started the final lap of the event. With the clean air and the fresh tires, Reddick was able to fend off Jones and a hard-charging Hamlin to claim his second checkered flag of the 2023 Cup season and become the second Playoff contender alongside Kyle Larson to transfer from the Round of 16 to 12 by winning.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, September 9, Playoff contender Christopher Bell claimed his fourth Cup pole position of the 2023 season and second in recent weeks after posting a pole-winning lap at 180.276 mph in 29.954 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Kyle Larson, winner of last weekend’s Playoff opener at Darlington Raceway who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 179.826 mph in 30.029 seconds.

Prior to the event, Kyle Busch dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 as a result of damaging his car against the Turn 3 outside wall after blowing a tire during Saturday’s practice session. Rookie Ty Gibbs also dropped to the rear of the field in a backup car after he wrecked his primary car during practice.

When the green flag waved and the race started, Bell took off with the top spot on the inside lane as he rocketed away from the field that was fanning out through the first two turns and through the backstretch. With the field continuing to jostle for early positions, Bell proceeded to lead the first lap in his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota TRD Camry. Behind, Kyle Larson fended off Martin Truex Jr. to retain the runner-up spot entering the second lap as Truex was being attacked by Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, William Byron and Michael McDowell for more.

Then on the third lap, Truex, who was continuing to backslide and had fallen out of the top 10 on the track, got loose while running 11th and pounded the outside wall in Turn 3 after losing a tire. The incident and the damage to his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota TRD Camry were enough to terminate Truex’s run three laps into the event.

“Just really unfortunate, very unlucky,” Truex said at the infield care center on USA Network. “[The car] took off really tight. [I] Knew something was up and blew a right rear [tire]. Not really sure what happened. Obviously, it blew in the worst place possible. I hate it for my guys. We had an awesome race car. We were gonna have a really good day. Just not real sure what we need to do to get some luck right now.”

During the first caution period, select names that included Ryan Preece, Harrison Burton, Ty Dillon, Kyle Busch and JJ Yeley pitted while the rest led by Bell remained on the track.

When the race restarted under green on the ninth lap, Bell and Larson dueled for the lead through the frontstretch until Larson managed to rocket ahead from the outside lane and snatch the lead from Bell. With the field behind jostling for positions, Larson started to pull away from Bell with the lead while Chastain and Elliott battled for third in front of Byron, Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick.

By the 12th lap, Wallace muscled his No. 23 Columbia Sportswear Toyota TRD Camry up to fourth followed by Byron and Reddick while Elliott, who nearly scrubbed the outside wall entering the frontstretch a few laps earlier, was being pressured by Austin Dillon, Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski for seventh place. In the midst of the battles, Larson retained the lead in his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the Lap 15 mark.

Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Larson was leading by more than a second over Bell followed by Wallace, Chastain and Byron while Reddick, Elliott, Blaney, Denny Hamlin and Austin Dillon were in the top 10. Behind, Erik Jones was in 11th ahead of Keselowski, Chris Buescher, Joey Logano and Michael McDowell while AJ Allmendinger, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Alex Bowman, Kevin Harvick and Justin Haley occupied the top 20 in front of Austin Cindric, Kyle Busch, Chase Briscoe, Daniel Suarez and Carson Hocevar.

Five laps later, Larson continued to lead by more than a second over Wallace, who overtook Bell for the runner-up spot two laps earlier, while Byron was up to fourth after he overtook Chastain’s No. 1 Kubota Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for the spot three laps earlier. Behind, Reddick occupied sixth place in front of Elliott, Hamlin and Blaney, thus placing eight Playoff competitors in the top 10 on the track, while Elliott and Erik Jones were the two highest-running non-Playoff competitors in seventh and 10th.

Another 10 laps later, Larson extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Wallace while Bell, Byron and Chastain remained in the top five in front of Reddick, Hamlin, Elliott, Erik Jones and Blaney.

Then on Lap 36, the first wave of green flag pit stops slowly commenced as Playoff contender Joey Logano pitted his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang followed by Corey LaJoie, Keselowski, McDowell, Daniel Suarez, Hamlin, Elliott, Austin Dillon, Chris Buescher, Erik Jones, Allmendinger, Alex Bowman, Harvick, Chase Briscoe, Ty Gibbs, Hocevar, Bell, Byron, Chastain, Blaney, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Justin Haley and Austin Cindric. By Lap 39, Larson surrendered the lead to pit along with Wallace, Kyle Busch and Sheldon Creed as Aric Almirola, who has yet to pit, cycled into the lead followed by teammate Ryan Preece and Harrison Burton.

By Lap 42, Larson cycled back into the lead after Almirola and Preece pitted. Wallace also returned to the runner-up spot by Lap 43 as Harrison Burton pitted. Then by Lap 45, Byron, Bell and Reddick cycled into the top five with nearly the entire field having made a pit stop under green.

At the Lap 50 mark, Larson was leading by more than a second over Wallace followed by Byron, Bell and Reddick while Chastain, Hamlin, Elliott, Erik Jones and Ty Dillon were scored in the top 10, thus placing eight of 12 Playoff contenders in the top 10 on the track. Behind, Austin Dillon was in 11th ahead of Playoff contenders Blaney, Buescher and Keselowski while JJ Yeley was in 15th ahead of Allmendinger, Kyle Busch, Logano, Bowman and Harvick. By then, Stenhouse and McDowell were mired back in 21st and 23rd.

Ten laps later, Larson stabilized his advantage to one-and-a-half seconds over Wallace while Byron, Reddick and Bell followed suit in the top five. By then, Erik Jones was up to seventh after he overtook Chastain while Blaney returned to the top 10 as he was running 10th behind Elliott. In addition, teammates Buescher and Keselowski were still mired in the top 15 and Kyle Busch cracked the top 15 while Logano, Harvick, Stenhouse and McDowell were mired within the top 20.

Then on Lap 62, the second caution flag flew when Byron, who was running fourth in front of Bell, got loose and spun his No. 24 Raptor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 below the backstretch, though he managed to proceed without damaging his car. The incident occurred a lap after Austin Dillon, who was battling Buescher in 11th, got loose while and smacked the outside wall, damaging the right side of his No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Larson returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Wallace emerged as the new leader after he managed to beat Larson off of pit road first while Bell, Reddick, Hamlin, Chastin and Elliott followed suit. In the midst of the pit stops Haley was penalized for speeding on pit road. In addition, Suarez was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation. Prior to the restart, Playoff contender Buescher would pit for a second time due to a left-front wheel being loose on his No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang.

With 11 laps remaining in the first stage period, the race restarted under green. At the start, Wallace and Larson dueled for the lead through the frontstretch until Larson managed to muscle ahead and reassume the lead from the inside lane. With Larson back in the lead, Bell battled Wallace for the runner-up spot in front of Chastain and Reddick as the field fanned out to three lanes. Wallace would manage to reassume the runner-up spot from Bell during the proceeding lap as he tried to track Larson for the lead.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 80, Larson captured his fourth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Wallace followed suit in the runner-up spot along with third-place Bell while Chastain, Blaney, Reddick, Hamlin, Keselowski, Elliott and Kevin Harvick, all of whom were in the Playoffs, were scored in the top 10. By then, 32 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while Kyle Busch, Byron, McDowell, Logano, Buescher and Stenhouse were the remaining Playoff competitors on the track who did not accumulate the first wave of stage points.

Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Larson returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Larson retained the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Wallace, Chastain, Elliott, Reddick, Hamlin, Keselowski and Bell, who lost five spots on pit road.

The second stage started on Lap 87 as Larson and Wallace occupied the front row. At the start, Larson received a strong push from teammate Chase Elliott on the inside lane to retain the lead and muscle away from the field as Elliott battled Wallace for the runner-up spot. With the field behind jostling for positions, Larson retained the lead in front of teammate Elliott and Wallace while Chastain tried to join the battle in fourth place. With Reddick running fifth, Hamlin and Keselowski battled for sixth place in front of Bell, Harvick, McDowell and Logano as Larson proceeded to lead the Lap 90 mark.

At the Lap 100 mark, Larson was leading by more than a second over Wallace followed by Elliott, Reddick and Chastain while Hamlin, Keselowski, Bell, Harvick and Logano were running in the top 10. Behind, Blaney was mired back in 11th ahead of Kyle Busch, Allmendinger, Buescher and Erik Jones while Alex Bowman, Byron, McDowell, Suarez and Cindric occupied the top 20 in front of Aric Almirola, Justin Haley, Hocevar, Ty Gibbs, Briscoe, Stenhouse, LaJoie, Ryan Preece, Harrison Burton and Cole Custer.

Seven laps later, the caution flew when Wallace, who was running second, lost a right-rear tire and scrubbed the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2 as he limped his damaged No. 23 Toyota to pit road with a flat right-rear tire and a broken right-rear toe link. While Wallace’s pit crew managed to repair the car to keep Wallace in contention, he lost three laps in the process and would continue to lose more laps as he pitted for more repairs.

During the caution period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Larson pitted for service while JJ Yeley and Ty Dillon remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Larson exited first followed by teammate Elliott, Keselowski, Reddick, Chastain, Hamlin, Harvick and Bell. Amid the pit stops, Ty Gibbs was sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road. Once Yeley and Ty Dillon pitted shortly after, Larson cycled back into the lead.

When the race restarted under green on Lap 113, teammates Elliott and Larson dueled for the lead as the field fanned out to three and four lanes through the frontstretch. As Larson and Elliott continued to duel for the lead for nearly a lap, Reddick pulled a bold three-wide move on both Hendrick Motorsports competitors through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1 to assume the lead. Then just as Elliott claimed the lead from Reddick through the backstretch, the caution quickly returned when Cindric, who had cracked the top 20, received a bump from Michael McDowell and spun his No. 2 Menards Ford Mustang towards the apron through Turns 1 and 2.

During the proceeding restart on Lap 119, Elliott rocketed away from the field on the inside lane as he retained the lead ahead of teammate Larson and Reddick while the field again fanned out entering the backstretch. With Elliott leading the proceeding lap, Keselowski was up to fourth followed by Harvick, who would lose the top-five spot to Chastain by Lap 121 as Blaney battled Harvick for sixth. By then, Hamlin, Bell and Logano were mired back in the top 10 while Byron was in 16th and trying to fight his way back towards the front.

Just past the Lap 125 mark, Elliott was leading by two-tenths of a second over teammate Larson followed by Keselowski and Reddick, both of whom were trying to close in on the two Hendric leaders, while Harvick was in fifth. By then, Briscoe was off the pace after he lost power, starting in Turn 3, in his No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang as he was nearly hit by an oncoming Corey LaJoie. With Briscoe continuing to fall off the pace through the backstretch and below the apron, the caution flew on Lap 127. During the caution period, some led by Keselowski pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.

With the race restarting under green on Lap 132, Larson and Elliott dueled for the lead through the frontstretch as the field fanned out amid the competitors who pitted versus those who did not. With Elliott rocketing away with the lead, Blaney carved his way up to second followed by Buescher while Larson, who got loose while battling Chastain entering the backstretch since the restart, was overtaken by Harvick, Bell and Keselowski for spots, thus dropping him to seventh in front of Kyle Busch. Larson would continue to lose spots and fall out of the top 10 on the track while on old tires as the event reached its halfway mark. By then, Elliott, who was running on old tires, retained the lead in front of Blaney as Harvick battled and overtook Buescher for third place.

Two laps later, Harvick, racing on fresh tires, moved his No. 4 SunnyD Ford Mustang into the runner-up spot as he overtook Blaney before setting his sights on Elliott for the lead. With Harvick, Keselowski and Blaney trailing Elliott from second to fourth within a second by Lap 140, Larson had fallen back to 16th while Chastain plummeted to 27th behind McDowell.

At the Lap 150 mark, Elliott retained the lead by nine-tenths of a second over Keselowski, who overtook Harvick for the runner-up spot while also on fresh tires, while Hamlin and Blaney trailed in the top five. By then, Reddick was back in sixth ahead of Erik Jones, Logano, Buescher and Bell while Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, Suarez, Almirola, Hocevar and Byron trailed in the top 16. In addition, Larson was back in 20th behind teammate Bowman while Chastain was mired in 25th behind McDowell. In addition, Stenhouse was in 30th while Wallace, who was six laps behind the leaders, was in 34th.

Ten laps later, Elliott continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Keselowski, who was continuing to gain ground in his No. 6 BuildSumbarines.com Ford Mustang through every turn and straightaway. Meanwhile, Hamlin cycled his No. 11 Yahoo! Toyota TRD Camry into third place over Harvick and Reddick while Erik Jones was in sixth ahead of Team Penske’s Blaney and Logano.

Then with three laps remaining in the second stage period, Keselowski muscled his way into the lead over Elliott as Hamlin started to gain ground and join the battle for the lead. Despite nearly getting held up by the lapped competitor of Austin Dillon during the following lap, Keselowski retained the lead over Elliott as Hamlin kept both close within his sights.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 165, Keselowski, who came into the event 18 points above the cutline, claimed his fifth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Hamlin, who overtook Elliott for the runner-up spot during the proceeding lap, settled in second followed by Elliott while Harvick, Reddick, Erik Jones, Blaney, Logano, Buescher and Bell were scored in the top 10. By then, 30 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap. With eight of 16 Playoff competitors scoring stage points, the following names that included Kyle Busch, Byron, Larson, McDowell, Chastain, Stenhouse and Wallace were the remaining Playoff contenders running on the track who did not achieve the second round of stage points.

During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Keselowski pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Keselowski retained the lead after exiting pit road first while Hamlin, Harvick, Erik Jones, Reddick, Blaney, Buescher and Elliott, who lost five spots during his pit stop, followed suit. Amid the pit stops, Chastain was penalized due to his pit crew jumping over the pit wall too soon.

With 96 laps remaining, the final stage started as Keselowski and Hamlin occupied the front row. At the start, Keselowski and Hamlin dueled for the lead through the first two turns and through the backstretch while Harvick and Erik Jones trailed behind along with a hard-charging Reddick. With Hamlin leading the proceeding lap by a hair, Keselowski managed to reassume the lead from Hamlin and clear the field from the inside lane during the next lap while Reddick and Erik Jones battled for third in front of Harvick and Blaney.

The caution would return with 94 laps remaining when Hocevar slid up the track and made contact with Harrison Burton toward the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2 before Burton hit the wall again in Turn 3. During the caution period, some of the drivers, including Larson, McDowell and Byron pitted while the rest led by Keselowski remained on the track.

With the race restarting with 88 laps remaining, Keselowski managed to muscle away from the inside lane to retain the lead ahead of Hamlin while Erik Jones followed suit in third. Jones and Hamlin then battled for the runner-up spot for nearly a lap in front of Harvick, Reddick, Elliott and Blaney while Keselowski rocketed away with the lead by three-tenths of a second.

Then with 81 laps remaining, the battle for the lead ignited as Hamlin made his move beneath Keselowski through the frontstretch. Hamlin then managed to clear Keselowski and slide up the track to inherit the lead. Behind, Reddick, Hamlin’s driver at 23XI Racing, overtook Keselowski for the runner-up spot as he ignited his charge on Hamlin for the lead.

With 70 laps remaining, Hamlin stabilized his advantage to two-tenths of a second over Reddick while Keselowski, Erik Jones and Elliott were in the top five. Behind, Harvick, Blaney, Bell and Buescher followed suit from sixth to ninth while Larson, racing on fresh tires, cracked the top 10 as he was in 10th ahead of Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, Logano, Suarez, Bowman and Byron.

Ten laps later, Hamlin continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over Reddick while Keselowski, Erik Jones and Elliott were in the top five. By then, Larson, who barely scrubbed the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2, was in ninth behind Bell while Kyle Busch and Buescher battled for 10th place. With Harvick, Blaney and Bell running sixth through eighth, Logano was in 13th behind Ty Gibbs, Byron was mired in 16th, Chastain was in 18th, Stenhouse was back in 22nd and McDowell was in 25th behind Briscoe.

Another six laps later, another cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Blaney and Erik Jones pitted their respective entries. Keselowski would pit during the proceeding lap along with Harvick, Kyle Busch, Chastain, Ryan Preece, LaJoie, Hocevar, Reddick, Elliott, Larson, Ty Gibbs, Buescher, Almirola, Briscoe, Stenhouse and Yeley. Hamlin would then surrender the lead to pit with 52 laps remaining along with Bowman and Justin Haley as Bell cycled into the lead. Bell would then pit under green with 45 laps remaining along with Byron as Daniel Suarez, who has yet to pit, cycled into the lead ahead of McDowell, Todd Gilliland and Hamlin.

Then with 36 laps remaining, Hamlin cycled back into the lead after Suarez pitted his No. 99 Freeway.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. By then, Reddick trailed in the runner-up spot by more than a second while Keselowski, Erik Jones and Elliott were scored in the top five ahead of McDowell, Blaney, Larson, Harvick and Kyle Busch.

Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Hamlin stabilized his advantage to one-and-a-half seconds over Reddick while Keselowski, Erik Jones and Elliott remained in the top five. Larson, Kyle Busch, Blaney, Harvick and Ty Gibbs followed suit in the top 10 as Hamlin retained the lead with 20 and 15 laps remaining.

With 10 laps remaining, Hamlin extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Reddick while third-place Elliott trailed by more than nine seconds in his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

Then with seven laps remaining, the caution flew when Buescher, who was running 12th, blew a right-rear tire through the frontstretch as he fell off the pace while the tire disintegrated on his No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang. During the caution period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Hamlin pitted for service while Suarez remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Erik Jones exited first after opting for two fresh tires for his No. 43 Allegiant Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 along with Kyle Busch and Logano while Hamlin exited pit road fourth and the first on four fresh tires ahead of Larson, Reddick, Elliott and Keselowski. Amid the pit stops, teammates Larson and Elliott made contact while both were exiting pit road, which prompted Elliott to bump Larson to express his displeasure over the contact.

With the event restarting in overtime, where Suarez and Erik Jones occupied the front row in front of Kyle Busch and Logano, Logano wasted no time diving his car beneath Suarez and both along with Erik Jones fanned out to three lanes through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1. Logano and Jones then made their way to the front followed by Reddick, Larson, Elliott and Hamlin while Suarez was falling back. Through the backstretch and Turns 3 and 4, Logano and Jones continued to duel for the lead as Reddick closed in on fresh tires.

Then entering the frontstretch, Reddick dropped the hammer and crossed his No. 45 MoneyLion Toyota TRD Camry from the top to the bottom lane beneath Logano and Erik Jones. With the momentum and the fresh tires, Reddick overtook both through the frontstretch and gained the lead as the white flag waved and the final lap occurred. With Reddick leading, Hamlin then gained a run on both Logano and Jones as he tried to use the outside lane to close in on Reddick. Entering the backstretch, however, Hamlin was blocked by Jones, which allowed Reddick to continue to lead by a decent margin. Hamlin then tried to use the outside lane again to step on the gas and mount a final corner charge for the win. Despite overtaking Jones while scrubbing the wall, Hamin’s momentum was not enough as Reddick was able to cycle back to the frontstretch and claim the checkered flag by three-tenths of a second to win.

With the victory, Reddick scored his fifth career win in NASCAR’s premier series, his second of the season, his first at Kansas and his first since winning at Circuit of the Americas in March. By becoming the second race winner in the Round of 16, Reddick advanced into the Playoff’s Round of 12 for the first time in his career as he continues his quest to win the first Cup Series title for himself, crew chief Billy Scott and the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota team.

Ironically, Reddick’s victory marked the third time 23XI Racing’s No. 45 entry won at Kansas after the No. 45 car swept both Cup Kansas events a year ago with Kurt Busch and Bubba Wallace. Overall, Reddick also recorded the fifth career victory for 23XI Racing.

“Just an outstanding job by this whole 23XI team,” Reddick said on USA Network. “We had really good pace, but just couldn’t get ahead of Denny [Hamlin] there. Chaos ensued, people stayed out, some took two tires and the bottom lane opened up. Pretty crazy. Four fresh tires, sent it in there and slide up. We’ve had really fast cars with this MoneyLion scheme and it’s really great to get it back to Victory Lane. We came here in the spring. I broke the streak and I didn’t get the No. 45 [car] back in Victory Lane, so I came back here motivated to get it where it belongs.”

Hamlin, who led 63 laps and was initially in the position of sweeping both Kansas Cup events, ended up in the runner-up spot. Amid his disappointment, Hamlin scaled back to the overtime restart, where he restarted alongside Reddick on the third row and opted to lay back to potentially have Larson draft him instead of keeping pace with the front-runners, a decision that may have cost him time to drive back to the front and win.

“[Larson] was just laying back so much, I was trying to back up to him,” Hamlin said. “I should’ve just focused forward. [I] Gave [Reddick] an opportunity to get up there in front of us. Just sleeping on the restart, looking in the rearview [mirror] instead of looking in the front. Hats off to the Yahoo! Camry TRD team. Another really, really fast car. Just didn’t need that caution at the end.”

Erik Jones, who was initially in the position of winning for Legacy Motor Club, ended up in third place while Larson and Logano finished in the top five. Elliott, Kyle Busch, Bell, Keselowski and Alex Bowman completed the top 10 on the track.

Notably, Harvick, Blaney, Chastain, Byron, Stenhouse, McDowell, Buescher and Wallace were the remaining Playoff contenders on the track to finish outside the top 10.

There were 19 lead changes for 10 different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 45 laps. In addition, 24 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

Results.

1. Tyler Reddick, two laps led

2. Denny Hamlin, 63 laps led

3. Erik Jones

4. Kyle Larson, 99 laps led, Stage 1 winner

5. Joey Logano

6. Chase Elliott, 47 laps led

7. Kyle Busch

8. Christopher Bell, 15 laps led

9. Brad Keselowski, 23 laps led, Stage 2 winner

10. Alex Bowman

11. Kevin Harvick

12. Ryan Blaney

13. Ross Chastain

14. Ty Gibbs

15. William Byron

16. Daniel Suarez, 12 laps led

17. Aric Almirola, three laps led

18. Ryan Preece

19. Chase Briscoe

20. Carson Hocevar

21. Justin Haley

22. Corey LaJoie

23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

24. Cole Custer

25. Todd Gilliland, one lap down

26. Michael McDowell, one lap down

27. Chris Buescher, one lap down

28. Ty Dillon, one lap down

29. Sheldon Creed, two laps down

30. AJ Allmendinger, two laps down

31. Austin Cindric, two laps down

32. Bubba Wallace, four laps down, three laps led

33. Austin Dillon, nine laps down

34. JJ Yeley – OUT, Dvp, one lap led

35. Harrison Burton – OUT, Dvp

36. Martin Truex Jr. – OUT, Accident

*Bold indicates Playoff contenders

Playoff standings

1. Kyle Larson – Advanced

2. Tyler Reddick – Advanced

3. Denny Hamlin +49

4. William Byron +41

5. Brad Keselowski +33

6. Ryan Blaney +25

7. Kyle Busch +24

8. Ross Chastain +18

9. Chris Buescher +13

10. Christopher Bell +13

11. Joey Logano +12

12. Kevin Harvick +7

13. Martin Truex Jr. -7

14. Bubba Wallace -19

15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -22

16. Michael McDowell -40

The Round of 16 in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to conclude next weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race, where the first of three eliminations will occur. The event is scheduled to commence on Saturday, September 16, at 7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

September 10, 2023
Team Penske and Wood Brothers announce crew chief swap for Cindric and Burton, beginning in 2023 Cup Series Playoffs

With the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs days away from commencing, Team Penske and Wood Brothers Racing announced a crew chief swap for two of their combined Penske-affiliated entries for the remainder of this season and entering the 2024 season.

Beginning with the Playoff opener next Sunday at Darlington Raceway, Jeremy Bullins, who was the crew chief for Team Penske’s No. 2 Ford Mustang entry piloted by Austin Cindric, will reunite with Wood Brothers Racing and lead the No. 21 team piloted by Harrison Burton. As a result, Brian Wilson, who was atop the pit box of Wood Brothers Racing’s No. 21 team for more than a season, will return to Team Penske and reunite with Cindric to lead the No. 2 team in NASCAR’s premier series.

The move for Bullins, a native of Walnut Cove, North Carolina, to Wood Brothers Racing, reignites a dynamic pairing as Bullins spent the 2015-17 seasons with the championship-winning organization as a Cup crew chief with Ryan Blaney piloting the No. 21 entry. Through 88 events, Bullins led Blaney and the No. 21 team to a late victory at Pocono Raceway in June 2017, which marks the 99th and latest victory for Wood Brothers Racing, and they went on to make the Playoffs and finish in ninth place in the final standings. The driver-crew chief duo also achieved a combined two poles, eight top-five results, 25 top-10 results and 332 laps led before both departed Wood Brothers and moved to Team Penske in 2018.

From 2018 through the first 26 events of the 2023 season, Bullins has achieved eight Cup victories while working with three different competitors (Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Austin Cindric). His latest triumph was winning the 2022 Daytona 500 with Cindric, who proceeded to finish 12th in the final standings and claim the Rookie-of-the-Year title. He also achieved a breakout season with Keselowski in 2020, with the duo achieving four victories and making the Championship 4 round before finishing in the runner-up spot in the final standings. In addition to his success in the Cup Series, Bullins has 21 victories as an Xfinity Series crew chief under his resume and played an instrumental role in leading Penske’s No. 22 entry to back-to-back Xfinity owner’s championships (2013 and 2014).

This season, Bullins and Cindric have only achieved three top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 21.1 through 26 scheduled events. Their best on-track results of this season thus far were three sixth-place runs at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Circuit of the Americas in March along with the inaugural Chicago Street Course in July. Currently situated in 22nd place in the standings, they did not make the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs a year after making it.

For Wilson, the transition to Team Penske’s No. 2 team reunites the Detroit, Michigan, native back with the three-time Cup Series championship-winning organization to which he first joined in 2004 and was a race engineer during Penske’s first Xfinity Series championship in 2010 and first Cup Series championship in 2012, both achieved by former Penske competitor Brad Keselowski.

Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

Wilson called over 160 Xfinity events as a crew chief and achieved 23 victories from 2016-21, 13 of which were made by Austin Cindric and with whom Wilson will also reunite. During this span, he led Team Penske’s No. 22 entry to three Xfinity owner’s championships (2017, 2020, and 2021) and guided Cindric to the 2020 Xfinity Series driver’s championship. He also called his first four Cup events as a crew chief for Keselowski and the No. 2 entry in 2017 before being named a full-time Cup crew chief for Harrison Burton and the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team in 2022, who ended up 27th in the final standings.

This season, Wilson and Burton have only achieved two top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 23.8 through 26 scheduled events. Their best on-track result of this season thus far was a sixth-place run at Darlington in May. Currently situated in 30th place in the standings, they too did not make the Playoffs for a second consecutive season.

Team Penske + Wood Brothers to Trade Crew Chiefs

Effective immediately for 2023 & 2024, Brian Wilson will serve as CC for Austin Cindric and the No. 2 Team Penske Ford Mustang. Jeremy Bullins will serve as the CC for Harrison Burton and the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford Mustang. pic.twitter.com/QMvwlEB1SK
— Team Penske (@Team_Penske) August 28, 2023

With Bullins now paired with Burton and Wilson reunited with Cindric, the new driver-crew chief duo sets their sights on concluding the 2023 season on a strong note, beginning in this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoff opener at Darlington Raceway for the Cook Out Southern 500. The event is scheduled to occur on Sunday, September 3, at 6 p.m. ET on USA Network.

August 28, 2023
Buescher wins Cup regular-season finale at Daytona in overtime; Wallace clinches final Playoff berth

With nearly half the field vying for the 16th and final spot to make the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, the Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing duo of Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski captured the final spotlight amid an overtime shootout as Keselowski drafted teammate Buescher to an overtime victory in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, August 26.

The 2015 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Buescher from Prosper, Texas, led the final two of 163 over-scheduled laps in an event where he started 11th and kept his car intact throughout the event that was mired with competitive racing, 22 lead changes and 17 different competitors taking turns to lead at least a lap amid the draft, even including a 12-car pileup on Lap 94 that wiped out a handful of Playoff hopefuls. Then after surging his way towards the front prior to a harrowing rollover accident involving Ryan Preece with five laps remaining that sent the event into overtime, Buescher received the draft needed from teammate Keselowski to overtake Kevin Harvick and fend off the field through the final two laps to claim his unprecedented third NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season.

By virtue of Buescher, who was already locked into the Playoffs based on winning twice prior to Daytona, winning the regular-season finale at Daytona, Bubba Wallace benefited by rounding out the 2023 Cup Series Playoff field after finishing in 12th place while several top names, among which included Chase Elliott, Daniel Suarez, rookie Ty Gibbs, Alex Bowman and Aric Almirola, did not make the Playoffs.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, August 25, Chase Briscoe notched his first Cup pole position of the season and the second of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 181.822 mph in 49.499 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Aric Almirola, who clocked in the second-best qualifying lap at 181.693 mph in 49.534 seconds.

Prior to the event, Ryan Preece was the only competitor who dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his entry.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Briscoe, who started on the outside lane, quickly jumped ahead before he transitioned his No. 14 Magical Vacation Planner Ford Mustang to the inside lane in front of teammate Almirola’s No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang exiting the frontstretch and through the first two turns. As the stacked field navigated through the backstretch, Briscoe muscled ahead with drafting help from teammate Almirola, but Bubba Wallace quickly gained ground from the outside lane as he dueled with Almirola for the runner-up spot. As the field returned to the frontstretch, Briscoe led the first lap as Wallace challenged Briscoe for the lead with drafting help from Riley Herbst, who was piloting the No. 36 Monster Energy Zero Sugar Ford Mustang for Front Row Motorsports.

Through the second lap, Briscoe and Wallace continued to duel for the lead in front of two stacked lanes of competitors, with Briscoe gaining a slight advantage with drafting help from teammate Almirola while Wallace had Herbst still drafting his No. 23 Luke Combs/Columbia Toyota TRD Camry. Through the backstretch and Turns 3 and 4, the inside lane led by Briscoe prevailed as Briscoe started to surge ahead followed by Almirola and Harrison Burton. Then through the frontstretch, rookie Ty Gibbs became the first competitor to lead the outside lane as he moved his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry in front of Wallace as Briscoe proceeded to lead the third lap.

Through the first five scheduled laps and as the field started to fan out and jostle early for positions amid the draft, Briscoe was leading ahead of teammate Almirola, Burton, Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher while Martin Truex Jr., Christopher Bell, AJ Allmendinger, Ty Gibbs and Bubba Wallace were in the top 10. By then, all 39 starters were separated within three seconds.

At the Lap 10 mark, Briscoe retained the lead by 0.075 seconds over teammate Almirola while Burton, Larson and Buescher followed suit in the top five. By then, Truex was serving as the lead competitor on the outside lane as he dueled with Allmendinger for sixth place before Denny Hamlin moved up the outside lane and in front of teammate Truex in his bid for the front. Amid the field still engaged in two tight-packed lanes, Briscoe continued to lead the race.

Five laps later, Briscoe was still leading ahead of teammate Almirola, Burton, Larson and Buescher while Allmendinger, Austin Dillon, Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Truex were in the top 10. By then, Bell, Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, Ty Gibbs, Ryan Blaney, Wallace, Herbst, Tyler Reddick, Kevin Harvick and Ross Chastain were battling within the top 20. Meanwhile, Joey Logano was in 21st ahead of Michael McDowell, Preece, Austin Cindric, Alex Bowman and Daniel Suarez, William Byron was back in 29th and Brad Keselowski drifted back to 38th behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr. as part of a conservative play.

At the Lap 25 mark and with the field continuing to run within two tight-packed lanes, Hamlin, who used the outside lane to move his No. 11 FedEx Cares Toyota TRD Camry into the lead from Briscoe two laps earlier, was leading ahead of teammate Truex while his other two Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Bell and Ty Gibbs followed suit along with his 23XI Racing competitor Wallace. By then, Briscoe fell back to sixth while Herbst, Harvick, Almirola and Logano were scored in the top 10. In addition, Harrison Burton was back in 11th followed by Cindric, Larson, Suarez and Allmendinger while Elliott, who was dealing with radio issues, was in 16th ahead of Austin Dillon, Buescher, Kyle Busch and McDowell.

Just past the Lap 30 mark, Hamlin retained the lead ahead of his three Joe Gibbs Racing teammates while Herbst started to ignite a charge as the lead competitor on the outside lane as he also dueled with Wallace for fifth while receiving drafting help from Ford teammates Harvick, Logano and Cindric. Herbst would then boost his way up to the runner-up spot by Lap 32 before Hamlin moved up the track through the backstretch to block Herbst. This allowed Truex to muscle a challenge on the inside lane during the proceeding lap as the Toyota competitors became separated within two tight-packed lanes.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 35, Truex, who received a big push from teammate Bell to muscle past teammate Hamlin through the backstretch as the field fanned out, captured his sixth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Teammate Bell settled in second followed by Harvick, Ty Gibbs, Logano, Wallace and Cindric while Hamlin fell back to eighth in front of Briscoe and Suarez. By then, all but one of 39 starters were scored on the lead lap as the event featured two lead changes for three different leaders.

Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Truex pitted for their first service of the night. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategies, Austin Hill exited first after opting for no fresh tires, though he missed his pit stall, followed by Logano, the first competitor with four fresh tires, as Truex, Bell, Wallace, Harvick, Suarez, Hamlin and Briscoe followed suit. Amid the pit stops, Justin Haley was penalized for equipment interference. In addition, Kyle Busch was penalized for a crew member jumping over the pit wall too soon. Once Hill pitted again, Logano cycled into the race lead.

The second stage started on Lap 40 as Logano and Truex occupied the front row. At the start, Truex and Logano dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Logano muscled ahead in his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang entering the backstretch with drafting help from Harvick and Suarez. Truex would continue to lead the outside lane in front of teammate Bell while Logano retained the lead for the following lap on the inside lane.

By Lap 45 and as the field started to fan out to three tight-packed lanes, Logano was pushed ahead of the stacked field followed by Harvick and Suarez while Truex tried to regain ground from the outside lane with continuous help from teammate Bell as Wallace tried to follow suit. Soon after, Elliott surged towards the front in his No. 9 LLumar Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 as part of a third drafting lane running toward the outside wall. Elliott would then be drafted into a duel against Logano for the lead through the first two turns as he had Allmendinger, Kyle Busch and Stenhouse assisting him. Then as Elliott had appeared to break ahead of the pack, Allmendinger made his move to the front and led Lap 47 as he dueled against Elliott for the lead. Allmendinger would then break away from the pack along with Kyle Busch while Elliott dueled against Stenhouse for third place.

At the Lap 50 mark, Elliott led a lap for himself followed by Logano as Allmendinger, who led the previous three laps, was back in third. By then, Kyle Busch and Harvick were in the top five followed by Haley, Ty Gibbs, Stenhouse, Chastain and Almirola while Truex, Austin Hill, Bell, Buescher and Chandler Smith occupied the top 15. By then, all 39 starters were running on the lead lap and separated by two-and-a-half seconds.

Two laps later, a three-wide battle for the lead ensued as Logano was stuck in the middle lane, Elliott charged on the inside lane and Allmendinger muscled ahead on the outside lane with drafting help from Kyle Busch. As the field was also stacked in three tight-packed lanes, Allmendinger retained the lead from the outside lane while Ty Gibbs tried to launch a charge on the inside lane. By then, Elliott lost his momentum after nearly wrecking with Stenhouse through the frontstretch prior to Lap 54 while Logano also drifted back within the top 10 as he continued to run in the middle lane.

Then on Lap 55, Ross Chastain made his presence known at the front as he led the middle lane and surged his No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to a narrow lead before dueling against Ty Gibbs and Allmendinger. By then, Chastain had drafting help from Logano while Hamlin drifted back to 37th after bailing on the three-wide pack towards the front.

Just past the Lap 60 mark and with the field settling in two tight-packed lanes, Chastain, who took the lead from Allmendinger a few laps prior, was leading by a narrow margin over Logano while Truex, Bell, Preece, Allmendinger, Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, Haley and Harvick were battling in the top 10. With the field still settling in two packed lanes, Chastain would continue to lead by the Lap 65 mark.

By Lap 70 and with most of the field migrating to the outside lane, Chastain was leading ahead of Logano, Preece, Elliott and Harvick while Larson, Blaney, Bell, Stenhouse and Truex were running in the top 10. By then, Almirola was in 11th ahead of Ty Gibbs, Buescher, Burton and Keselowski while Josh Berry, Cindric, Bowman, Reddick and Byron were battling up in the top 20. Behind, Briscoe was back in 21st, Austin Dillon was in 26th ahead of Suarez, Erik Jones and Kyle Busch, Allmendinger was shuffled back in 31st, Wallace settled in 34th and Hamlin continued to run in 37th.

Five laps later, Ryan Blaney made his move beneath Chastain exiting the backstretch as he surged to the lead in his No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang with drafting help from teammate Logano and Harvick. Chastain would settle in fourth place and duel with Harvick for third while Stenhouse, Preece, Almirola, Elliott, Buescher and Larson battled within the top 10. Keselowski, who ran towards the rear of the field earlier in the event, would also carve his way to run just outside the top 10. Not long after and as the intensity of the two tight-packed racing increased, Stenhouse would surge his No. 47 Boost by Kroger Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to the front and lead the halfway mark on Lap 80 as Blaney and Chastain, both of whom Stenhouse was battling with, followed suit.

A lap later, green flag pit stops ensued as Stenhouse led Chastain, Bell, Berry, Ty Gibbs, Truex, Reddick, Erik Jones, Wallace, Hamlin and BJ McLeod to pit road for service, mainly for fuel. Another wave of competitors led by Blaney, Logano, Harvick, Brennan Poole, JJ Yeley, Austin Hill, Allmendinger, Haley and Chandler Smith pitted during the proceeding lap as Almirola cycled into the lead. Amid the pit stops, Hamlin was penalized for a crew member jumping over the pit wall too soon as he was forced to return to pit road and serve a pass-through penalty. Herbst would also be penalized for meeting the same fate as Hamlin while Poole was penalized for speeding on pit road.

By Lap 84, a big group of competitors led by Almirola pitted under green as Harrison Burton cycled into the lead followed by Keselowski and Michael McDowell. Burton and McDowell would pit two laps later before they were able to blend back on the track and retain the top-two spots ahead of the charging pack. With the pack quickly catching up to Burton and McDowell through the backstretch, Keselowski then tried to make a move to Burton’s outside for the lead, but the field fanned out to nearly four lanes through the frontstretch as Kyle Busch ignited his charge to the lead. Suarez followed suit along with Alex Bowman and Austin Dillon as Kyle Busch aggressively carved his No. 8 Cheddar’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead by Lap 87.

With five laps remaining in the second stage, Kyle Busch was leading ahead of Suarez, Bowman, Austin Dillon and Keselowski while Burton was getting shuffled out of the top five amid two tight-packed lanes. As the laps dwindled, the field fanned out to three lanes as Busch continued to lead.

Then on the final lap of the second stage, Lap 94, trouble ensued when Ty Gibbs, who was trying to surge to the front, slipped sideways off the front nose of teammate Bell and clipped the leader Blaney as both were sent hard against the outside wall, collecting Bell, Reddick, Stenhouse and Bowman in the process as Allmendinger, Hamlin, Herbst, Cindric, Austin Dillon, Harvick, Larson, Poole, Buescher and Burton were also involved. The wreck, which proved costly to Gibbs as his hopes of making the Playoffs came to an end, was enough to place the event in a red flag period for nine-and-a-half minutes. By then, Keselowski escaped the carnage to capture the stage victory, which was his fourth of the 2023 Cup season, while Kyle Busch, Suarez, Bowman, Byron, Reddick, Elliott, Austin Dillon, Chastain and Logano were scored in the top 10. In addition, Truex, who dodged the incident, was crowned the 2023 Cup Series Regular Season champion.

Under the stage break and once the red flag period was lifted, a majority of the lead lap field led by Keselowski pitted for service while Stewart-Haas Racing’s Briscoe and Almirola remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Kyle Busch exited first while Elliott, Suarez, Chastain, Keselowski, Byron and Logano followed suit.

With 56 laps remaining, the final stage started as Briscoe and Kyle Busch occupied the front row. At the start, Briscoe emerged with the lead and surged ahead with drafting help from teammate Almirola while Busch dueled with Erik Jones for third place. As Busch regained ground through the backstretch, he then challenged Briscoe for the lead as he had Bowman and Suarez pushing him. Despite Briscoe managing to lead the proceeding laps, he kept being engaged in a side-by-side duel against Busch for the lead as Almirola, Erik Jones and Bowman were in the top five. Meanwhile, Wallace, who was on the brakes to avoid the multi-car wreck at the end of the second stage, was up to seventh as he tried to crack the top five along with Keselowski and Suarez.

With 50 laps remaining, Briscoe continued to lead as he had both lanes under his control followed by teammate Almirola, Erik Jones, Keselowski, Wallace and Logano while Kyle Busch tried to charge back to the front on the outside lane. Wallace would then move up in front of Busch and lead the outside lane during the following lap as he dueled against Logano for fifth while Josh Berry joined the battle.

Five laps later and with the field slowly starting to fan out to three lanes, Briscoe retained the lead ahead of a long single file line on the inside lane as teammate Almirola, Erik Jones, Keselowski and Logano were in the top five. By then, Wallace fell back to 13th as Berry, Chandler Smith, McDowell, Bell and Corey LaJoie charged in the top 10 in front of Kyle Busch while Elliott and Suarez were mired back in the top 20.

Another five laps later and with most of the field migrating to the outside lane, Briscoe was leading ahead of teammates Almirola and Preece while Buescher and Harvick were in the top five. By then, Keselowski, Elliott, Ty Dillon, Chandler Smith and Truex were in the top 10 while Wallace, who briefly moved back into the top five, fell back to 14th after being shuffled out of the draft before he blended back into the draft towards the outside wall. With nearly the entire field continuing to run in a long single-file line toward the outside wall, Briscoe also continued to lead ahead of teammates Almirola and Preece with 35 laps remaining.

With 30 laps remaining, Briscoe retained the top spot by 0.083 seconds over teammate Almirola followed by Preece, Buescher and Harvick while Keselowski, Elliott, Ty Dillon, Chandler Smith and Truex continued to run in the top 10. With Erik Jones, Kyle Busch and Logano mired in 11th, 12th and 13th, respectively, Wallace retained 14th in front of McDowell while Bell, Austin Hill, LaJoie, Byron and Bowman were running in the top 20.

Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Briscoe continued to lead a long line of competitors towards the outside wall, with teammates Almirola and Preece along with Buescher and Harvick following suit. By then, the top-six spots continued to be occupied by Ford competitors as Keselowski was in sixth, Elliott served as the lead Chevrolet competitor in seventh and Wallace was the leading Toyota competitor as he returned to the top 10.

A lap later, Preece attempted to make a charge to the front on the inside lane, but he got shuffled out of the draft and drifted back as Chandler Smith served as the lead competitor on the inside lane while Briscoe retained the lead on the outside lane.

With 16 laps remaining, a wave of competitors led by Chandler Smith, including Wallace, pitted under green, mainly for fuel, as Briscoe continued to lead the rest of the field. Briscoe would then lead another wave of competitors to pit road for service under green with 14 laps remaining. Once the wave of competitors led by Briscoe completed their service, Harvick, who pitted during the first wave, cycled as the leader ahead of Elliott, Almirola, Buescher, Keselowski, Bowman and Briscoe while the wave of competitors who pitted earlier led by Kyle Busch, who was running 12th in front of Wallace, was slowly gaining ground.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Harvick was leading ahead of Elliott, Almirola, Buescher and Keselowski while Bowman, Briscoe, Byron, Logano and Ty Dillon trailed behind. Meanwhile, Wallace was in 13th behind McDowell and Kyle Busch while Erik Jones and Truex occupied the top 15.

Two laps later, Almirola launched a charge on the outside lane, but Harvick moved up the track to block his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate. Harvick would then surge ahead with the top spot followed by Almirola and Buescher as Elliott tried to fight back on the inside lane as he had teammate Larson drafting him. Elliott then tried to launch another charge on the inside lane with seven laps remaining, but Harvick surged ahead on the outside lane as he, Almirola and Buescher briefly broke away from the pack. Teammates Buescher and Keselowski then overtook Almirola through the backstretch to move up to second and third as they settled behind Harvick with five laps remaining.

Shortly after, the caution flew when Preece, who was running in the middle of the pack through the backstretch, got hit by Erik Jones as he veered sideways and collected teammate Briscoe in the process. Amid the collision, Preece’s No. 41 RaceChoice.com Ford Mustang then went airborne and barrel-rolled multiple times in the air and towards the backstretch’s infield before the battered car came to a violent rest on all four wheels. Despite the wild ride that ended his hopes of making this year’s Playoffs, Preece emerged uninjured as he was placed on a stretcher and medically escorted to the infield care center before being transported to a local hospital for further evaluation. Preece’s wild wreck was also enough to send the event into overtime.

Following an extensive caution period, the race restarted in overtime as Harvick and Buescher occupied the front row in front of Elliott and Keselowski. At the start, Buescher and Harvick dueled for the lead entering Turns 1 and 2 until Buescher gained the upper hand as his teammate and co-owner Keselowski drafted his No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang into the lead entering the backstretch. Buescher then maintained the lead followed by Keselowski’s No. 6 King’s Hawaiian Ford Mustang as Almirola tried to move up to third place while battling alongside teammate Harvick and in front of Logano.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Buescher, who transitioned from the inside to the outside lane to retain the momentum and keep Keselowski behind him, remained as the leader as Harvick launched a charge with drafting help from Elliott. The two Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing competitors would slightly surge ahead entering the backstretch and remain on the outside lane with more momentum that included pushes from Almirola and Logano keeping them ahead of Harvick and Elliott. With Buescher and Keselowski starting to pull away from the pack through Turns 3 and 4, Harvick got shuffled out of the draft as Almirola and Elliott fanned out in their final hopes of making the Playoffs. Despite gaining momentum with drafting help, their runs were not enough to catch the Roush competitors as Buescher surged ahead and beat Keselowski to the finish line to capture his third checkered flag of the 2023 Cup season by 0.098 seconds over Keselowski.

With the victory, Buescher became the fourth different competitor to achieve at least three victories throughout the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season as he also notched the fifth career win of his premier series resume and first at Daytona. With a total of 2,021 points, Buescher, who has made the Playoffs for the second time in his career and first since 2016, will line up in fourth place in this year’s Playoff grid and will embark on a 10-week Playoff stretch to battle for this year’s championship, beginning next weekend at Darlington Raceway.

“[I owe Brad Keselowski] A little more than [the push],” Buescher said on NBC. “That was amazing. So proud to get Fifth Third Bank into Victory Lane here at Daytona. I knew we were coming here with fast [Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing] Ford Mustangs and got there at the end and showed when it counted. That’s as much Brad’s win as ours right there. That was the right help. Aggressive, sticking with us, too, all the way to the line. I was waiting for him to do something there coming to the finish. I figured we’d be side-by-side, but looked like he got stalled out a little behind. Just so thankful to Brad for all those pushes there at the right time. [This season]’s hard to explain. It’s awesome, though. To be sitting here again [as a winner] so quickly. What a heck of a start into the Playoffs right now. It’s been a long time coming, a lot of work. So amazing for us.”

While Buescher celebrated on the frontstretch, Bubba Wallace celebrated with his pit crew, family, friends, teammate Tyler Reddick and team owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin on pit road after securing the 16th and final spot to make the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs by finishing 12th on the track and being 47 points ahead of Daniel Suarez, who ended up 20th. As a result, Wallace, who is in his third season driving for 23XI Racing and was able to lock both 23XI Racing cars in the Playoffs alongside teammate Tyler Reddick, has qualified for the Cup Playoffs for the first time in his career and in a season highlighted with four top-five results, six top-10 results, 14 top-15 results and five 12th-place finishes, a career-high 159 laps led and an average-finishing result of 16.8 throughout the 26-race regular-season stretch. He will line up in 16th place in the Playoff standings with 2,000 points as he will contend for his first series title.

“That was the most stressed, but also the most locked in that I’ve ever been, knowing that this place is mostly out of your control,” Wallace said. “I just try to focus on doing the things that I could do. Missing that wreck [at the end of Stage 2] was massive. [I] Appreciate [spotter] Freddie [Kraft]. He’s one of the best up on the roof that gets us through a lot and that’s what helps our resume here at the speedway stuff. Proud to be locked into the Playoffs. This is special for our team. 23XI [Racing], third year in, getting both cars in the Playoffs. We’ve gone through a lot of trials and tribulations, but just so proud of the effort that we put in. No matter how much we set ourselves back, we know that we have a kickass group and we can bounce back from anything.”

Meanwhile, Elliott was left disappointed after surging his way to finish fourth on the track, but could not gain the momentum needed to make the Playoffs as this season will mark the first time where he will not contend as a Playoff competitor. Amid a difficult regular-season stretch where he was absent for a total of seven events, six due to an injury from a snowboarding accident earlier this season, Elliott remained optimistic as he set his sights on gaining momentum for the 2024 season.

“I really liked where we were before the caution [with five laps remaining],” Elliott said. “Honestly after the [overtime] restart there, we had the bottom lane that we wanted. I knew [Keselowski] was gonna go with [Buescher]. I thought [Harvick] was gonna take the bottom [lane] and he did, and we really had all the help that we could ask for behind…It’s a bummer, for sure. [I] Hate the season’s worked out like it has, but the good news is the car got in the owner’s points. That’s a big deal. Credit to [crew chief] Alan [Gustafson] and everybody for continuing to work and scratch and claw while I was out to keep our team alive and to give ourselves a chance, so that’s a big deal. Probably much bigger than a lot of people realize to our team. Looking forward to these next 10 [races] and try to make a little noise on that side of things and just try to get ready and prepare for next year. I appreciate everybody’s support. The season hasn’t been what I would want by any means, but certainly gonna be some lessons taken from it and I think we’ll be better for it on the other end.”

Almirola came home in third place behind Buescher and Keselowski as he too missed the 2023 Playoffs while Elliott and Logano finished in the top five on the track. Bowman, who also missed the Playoffs, settled in sixth while Kyle Busch, Byron, Harvick and Corey LaJoie finished in the top 10.

William Byron, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Chris Buescher, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Ross Chastain, Brad Keselowski, Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Michael McDowell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kevin Harvick and Bubba Wallace have made the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

Daniel Suarez, rookie Ty Gibbs, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, AJ Allmendinger, Austin Cindric, Aric Almirola, Justin Haley, Corey LaJoie, Ryan Preece, Todd Gilliland, Erik Jones, Austin Dillon, Harrison Burton, Chase Briscoe and Ty Dillon are the remaining full-time competitors who did not make the Playoffs.

There were 22 lead changes for 17 different leaders. The race featured three cautions for 18 laps. In addition, 25 of 39 starters finished on the lead lap.

Results.

1. Chris Buescher, two laps led

2. Brad Keselowski, six laps led, Stage 2 winner

3. Aric Almirola, three laps led

4. Chase Elliott, two laps led

5. Joey Logano, nine laps led

6. Alex Bowman

7. Kyle Busch, five laps led

8. William Byron, one lap led

9. Kevin Harvick, 14 laps led

10. Corey LaJoie

11. Ty Dillon

12. Bubba Wallace

13. Michael McDowell

14. Austin Hill

15. Chandler Smith

16. Christopher Bell

17. Ross Chastain, 19 laps led

18. Erik Jones

19. JJ Yeley

20. Daniel Suarez, one lap led

21. Justin Haley

22. Josh Berry

23. BJ McLeod

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

25. Tyler Reddick

26. Denny Hamlin, one lap down, 12 laps led

27. Kyle Larson, two laps down

28. Harrison Burton, three laps down, five laps led

29. AJ Allmendinger, three laps down, eight laps led

30. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Accident, 67 laps led

31. Ryan Preece – OUT, Accident

32. Todd Gilliland – OUT, Overheating

33. Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident

34. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Accident, one lap led

35. Ty Gibbs – OUT, Accident

36. Ryan Blaney – OUT, Accident, four laps led

37. Austin Cindric – OUT, Accident

38. Riley Herbst – OUT, Accident

39. Brennan Poole – OUT, Accident

The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to commence next Sunday, September 3, during Labor Day weekend at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina for the Cook Out Southern 500. The event’s broadcast is scheduled to occur at 6 p.m. ET on USA Network.

August 27, 2023