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Byron caps off dramatic rally with rain-shortened Cup victory at Atlanta

In one of the wildest events of his youthful racing career, William Byron defied the odds by rallying from his early issues both on pit road and on the track that pinned him a lap behind to methodically motor his way back towards the front and implement a strategic pit call that enabled him to contend and attain the lead before claiming a dramatic victory in the rain-shortened Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 9.

The 25-year-old Byron from Charlotte, North Carolina, led the final 20 of 185-shortened laps in an event where he started 18th and had a strong showing by finishing fifth in the first stage. Amid the stage break, however, Byron’s event quickly down spiraled after he was penalized for a safety violation during his pit stop that sent him to the rear of the field.

Then while trying to carve his way back to the front, Byron ran into more trouble on Lap 79 after a tap from Corey LaJoie sent the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 spinning through the frontstretch. Despite nursing his car back to pit road in spite of flat-spotting his tires, Byron lost a lap to the leaders. By Lap 92, however, Byron received the free pass to return to the lead lap category amid a muti-car wreck that knocked his teammate Kyle Larson out of contention.

Then after pitting with a host of competitors amid a caution period due to a multi-car wreck that struck on Lap 122, an opportunity presented itself for Byron and the No. 24 team when the second stage concluded on Lap 160. With weather threats persisting and looming near the venue, Byron remained out on the track as he restarted the final stage inside the top five. Then with 93 laps remaining, Byron overtook AJ Allmendinger for the lead and retained the top spot until the event’s seventh caution period flew with 83 laps remaining for a two-car spin involving Ryan Preece and Bubba Wallace.

As the rain started to fall, Byron, who still retained the lead, led the field to pit road and the event was placed in a red flag period with 75 laps remaining. Not long after and with the rain increasing, NASCAR made the call to deem the event official as Byron was awarded his fourth NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, July 8, Aric Almirola notched his first Cup pole of the 2023 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 177.346 mph in 31.261 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Ryan Blaney, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 177.266 mph in 31.275 seconds.

Prior to the event, Christopher Bell dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing entry.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Almirola and Blaney dueled for the lead through the first two turns. Entering the backstretch before Almirola, who started on the outside lane and with Joey Logano drafting him, Almirola muscled ahead in his No. 10 Smithfield/IHOP Ford Mustang. As the field made its way back to the frontstretch while running stacked in two lanes, Almirola led the first lap and then pulled ahead of the pack followed by Logano and Blaney while Chase Briscoe and Harrison Burton battled for fourth.

Through the second lap, the majority of the field migrated to the outside lane and in a long single-file line as Almirola retained the lead followed by his Ford teammates of Logano, Blaney, Briscoe and Harrison Burton while rookie Ty Gibbs occupied sixth in front of Kevin Harvick. As Harvick started to lose a handful of spots while being stuck on the inside lane by the fourth lap, where he slipped out of the top 10, Almirola was still leading the field.

Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Almirola was still leading by a tenth of a second over Logano as they were pursued by Blaney, Briscoe and Harrison Burton. Behind, Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, Austin Cindric, Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin were in the top 10 while Martin Truex Jr., Todd Gilliland, William Byron, Brad Keselowski and Michael McDowell were running in the top 15.

Six laps later, the first caution of the event flew when Harrison Burton, who was running in the top 10, slipped and spun sideways entering the backstretch from the middle to the bottom surface of the track as he was dodged by oncoming traffic while locking his tires and making light contact against the inside wall. During the first caution period, a host of names that included Harvick, Justin Haley, Ryan Preece, Kyle Busch, Chris Buescher, Daniel Suarez, Corey LaJoie, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain, JJ Yeley, Erik Jones, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon, BJ McLeod, Austin Hill, Cole Custer, Ty Dillon and rookie Noah Gragson pitted while the rest led by Almirola remained on the track.

When the race restarted under green on Lap 23, Almirola and Blaney dueled for the lead through the first two turns and through the backstretch until Almirola managed to prevail from the outside lane again and retain the lead through Turns 3 and 4. During the following lap, he transitioned to the inside lane to gain control of the pack followed by Logano and Blaney as Larson was in fourth along with Truex, Cindric, Byron and Reddick.

At the Lap 30 mark and with the field running at speeds above 180+ mph amid the draft and in two-packed lanes, Almirola was leading ahead of Logano, Blaney, Truex and Larson while Cindric, Byron, Reddick, Briscoe and Ty Gibbs were running in the top 10. In addition, Todd Gilliland was in 11th ahead of teammate Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell, Hamlin and AJ Allmendinger while Brad Keselowski, Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace, Justin Haley and Chris Buescher were scored in the top 20 with all but one of 37 starters scored on the lead lap.

Fifteen laps later, Almirola, who briefly lost the lead from Logano on Lap 40 before reassuming it back, retained the top spot ahead of a long line of competitors that included Logano, Blaney, Larson and Truex while Byron, Reddick, Bell, Cindric and Briscoe were in the top 10.

Then on Lap 48, Logano made his move beneath Almirola in Turns 1 and 2 and moved back in front of Almirola to inherit the lead through the backstretch. Almirola, however, darted left and fought back on the inside lane entering Turns 3. But Logano received drafting help from teammate Blaney exiting the turns as he surged ahead in his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang with the lead while Almirola was trying to navigate his way back to the outside lane amid the pack.

Nearing the Lap 50 mark, Larson and Truex moved up into third and fourth along with Byron while Almirola was still trying to force his way in front of Reddick in getting back up to the outside lane. With more contact ensuing through the frontstretch as Reddick nearly got turned by Cindric while racing him and Bell within the top 10, the field fanned out to three lanes as Almirola continued to slip back to 10th in front of Reddick.

Back to the front of the pack on Lap 53, Truex tried to overtake Blaney for second, but he could not execute the run to claim the spot as Larson tried to join the battle. By then, Bell carved his way up into the top five while Logano was still out in front with the lead. Another four laps later and with the field still fanning out to three lanes amid the intensity increasing, Blaney moved his No. 12 Wurth Ford Mustang into the lead ahead of teammate Logano while Larson tried to challenge Logano for second on the inside lane.

During the final lap of the first stage mark, Logano launched a final side-by-side challenge on teammate Blaney for the stage victory as the field fanned out. Amid the field fanning out, Larson also launched his charge to the front as he overtook Logano for second entering Turns 3 and 4 while barely staying above the double-yellow line boundary zone. He then tried to edge Blaney for the stage victory entering the frontstretch, but Blaney pulled ahead on the outside lane and managed to edge Larson for the first stage victory on Lap 60 and for his third stage victory of the 2023 Cup season. Amid the field fanning out through the frontstretch, Larson settled in second while Truex, Logano, Byron, Bell, Cindric, McDowell, Reddick and Almirola were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Blaney pitted for service while BJ McLeod and Ty Dillon remained on the track. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategy, Larson exited first followed by Blaney, Byron, Suarez, Bell, Logano and Buescher. During the pit stops, Truex was hit by McDowell, who was trying to exit his pit stall, as Truex spun backward down pit road. Amid the pit stops, Hamlin was penalized for equipment interference. In addition, teammate Bell was also penalized for removing equipment from his pit box while Byron was penalized for a safety violation. McLeod and Ty Dillon, both of whom remained on the track, would pit after remaining on the track for a lap as Larson cycled to the lead followed by Blaney.

The second stage started on Lap 66 as Larson and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Blaney surged ahead on the inside lane with drafting help from teammate Logano through the first two turns and through the backstretch. With Larson fighting back on the outside lane, he would lead the proceeding lap before Blaney surged ahead and cleared the pack stacked up to two lanes during the following lap. Blaney would continue to lead at the Lap 70 mark as he had both of his Team Penske competitors, Logano and Cindric, running in the top three. In addition, Alex Bowman carved his way up to the front as he would overtake Cindric for third along with Haley, Bubba Wallace, Larson and Daniel Suarez.

Then on Lap 79, the third caution of the event flew when Corey LaJoie, who was racing within the top 25, turned and sent Byron for a spin just past the start/finish line towards the frontstretch as Byron managed to keep his No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 spinning below the racetrack before he continued despite flat-spotting his tires. Despite continuing, Byron would lose a lap to the leaders.

During the caution period, select names that included Wallace, Ryan Preece, Truex, Elliott and McLeod remained on the track while the rest led by Blaney pitted. During the pit stops, Reddick was penalized due to a crew member jumping over the pit box too soon. Elliott would then pit prior to the restart and amid a miscommunication with his pit crew to pit earlier with the field

With the race restarting under green on Lap 85, Wallace and Truex, both of whom started on the front row, dueled for the lead as Wallace managed to lead the proceeding lap while running on the outside lane. With Truex fighting back on the inside lane, he then managed to surge ahead and move in front of Wallace to assume control of the field on Lap 87 as Bowman, Logano, Preece and Buescher followed in pursuit. Then on Lap 88, Ty Gibbs scraped the backstretch’s outside wall amid contact with Erik Jones, but the event remained under green flag conditions as the field led by Truex remained stacked in two fast-paced, tight-packed lanes.

On Lap 92 and just as Buescher carved his way to the front over Truex, the caution returned when Larson got loose and slipped sideways in front of Erik Jones as he then spun amid oncoming traffic in between Turns 3 and 4 while the field managed to dodge Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Chase Briscoe and Austin Hill both would spin below the track while trying to avoid Larson as Larson would damage the right-front end of his car after the right-front tire blew while he was trying to pit.

During the caution period, select names that included Truex, Wallace, Ty Dillon, Noah Gragson, Elliott, Almirola, Custer and McDowell pitted while the rest led by Buescher remained on the track.

By the proceeding restart on Lap 98, Buescher and Haley, both of whom restarted on the front row, dueled for the lead as Buescher managed to retain the top spot by a hair while running on the outside lane. As the field fanned out to three lanes just past the Lap 100 mark, Buescher cleared the field and assumed command of the field followed by Allmendinger, Logano and Blaney as Haley fell back to fifth. Bowman would then surge up into the top five by Lap 102, but he would be overtaken by Preece and Cindric amid the draft while Buescher retained the lead ahead of Allmendinger, Logano and Blaney.

By Lap 110 and with the field stilled fanned out towards the front, Buescher continued to lead ahead of Allmendinger, Logano, Blaney and Prece while Cindric, Bowman, Hamlin, Reddick and Corey LaJoie were in the top 10. By then, 34 of 37 starters were not only running on the lead lap but they were separated by four seconds as the top-eight competitors were separated by eight-tenths of a second.

Ten laps later and with the intensity of the competition igniting towards the front and around the venue, Buescher continued to lead by a tenth of a second over Allmendinger followed by Team Penske’s trio of Logano, Blaney and Cindric while Bowman, Hamlin, Keselowski, Bell and LaJoie followed pursuit in the top 10. By then, Larson retired in the garage.

Another two laps later and just as Team Penske’s trio of Logano, Blaney and Cindric overtook Allmendinger towards the front, the event’s fifth caution flew when LaJoie and Erik Jones made contact in between Turns 1 and 2 as LaJoie got loose and slipped up the track before he bounced off of Reddick, which sent Reddick’s No. 45 The Beast Unleashed Toyota TRD Camry scraping into the wall before he darted sideways. In the process, LaJoie would get hit by Ty Gibbs, who received a hard shot from Chastain as Chastain damaged the right front of his No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, while Truex had to slam on the brakes to avoid sustaining any damage to his car.

During the caution period, some led by Buescher and including Logano, Blaney, Cindric, Bowman, Keselowski, Haley, Elliott, Preece, Almirola, McDowell, McLeod, Briscoe, JJ Yeley, and Kevin Harvick remained on the track while the rest led by Allmendinger pitted.

When the race restarted under green on Lap 128, Buescher and Logano dueled for the lead through the first two turns as they had Ford teammates Blaney and Cindric drafting them. Buescher, however, would muscle ahead with drafting help from Cindric as the field fanned out to two stacked lanes. With the field reaching its halfway mark on Lap 130, Buescher retained the lead ahead of Cindric, Blaney and Logano while Keselowski carved his way into the top five. Cindric, however, would receive drafting help from teammate Blaney to shoot into the lead through Turns 3 and 4 during the following lap. Keselowski would then merge into the top three and challenge Cindric for the lead during the proceeding laps as Buescher was left to battle Blaney and Logano for third.

By Lap 140, Cindric was leading following a long duel against Keselowski as Keselowski settled in second while Blaney and Buescher battled for third. Behind, Truex battled Bowman for fifth while Haley, Allmendinger, Logano and Wallace battled and jostled against one another inside the top 10. Keselowski would then reassume the lead two laps later as he re-ignited his battle on Cindric for the lead. With Keselowski out in front, Blaney would then draw himself back towards the front and challenge Keselowski for the lead.

At the Lap 150 mark, Keselowski was leading the field while trying to fend off teammate Buescher, Blaney and Cindric amid the draft and in close-quarters racing.

Five laps later, the caution flew when Bowman, who was running towards the front, slipped up the track through Turns 3 and 4 and clipped Hamlin as he sent Hamlin’s No. 11 Coca-Cola Toyota TRD Camry sideways entering the frontstretch before both spun through the frontstretch while the rest of the field led by Keselowski dodged the incident. The caution period for the incident involving Hamlin and Bowman was enough for the second stage scheduled to conclude on Lap 160 to conclude under caution as Keselowski captured his second stage victory of the 2023 season. Blaney settled in second while Buescher, Cindric, Allmendinger, Wallace, Haley, McDowell, Bell and Preece were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break and with weather threats looming, some led by new leader Allmendinger and including McDowell, Erik Jones, Byron, Suarez, Gilliland, JJ Yeley, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Cole Custer, Kyle Busch, McLeod, Ty Dillon and Reddick remained on the track while the rest led by Keselowski pitted amid mixed strategy.

With 96 laps remaining, the final stage started as Allmendinger and McDowell occupied the front row. At the start, McDowell tried to surge ahead on the inside lane through the first two turns. With both Allmendinger and McDowell remaining dead even for the lead, however, Allmendinger surged ahead on the outside lane as he led the proceeding lap. Allmendinger would then pull ahead of McDowell before Byron carved his way into the lead with 93 laps remaining. With Byron out in front and as the field fanned out to three tight-packed lanes, Allmendinger settled in second followed by Suarez, Gilliland and Yeley while McDowell, who was running low of fuel, battled Stenhouse and Kyle Busch for sixth.

With 88 laps remaining, Harvick spun his No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang just past the frontstretch amid contact from Hamlin, but he kept his car spinning below the track as the event remained under green. Back at the front, Byron retained the lead ahead of Allmendinger while Kyle Busch used the outside lane to try to bolt his way into the top five. By then, Keselowski was back into the top five and running in fifth while Suarez started to challenge Allmendinger for second.

Then with 83 laps remaining, the caution flew when Preece received a bump from Ricky Stenhouse Jr. entering Turn 3 that sent him sideways and spinning into the path of Wallace as both spun towards the bottom of Turn 3 after running in the top 10. At the moment of caution, Byron was scored the leader ahead of Suarez, Allmendinger, McDowell and Kyle Busch.

As the field continued to run under a cautious pace behind the pace with pit road closed and with less than 80 laps remaining, reports of rain and sprinkles were being reported in Turn 1 and through the backstretch as Byron retained the lead. Then with 75 laps remaining, the field led by Byron was directed to pit road and the event was placed under a red flag period due to the increase of rain around the venue.

Soon after and with the rain intensifying around the venue, NASCAR declared the event official 75 laps shy of its scheduled distance and William Byron was awarded his fourth victory of the 2023 Cup season.

With the victory, Byron became the first four-time winner of the 2023 Cup Series season as he also claimed his second victory at Atlanta and his eighth career victory in his 199th start in NASCAR’s premier series. He also recorded the sixth victory of the season for Hendrick Motorsports and the 12th for the Chevrolet nameplate.

Ironically, Byron’s victory occurred as Goodyear Racing tires celebrated its 2,000th Cup Series race victory at Atlanta. With Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 24 car achieving the victory thanks to Byron during Goodyear’s milestone mark, it marked another historic moment for the No. 24 car as NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon piloted the No. 24 car to victory at Bristol in 1995 during Goodyear’s 1,000th Cup race victory.

Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

“Just teamwork,” Byron said on USA Network. “I don’t completely understand this one. It’s a really good feeling. I’ve never had a rain victory like this, but just thanks to AXALTA, Chevrolet. It’s cool, man. We went through so much throughout the night. Spinning through the infield, destroyed the bottom of the car, dragging it around the apron trying to stay on the lead lap. At that point, you just don’t have the grip, so I was real edgy back in traffic, but [crew chief] Rudy [Fugle] made a good call to pit there [on Lap 125 under caution] and then stay out [prior to Lap 165 restart]. Once we got towards the front, it was OK. We could make the right decisions, block OK and get the lead from AJ [Allmendinger] and was just able to manage the runs. Just a crazy night.”

“[This win]’s really important,” Byron added. “We’re just keeping our heads in it. Over the last few weeks, we finished in the top 15 when we don’t have good cars. The days we have really good cars, we finish in the top five. It’s just a matter of staying with it. Today was definitely a lucky break. I can’t overstate that. We were in the lead, but there’s certainly a lot of laps to go. Just thankful for a good team to make good decisions and to stay in the race when it’s easy to kind of give up and pack it in.”

With Byron being awarded the victory, Suarez concluded the rain-shortened event in the runner-up spot followed by Allmendinger while McDowell, who gambled late to remain on the track and towards the front while on low fuel, netted fourth place in the final running order and moved inside the top-16 cutline for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs. Kyle Busch came home fifth while Keselowski, JJ Yeley, Haley, Blaney and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished in the top 10.

There were 18 lead changes for 12 different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 43 laps. In total, 27 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.

With eight regular-season events remaining of this year’s Cup Series schedule, William Byron leads the regular-season standings by 21 points over Martin Truex Jr., 36 over Kyle Busch, 37 over Christopher Bell and 53 over Ross Chastain.

William Byron, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are currently guaranteed spots for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning at least once throughout the regular-season stretch. Kevin Harvick, Chris Buescher, Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell currently occupy the remaining vacant spots in the Playoffs based on points, with McDowell occupying the 16th and final vacant spot by three points over Bubba Wallace, 13 over AJ Allmendinger, 26 over rookie Ty Gibbs, 38 over Austin Cindric, 41 over Justin Haley, 44 over Alex Bowman and 60 over Chase Elliott.

Results.

1. William Byron, 20 laps led

2. Daniel Suarez

3. AJ Allmendinger, six laps led

4. Michael McDowell

5. Kyle Busch

6. Brad Keselowski, 19 laps led, Stage 2 winner

7. JJ Yeley

8. Justin Haley

9. Ryan Blaney, 20 laps led, Stage 1 winner

10. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

11. Erik Jones

12. Austin Cindric, 10 laps led

13. Chase Elliott

14. Denny Hamlin

15. Chris Buescher, 39 laps led

16. Todd Gilliland

17. Joey Logano, 11 laps led

18. Aric Almirola, 46 laps led

19. Ty Dillon

20. BJ McLeod, one lap led

21. Austin Dillon

22. Chase Briscoe

23. Christopher Bell

24. Ryan Preece

25. Bubba Wallace, five laps led

26. Alex Bowman

27. Tyler Reddick

28. Harrison Burton, one lap down

29. Martin Truex Jr., one lap down, five laps led

30. Kevin Harvick, four laps down

31. Corey LaJoie, six laps down

32. Cole Custer, seven laps down

33. Noah Gragson, 11 laps down

34. Ty Gibbs, 35 laps down

35. Ross Chastain – OUT, Dvp

36. Kyle Larson – OUT, Accident, four laps led

37. Austin Hill – OUT, Dvp

Next on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ lone visit of this season to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, July 16, at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

July 10, 2023
Kyle Busch avoids final lap carnage for wild Cup victory at Talladega

In a similar scenario to the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Course a year ago, Kyle Busch found himself situated at the right place to strike at the right time as he dodged a final lap carnage involving race leaders Bubba Wallace and Ryan Blaney to net a big victory in the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, April 23, amid two overtime attempts.

The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion from Las Vegas, Nevada, led three of 196 over-scheduled laps as he placed himself in contention to win while starting on the front row during the second of two overtime attempts. Despite being overtaken by Wallace and a hard-charging Blaney on the frontstretch and as the final lap started, the seas parted ways for Busch as Wallace, who went from the bottom to the top lane to block Blaney, got bumped and turned sideways in front of Blaney on the outside lane.

The result triggered a multi-car pileup between Turns 1 and 2 as Busch dodged the carnage to reassume the lead before the caution flag waved to officially conclude the event on the final lap. Amid fuel concerns, Busch had enough fuel to coast his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 across the finish line first and claim his second checkered flag of the 2023 season and his first at Talladega in 15 years.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Denny Hamlin started in pole position for the first time in 2023 after posting a pole-winning lap at 180.751 mph in 52.979 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Aric Almirola, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 180.642 mph in 53.011 seconds.

Prior to the event, Austin Cindric, AJ Allmendinger and Todd Gilliland dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Hamlin and Almirola dueled for the lead amid two tight-packed lanes entering the first turn until Almirola received a strong push from teammate Chase Briscoe to launch ahead and assume control of both lanes through the backstretch. With the field fanning out to two tight-packed lanes, Almirola proceeded to lead the first lap ahead of Briscoe, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, Hamlin and Chris Buescher.

Then prior to the second lap and as Logano challenged Almirola for the lead, the first caution flew when Michael McDowell, who was running within the top 20, spun in the middle of the pack through Turns 3 and 4 after losing a right-rear tire. Amid the spin, the field scattered to avoid hitting McDowell as he pitted his No. 34 Love’s Travel Stop Ford Mustang for repairs.

During the first caution period, a host of names that included Ross Chastain, Erik Jones, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, Justin Haley, Ty Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Riley Herbst, Corey LaJoie, JJ Yeley, Ryan Preece, Austin Cindric, Todd Gilliland, Zane Smith, BJ McLeod and Austin Hill pitted while the rest led by Almirola remained on the track.

When the event restarted on the sixth lap, Almirola maintained the lead on the outside lane followed by Logano while Briscoe challenged Buescher for third. As the field returned to the frontstretch, Briscoe drew himself into a side-by-side battle with teammate Almirola for the lead as the former led a lap for himself. Then on the eighth lap, Bubba Wallace was drafted into the lead on the outside lane as he had rookie Ty Gibbs and Ryan Blaney drafting him. As Wallace fought for the lead on the outside lead, Briscoe also fought back on the inside lane with drafting help from teammate Almirola and Logano.

At the Lap 10 mark, Wallace was leading ahead of Gibbs, Briscoe, Blaney and Almirola as the field battled amid two tight-packed lanes. Despite being pressured by Briscoe on the inside lane, Wallace maintained the lead on the outside lane through the Lap 20 mark.

By Lap 25, Wallace continued to lead as Blaney moved up to second. Martin Truex Jr. also moved up to third followed by Gibbs and Daniel Suarez while Briscoe fell back to sixth ahead of Kyle Busch, Almirola, Harrison Burton and Ross Chastain. By then, all but one of 38 starters were separated within two seconds amid a tight pack and two lanes.

Then as the first wave of green flag pit stops commenced approaching Lap 35 with Wallace leading his Toyota teammates to pit road, early trouble struck for teammate Tyler Reddick, who made a late dart to the left and locked up his front tires while trying to slow his car prior to entering pit road. After getting loose, Reddick then spun and hit the inside wall as he was dodged by Wallace and all four Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota competitors. Despite the incident, the race proceeded under green as Reddick navigated his No. 45 MoneyLion Toyota TRD Camry back to pit road for repairs.

On Lap 39, another wave of competitors, mainly Chevrolet competitors, led by Chastain, who passed Kyle Busch for the lead on Lap 36, pitted as Preece cycled to the lead. Then as another wave of competitors, mainly Ford competitors, led by Preece pitted by Lap 41, trouble struck for Briscoe, who spun after locking up his tires and trying to slow his No. 14 Mahindra Tractors YOG Ford Mustang while trying to enter pit road.

While the rest of his Ford competitors proceeded to pit, Briscoe’s event then went from bad to worse when he flattened his tires and was left stranded on pit road while the rest of his fellow competitors pitted. As a result of his mishap, the caution returned on Lap 42. By then, Erik Jones was leading ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ty Dillon, Haley, Corey LaJoie and AJ Allmendinger. During the caution period, some led by Erik Jones, who had yet to pit, pitted while the rest led by Elliott remained on the track.

When the event restarted under green on Lap 47, teammates Elliott and Bowman dueled for the lead in front of the pack. They continued to duel for the lead through the backstretch and entering Turns 3 and 4 until Bowman peeked ahead in his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and led the following lap. While Bowman had drafting help from teammate Kyle Larson, Elliott had drafting help from Chastain as both Hendrick Motorsports teammates continued to swap back and forth for the lead.

Nearing the Lap 55 mark, the battle for the lead continued to intensify as Elliott reassumed the top spot with drafting help from Chastain on the inside lane while Bowman fought back on the outside lane with drafting help from teammate Larson. As the field remained dead even in a tight pack, Almirola tried to start a third lane towards the outside lane entering the frontstretch. Kyle Busch would then move up in front of Almirola along with Blaney and Zane Smith towards the outside lane as Elliott retained the lead.

When the first stage concluded on Lap 60, Elliott, who swapped the lead with teammate Bowman since the previous restart amid the draft, claimed his first Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Bowman, Chastain, Byron, Larson, Cindric, Gragson, Logano, Preece and Suarez were scored in the top 10. By then, the event featured 15 lead changes for 10 different leaders while 36 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.

Under the second stage, the field led by Elliott returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategies, Hamlin exited first after only opting for fuel. Harvick, who pitted for two fresh tires, exited second followed by Haley, Chastain on four tires, Truex and Cindric. Amid the pit stops, Todd Gilliland was penalized for having his crew members jump over the pit wall too soon. Buescher was also penalized for running over equipment along with Herbst, who was nabbed for pitting outside his pit box. JJ Yeley was also assessed a penalty for vehicle interference.

Prior to the start of the second stage, the following names that included Buescher, Kyle Busch, Zane Smith, Erik Jones, Keselowski, Stenhouse, Austin Hill and Herbst pitted to top off on fuel.

The second stage started on Lap 67 as Hamlin and Justin Haley occupied the front row. At the start, Hamlin pulled ahead on the outside lane in his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry through the first two turns as Haley tried to fight back on the inside lane with drafting help from Chastain. Hamlin, however, had drafting help from Harvick as he maintained the lead in front of the field battling in tight formation through two lanes.

Four laps later, Harvick, who drew himself in a side-by-side battle with Hamlin for the lead, led a lap for himself as he tried to receive drafting assistance from Truex while Hamlin moved in front of Haley on the inside lane. With Harvick in the lead, Logano then drew himself behind Harvick’s No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang in the draft while Truex drew himself in a side-by-side battle with Harvick for the lead.

At the Lap 75 mark, Harvick was leading ahead of Logano, Preece, Truex and Hamlin while Larson, Haley, Wallace, Chastain and Ty Dillon were scored in the top 10. By then, the top-36 competitors were separated by two seconds, with the first 21 separated by under a second.

Two laps later, Logano was drafted into the lead as he led a lap for himself. Another lap later, however, Truex made his move to the front after receiving a draft from teammate Hamlin and Harvick on the outside lane while Logano remained on the inside lane.

Through the first 90 scheduled laps, Truex, who had been swapping the lead with Logano since Lap 77, was out in front ahead of Logano while Hamlin, Haley and Harvick were in the top five. By then, Chastain was in sixth followed by Preece, Cindric, Wallace and Bell while Ty Dillon, Larson, Austin Dillon, Byron and LaJoie were scored in the top 15 ahead of Elliott, Almirola, Harrison Burton, Bowman and Blaney. In addition, 36 of 38 starters scored on the lead lap were separated within two seconds.

At the halfway mark on Lap 94, Truex continued to lead ahead of teammate Hamlin while Harvick, Logano, Preece, Haley, Wallace, Chastain, Ty Dillon and Cindric were battling within the top 10. By then, the top-26 competitors were separated by less than a second while a total of 36 lead lap competitors were separated by over a second and a half.

Three laps later, the field fanned out to three tight-packed lanes as Wallace mounted a charge on the outside lane with drafting help from Erik Jones. Another lap later, Wallace was drafted into the lead as he moved in front of Truex and Hamlin while Harvick and Logano occupied the top five. By Lap 100, Harvick moved back into the lead as he battled Truex to maintain the spot while Preece and Ty Dillon moved up into the top five.

Three laps later, the second wave of green flag pit stops commenced as a host of competitors, mainly Chevrolet competitors, led by Chastain pitted. Another lap later, a mix of Toyota and Chevrolet competitors led by Truex and Hamlin pitted under green for service. Another wave of competitors, mainly Ford competitors, led by Harvick would then pit under green by Lap 105, mainly for fuel. Amid the pit stops, Logano was penalized for speeding on pit road.

Nearing the Lap 106 mark, the top-four competitors led by Keselowski and followed by teammate Buescher, Yeley and Riley Herbst pitted. Once the second cycle of green flag pit stops concluded, Truex cycled his No. 19 Bas Pro Shops Toyota TRD Camry into the lead followed by Austin Dillon and Byron while Kyle Busch, Bowman and Elliott were scored in the top six. By Lap 110, however, Wallace navigated his way back into the lead over Elliott, who led the previous lap.

Then on Lap 115, the field split Logano in the middle as Logano, who was left out of the draft prior to the field catching him, was mired a lap down following his pit road penalty. As Logano received drafting help from teammate Cindric to battle Briscoe for the free pass spot, Elliott, who spent the previous several laps battling Wallace for the lead, was out in front. By then, Almirola moved up to second followed by Harvick, Burton and Preece while Wallace was left battling Truex for sixth.

When the second stage concluded on Lap 120, Almirola executed a move on Elliott with drafting help from teammate Harvick on the outside lane to claim his first Cup stage victory since 2020. Elliott settled in second followed by Harvick, Wallace and Burton while Truex, Preece, Hamlin, Stenhouse and Gragson were scored in the top 10. By then, the event featured 33 lead changes for 16 different leaders. In addition, Logano was the beneficiary of the free pass and cycled back to the lead lap after managing to remain ahead of Briscoe and BJ McLeod, both of whom were a lap down, on the track.

Under the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Almirola returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Almirola exited first to retain the lead followed by Hamlin, Wallace, Elliott, Burton and Harvick.

With 62 laps remaining, the final stage started as Almirola and Wallace occupied the front row. At the start, Wallace peeked ahead with the lead on the inside lane with drafting help from Burton as he then darted up the track to block Almirola. This enabled Burton to be drafted into the lead on the inside lane followed by Gragson as Wallace battled Truex for third. Burton would then maintain the lead in front of Gragson, Wallace, Truex, Blaney and Almirola as the event reached its final 60-lap mark.

With 50 laps remaining, Blaney was leading NY a hair over Burton and followed by Wallace, Gragson and Almirola while Hamlin, Truex, Reddick, Elliott and Harvick were running in the top 10. By then, the top-22 competitors were separated by under a second while 35 lead lap competitors were separated by less than two seconds amid the tight two-lane packed racing.

Then with 47 laps remaining, the caution flew when Burton, who was being drafted by Gragson while battling for the lead, spun off the front nose of Gragson as he spun his No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang below the Turn 3 apron, though he managed to sustain no significant damage. As the field checked up to avoid Burton’s spin, however, Logano got into the rear of Zane Smith, who then collected Austin Dillon as Dillon spun his No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 below the apron and the grass while Smith made more contact with Austin Hill.

During the caution period, the field led by Blaney pitted, mainly for fuel, and Blaney retained the lead after exiting first followed by Almirola, Wallace, Hamlin, Truex and Gragson. Prior to the restart, names that included Keselowski, Buescher, Erik Jones, Logano and Hill pitted to top off with enough fuel for the finish.

With the event restarting with 41 laps remaining, Blaney and Wallace dueled for the lead before Wallace received a draft from his owner Hamlin to move into the lead on the outside lane. With Blaney remaining on the inside lane and in front of Almirola, Wallace maintained his momentum and lead on the outside lane in front of Hamlin and Truex as the field fanned out to three tight-packed lanes.

With 38 laps remaining, the outside lane led by Wallace briefly stacked up, which enabled Preece to try to ignite a drafting charge on the outside lane as Blaney was pushed clear to the lead followed by Almirola, Gragson and Harvick. As the field continued to fan out through three tight-packed lanes, Gibbs charged his way into third in front of Gragson, Wallace, Hamlin and Harvick as Blaney retained the lead. Gibbs then started to challenge Blaney for the lead with 35 laps remaining while running in the middle lane while Preece launched another bid for the front on the outside lane.

A lap later, the battle for the lead fanned out to three tight-packed lanes amid the draft as Blaney, Gibbs and Preece, all of whom were the front-runners of each of the three lanes, dueled for the lead. As Gibbs managed to peek ahead to lead a lap for himself, Blaney and Preece fought back from their respective lanes, with Blaney receiving a strong push from Almirola on the inside lane to move ahead. With Preece slowly falling back on the outside lane, Gibbs received drafting help from Wallace and his Toyota teammates to keep Blaney within his sights under the final 30-lap mark.

Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Blaney was leading ahead of Almirola, Gragson, Gibbs and Harvick while Wallace, Chastain, Hamlin, Truex and Larson were scored in the top 10. By then, the top 20 competitors were separated by less than a second, with the top 33 separated by one-and-a-half seconds amid the tight-packed draft racing fanning out to three lanes.

Five laps later and with the field still fanned out to three lanes, Blaney and Gibbs continued to duel for the lead ahead of Almirola, Wallace and Gragson while Stenhouse tried to form a third drafting lane to the front. Another two laps later, the inside lane gained momentum as Blaney started to pull ahead followed by Almirola, Gragson, Harvick, Chastain, Larson, Kyle Busch and Allmendinger while Gibbs, Wallace and Hamlin were losing touch with the leaders while running on the outside lane. With 15 laps remaining, however, the outside lane led by Gibbs and followed by Wallace, Hamlin and Truex regained their momentum as Gibbs started to challenge Blaney for the lead.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event and with fuel becoming questionable for the front-runners, the top-33 competitors were separated within a second and in tight formation amid the draft as both Blaney and Gibbs continued to fight for the lead followed by Wallace, Hamlin, Almirola, Gragson, Truex, Harvick, Haley and Chastain.

With seven laps remaining, the top-four competitors that included Blaney, Almirola, Gragson and Harvick broke away from the tight pack while Gibbs was trying to maintain momentum as the lead competitor on the outside lane. Then as the intensity toward the front continued, the caution flew with five laps remaining when Logano, who darted to the outside lane to ignite a charge to the front while running in the middle of the pack, got bumped and loose by LaJoie as he briefly bounced off of Suarez before making contact with the backstretch’s outside wall and spinning below the track. Stenhouse and Herbst also sustained damage along with Byron, who made contact with Burton as Burton spun and slapped the inside wall, as the event was sent into overtime.

During the caution period, select names that included Byron, Bell, Stenhouse and Ty Dillon pitted for fuel while the rest led by Blaney remained on the track.

At the start of the first overtime attempt, where Blaney and Gragson occupied the front row, Gragson received a push from Chastain to peek ahead of Blaney entering the first turn. Then through Turns 1 and 2, Chastain tried to make a move between Blaney and Gragson for the lead. Amid the tight racing, Chastain and Gragson ended up making contact as Gragson’s No. 42 Wendy’s Beef is in the Bag Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ended up shooting back across the track and hitting the outside wall. In the ensuing process, Larson got turned by Harvick as he spun below the apron. Larson then came back across the track and despite being dodged by most of the oncoming field, he was T-boned by Preece’s No. 41 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang as both of their events came to an end.

Under the caution period, Harvick, Hamlin, Chastain and Haley pitted for fuel while the rest led by Blaney remained on the track.

During the start of the second overtime attempt, where Blaney and Kyle Busch occupied the front row, the momentum occurred on the outside lane as Busch was drafted into the lead followed by Wallace and Keselowski while Blaney was left to battle Truex for fourth. By then, Gibbs pulled his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry below the track after running out of fuel. Through the backstretch, the inside lane led by Busch continued to gain more momentum while Truex was mired back in sixth despite remaining on the outside lane.

Then through the frontstretch, Wallace made his move on Busch and assumed the lead on the outside lane in his No. 23 Columbia Toyota TRD Camry with drafting help from Blaney’s No. 12 Wurth Ford Mustang as he started the final lap of the event. Through Turn 1, however, Blaney tried to make a move beneath Wallace for the lead but was blocked. He then moved up the track along with Wallace and the two made contact, which resulted in Wallace getting loose and spinning sideways as he came down the track and clipped Keselowski before spinning within the middle of the pack and towards oncoming competitors. Among those involved on the final lap included Keselowski, Truex, Allmendinger, Cindric, Gilliland and Byron while the rest of the field scattered to avoid the carnage.

With the caution waving and the race deemed official, Kyle Busch was back in front ahead of Blaney. Amid concerns of not having enough fuel to finish, Busch was able to have enough to remain ahead of Blaney and navigate his No. 8 McLaren Custom Grills Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the frontstretch before claiming the checkered flag and the official victory.

With the victory, Busch, who won earlier at Auto Club Speedway in late February, notched his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season, which makes him the third multi-time winner of this season. He also notched his 62nd career win in NASCAR’s premier series, which makes the 2023 season Busch’s 13th of 19 full-time seasons with multiple Cup victories. The Talladega victory was also Busch’s second of his Cup career, with his first dating back to April 2008, and the 13th overall for Richard Childress Racing. Ironically, Busch’s Talladega victory marked his first restrictor-plate victory since winning at Daytona International Speedway in July 2008.

“Sometimes, you got to be lucky,” Busch said on FOX. “Some of these races come down to that. You gotta take’em when they come your way. The seas kind of parted there when [Wallace and Blaney] went up the racetrack. They were trying to push draft. These cars are just not stable enough to do that. Seeing [Wallace] just turn a little bit sideways, I was like get out of the way, just miss it and try to see if I was ahead of [Blaney] by the time [the race] was called. Just a great day for another new sponsor at [Richard Childress Racing] with McLaren Custom Grills. We have a great time being able to come out here and race and be a part of Team Chevy and get this Camaro in Victory Lane.”

“We were sweating it being close [on fuel],” Busch added. “I thought back to California, Fontana, earlier this year where we have a win. I’m like we gotta gamble. We’re up here, you gotta take the track position when you have it and go give it what you can on the restarts and see what happens. Low and behold, it worked out. Knock on wood for this one.”

Following an extensive review of the finishing order amid the final lap chaos, Blaney settled in second place after leading a race-high 47 laps. Buescher made his way to third followed by Briscoe, who rallied from losing a lap to the leaders, while Keselowski ended up fifth.

“You get big runs and you take’em when you can,” Blaney said. “I’m glad everyone’s OK, but on my mind, you kind of triple move like that, triple block and you can’t block three times. Just the runs are so big and as the leader, with Bubba, he’s trying to block, which is the right thing to do, but I think he kind of moved three times. You don’t really get a lot of those. I gotta go somewhere, so I hate that good cars got torn up. I hate for us being so close for the win. I’m not blaming anybody. It’s just hard racing at the end of this thing. Unfortunate [that] cars got tore up and we just missed out on another win.”

Erik Jones, Byron, Bell, Suarez and Todd Gilliland finished in the top 10. Notably, Elliott finished 12th in front of Bowman, Ty Dillon and Stenhouse while Hamlin ended up 17th behind Reddick. Almirola fell back to 22nd behind teammate Harvick, who made his 800th Cup career start, while Truex ended up 27th. Meanwhile, Wallace, who led 35 laps, was left in 28th place while Ty Gibbs ended up 31st after not having enough fuel to finish.

There were 57 lead changes for 21 different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 34 laps. In addition, 27 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the 10th event of the 2023 Cup Series season, Christopher Bell leads the regular-season standings by 12 points over Ross Chastain, 20 over Kevin Harvick, 36 over Kyle Larson, 41 over Kyle Busch and 45 over Tyler Reddick.

Results.

1. Kyle Busch, three laps led

2. Ryan Blaney, 47 laps led

3. Chris Buescher

4. Chase Briscoe, one lap led

5. Brad Keselowski, two laps led

6. Erik Jones, three laps led

7. William Byron, one lap led

8. Christopher Bell

9. Daniel Suarez, five laps led

10. Todd Gilliland

11. JJ Yeley

12. Chase Elliott, 18 laps led, Stage 1 winner

13. Alex Bowman, eight laps led

14. Ty Dillon

15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

16. Tyler Reddick

17. Denny Hamlin, seven laps led

18. BJ McLeod

19. Justin Haley

20. Riley Herbst

21. Kevin Harvick, 11 laps led

22. Aric Almirola, 11 laps led, Stage 2 winner

23. Ross Chastain

24. Austin Hill

25. Corey LaJoie

26. Austin Cindric

27. Martin Truex Jr., 19 laps led

28. Bubba Wallace – OUT, Accident, 35 laps led

29. AJ Allmendinger – OUT, Accident

30. Joey Logano, one lap down, three laps led

31. Ty Gibbs – OUT, Fuel, four laps led

32. Noah Gragson – OUT, Accident, one lap led

33. Kyle Larson – OUT, Accident

34. Ryan Preece – OUT, Accident, two laps led

35. Michael McDowell, 13 laps down

36. Harrison Burton – OUT, Accident, 11 laps led

37. Zane Smith – OUT, Accident

38. Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident

Next on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ lone visit of this season to Dover Motor Speedway in Dover, Delaware. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, April 30, at 2 p.m. ET on FS1.

April 23, 2023
Byron capitalizes late for dramatic overtime victory at Phoenix

A week after cashing in with a dramatic overtime victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, William Byron conquered the desert valley amid a late caution period, a two-tire strategy and two late-race restarts to fend off the field and win the United Rentals Work United 500 at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, March 12.

The 25-year-old Byron from Charlotte, North Carolina, led two times for 64 of 317 over-scheduled laps in an event where he led early before keeping his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports entry towards the front of the field while teammate Kyle Larson dominated the event. Then as Kevin Harvick emerged late and was headed for a potential victory, a caution for Harrison Burton’s spin with 10 laps remaining enabled Byron and crew chief Rudy Fugle to draw themselves back into contention by opting for a two-tire strategy to battle teammate Larson through two restarts. During the second restart that sent the event into overtime, Byron peeked ahead of Larson with a bump from Tyler Reddick to clear the field and navigate around the Phoenix circuit for a final lap before cruising to his second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series victory in recent weeks.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Kyle Larson notched his first Cup pole of the season after posting a pole-winning lap at 130.237 mph in 27.642 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Denny Hamlin, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 129.931 mph in 27.707 seconds.

Prior to the event, Zane Smith dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his No. 38 Front Row Motorsports entry.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Larson rocketed with the lead on the inside lane as the field fanned out through the frontstretch dogleg. With the field continuing to fan out and jostle for early positions through the first two turns and entering the backstretch, Larson cleared the field and was able to lead the first lap ahead of teammate Byron, who also ignited an early charge at the front. Shortly after, however, Byron muscled his No. 24 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 beneath Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the dogleg and entering Turn 1 to assume the lead. Byron was then able to stretch his advantage to half a second over teammate Larson by the fifth lap while Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Christopher Bell occupied the top five on the track.

Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Byron was leading by more than six-tenths of a second over teammate Larson followed by Hamlin, Keselowski and Bell while Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell were running in the top 10. By then, rookie Ty Gibbs in 11th followed by Kyle Busch, Erik Jones, Kevin Harvick and Chris Buescher while Alex Bowman, Martin Truex, Bubba Wallace, Chase Briscoe and Joey Logano, who got loose after contact with Truex in Turn 1, rounded out the top 20.

At the Lap 25 mark, Byron extended his advantage to more than two seconds over teammate Larson while third-place Hamlin trailed by more than four seconds. While Keselowski and Bell remained in the top five, Reddick moved up to seventh behind Blaney, Chastain fell back to eighth in front of teammate Suarez and Ty Gibbs cracked the top 10 in front of Kyle Busch, McDowell and Harvick.

Ten laps later, Byron stretched his advantage to more than three seconds over teammate Larson while third-place Hamlin trailed by more than six seconds. By then, Bell and Blaney moved up into the top five while Reddick was up in sixth in front of Keselowski, Chastain, Harvick and Suarez as Kyle Busch remained in 11th.

By Lap 50, Byron stabilized his advantage to more than two seconds over teammate Larson. By then, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Hamlin and Bell trailed by more than five seconds while fifth-place Reddick trailed by more than eight seconds. Meanwhile, Harvick remained in ninth behind Blaney, Keselowski and Chastain while Kyle Busch cracked the top 10 in front of Suarez, McDowell, Buescher, Erik Jones and Gibbs.

A few laps later, BJ McLeod fell off the pace after his car went wide in Turn 4, but he was able to limp his car back to pit road without drawing the caution as Byron retained a steady advantage over teammate Larson. McLeod’s issue came after Ricky Stenhouse Jr. scraped the outside wall entering Turn 1 while running within the top 25.

When the first stage concluded on Lap 60, Byron, who swept both stages en route to his dominant victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway a week ago, notched his third stage victory of the 2023 Cup season. Teammate Larson settled in second followed by Bell, Hamlin and Reddick while Blaney, Chastain, Harvick, Keselowski and Kyle Busch were scored in the top 10. By then, 23 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while names like Logano, Stenhouse, rookie Noah Gragson, Austin Cindric, Justin Haley, Corey LaJoie, Austin Dillon and Harrison Burton were mired a lap down. Logano, however, was the beneficiary of the first stage’s break period by receiving the free pass and cycling his way back to the lead lap.

Under the stage break, the lead lap competitors led by Byron pitted, but teammate Larson managed to beat Byron off of pit road to inherit the lead. Bell exited pit road in third followed by Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Chastain. Following the pit stops, AJ Allmendinger and Ty Dillon were penalized for speeding on pit road. Reddick.

The second stage started on Lap 68 as teammates Larson and Byron occupied the front row. At the start, both Hendrick Motorsports teammates dueled for the lead as the field fanned out again through the frontstretch dogleg. Amid a tight battle, Larson, who used the dogleg at the start to maintain his battle for the lead against Byron, was able to peek ahead with the lead on the inside lane as he then cleared Byron during the following lap. With Larson ahead of teammate Byron for the lead, Hamlin was under attack from teammate Bell and Chastain for third while Keselowski was in sixth ahead of a battle for seventh between Harvick and Kyle Busch.

At the Lap 75 mark, Larson was leading by eight-tenths of a second over teammate Byron followed by Hamlin, Bell and Chastain while Keselowski, Harvick, Reddick, Kyle Busch and Blaney were in the top 10. By then, Buescher, Bowman, Suarez, Wallace and McDowell were running in the top 15 while Briscoe, Erik Jones, Truex, Gibbs and Josh Berry rounded out the top 20. Ryan Preece, Aric Almirola, Logano and AJ Allmendinger rounded out the 24-car field of competitors running on the lead lap.

Through the first 100 scheduled laps, Larson continued to lead by half a second over teammate Byron, who kept his Hendrick teammate within his sights and started to close in. Bell trailed by more than four seconds in third place followed by teammate Hamlin and Chastain while Harvick, Keselowski, Reddick, Kyle Busch and Blaney were battling in the top 10.

Ten laps later, Larson retained his advantage to nearly a second over teammate Byron as Bell and Hamlin remained in third and fourth, respectively. By then, Harvick, who started 15th, cracked the top five after overtaking Chastain a few laps earlier while Keselowski, Blaney, Kyle Busch and Reddick ran in the top 10.

Another eight laps later, the first round of green flag pit stops ensued as Hamlin pitted his No. 11 SHINGRIX Toyota TRD Camry. The leader Larson would pit during the following lap followed by teammate Byron, Bell, Blaney, Harvick, Kyle Busch, Chastain and others. Once Keselowski pitted on Lap 120 after leading a lap for himself and with most of the lead lap competitors having made a pit stop, Larson cycled his way back to the lead followed by Byron, Hamlin, Harvick and Chastain. Following the pit stops, McDowell, Erik Jones and Cindric were penalized for speeding on pit road. In addition, Kyle Busch’s steady run to the front evaporated when he was nabbed for two different penalties: one for an uncontrolled tire violation and for speeding on pit road.

Then on Lap 137, the caution flew when Almirola went dead straight into the outside wall in Turn 4 past the start/finish line with the right-front tire coming off of Almirola’s No. 10 Go Bowling Ford Mustang while the Floridian nursed his damaged car back to his pit stall. After making a pit stop to have a new right-front wheel attached to his car, Almirola then had to reverse his car back to his pit stall to address a broken right-rear toe link. By then, he was assessed a two-lap penalty for having the broken wheel come off on the track. Back on the track, Larson was out in front ahead of teammate Byron, Hamlin, Harvick and Chastain while Bell, who endured a slow pit stop during the first round of green flag pit stops, was battling Keselowski for seventh.

During the caution period, the leaders led by Larson returned to pit road for service and Larson retained the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Byron, Hamlin, Harvick, Chastain and Keselowski.

With the event restarting under green on Lap 146, Larson retained the lead ahead of teammate Byron while running on the inside lane as the field fanned out through the frontstretch dogleg and entering the first two turns. As the field cycled back to the frontstretch, Larson was able to keep his No. 5 entry out in front of the field while a multitude of competitors behind, including Bell, jostled for positions. By then, Harvick carved his No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang into third place while Hamlin and Keselowski occupied the top five.

At the halfway mark on Lap 156, Larson was leading by nearly a second over teammate Byron followed by Harvick, Keselowski and Hamlin while Bell, Reddick, Chastain, Blaney and Bowman were in the top 10. By then, Bubba Wallace was up in 11th ahead of Buescher, Briscoe, Suarez and Josh Berry while Logano, Preece, Truex, Gibbs and Kyle Busch were mired in the top 20. In addition, 23 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while names that included Austin Dillon, Gragson, Corey LaJoie, Cindric, Stenhouse, Justin Haley and Harrison Burton were mired a lap down.

Nearly 20 laps later, Larson retained the lead by more than a second over runner-up and teammate Byron while third-place Harvick trailed by two seconds as he started to gain ground on the two Hendrick leaders. By then, fourth-place Keselowski trailed by more than four seconds, fifth-place Reddick trailed by more than five seconds and sixth-place Hamlin trailed by nearly six seconds.

When the second stage concluded on Lap 185, Larson captured his first stage victory of the 2023 Cup season. Teammate Byron settled in second, trailing by more than a second, while Harvick settled in third, trailing by more than two seconds. Keselowski, Reddick, Hamlin, Bell, Blaney, Chastain and Briscoe were scored in the top 10 while 23 of 38 starters were recorded on the lead lap. This stage break period enabled Austin Dillon, who was in 24th, to cycle back to the lead lap with the free pass benefit.

Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted and Larson edged Harvick and Byron amid three lanes to retain the lead, with Keselowski, Reddick and Bell following suit. Following the pit stops, Ty Gibbs was penalized for speeding on pit road.

With 118 laps remaining, the final stage started as Larson and Harvick occupied the front row. At the start, Larson and Harvick dueled for the lead as the field fanned out to four and five lanes through the dogleg and the backstretch. With the field continuing to fan out and jostled for positions when returning to the frontstretch, Larson managed to retain the lead ahead of Harvick and Byron as he continued to use the inside lane to his advantage.

Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Larson continued to lead followed by Harvick, Byron, Bell and Reddick while Keselowski, Hamlin, Blaney, Briscoe and Bowman occupied the top 10 as 24 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap.

With 75 laps remaining, Larson extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Harvick while third-place Byron trailed by six seconds. As Toyota competitors Bell and Reddick ran in the top five, Keselowski continued to run in sixth followed by Hamlin, Briscoe, Blaney and Bowman while Logano, Buescher, Chastain, Suarez and Kyle Busch were mired in the top 15.

Not long after, another round of green flag pit stops ensued as Logano, McDowell and Corey LaJoie pitted along with Harvick, Bell, Byron, Briscoe, Hamlin, Suarez, Preece, the leader Larson and others. During the pit stops, Suarez was penalized for speeding on pit road.

Back on the track with nearly 60 laps remaining, Erik Jones, who had yet to pit, was leading by more than seven seconds over Larson, who had Harvick reeling in on him for the potential lead by nearly two-tenths of a second as a result of Harvick pitting under green a lap prior to Larson. Then with 52 laps remaining, Larson caught and overtook Jones for the lead. Harvick then moved his No. 4 entry back into second place a lap later but was trailing Larson by a second.

Then with 44 laps remaining, The Closer struck as Harvick overtook Larson from the frontstretch to Turn 1 to assume the lead, much to Larson’s crew chief Cliff Daniel’s displeasure. As Harvick started to pull away by half a second over Larson, Bell trailed in third place by more than four seconds while Byron and Reddick occupied the top five.

With less than 30 laps remaining, Harvick extended his advantage to more than a second over Larson while third-place Bell trailed by more than five seconds over Bell. Byron and Reddick remained in the top five while Blaney, Keselowski, Briscoe, Hamlin and Chastain were scored in the top 10 as 21 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap. By then, Erik Jones had made a pit stop under green and was mired in 23rd, a lap down.

Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Harvick continued to extend his advantage as he was now leading by more than three seconds over Larson while third-place Bell trailed by more than five seconds. Harvick would continue to stretch his lead to more than five seconds as the event was nearing its final 10-lap mark.

Just then with 10 laps remaining, the caution flew when Harrison Burton spun just past the frontstretch and below the dogleg, with the driver shredding debris from his right-front tire as he limped back to his pit stall. During the caution period, the lead lap competitors led by Harvick pitted and Larson regained the lead after only opting for a two-tire pit stop. Teammate Byron followed suit in second along with Blaney, Chastain, Kyle Busch and Hamlin, all of whom elected for two fresh tires, while Harvick, the first competitor opting for four fresh tires, dropped back to seventh.

Down to the final three laps, the event proceeded under green as Larson, who started on the inside lane, and teammate Byron, who lined up as the lead competitor on the outside lane, occupied the front row. At the start, Larson blocked Blaney to retain the lead over him and Byron as the field fanned out through the frontstretch and entering the first two turns. Shortly after, however, the caution returned and the event was sent into overtime for a multi-car wreck in Turn 2 that started when Allmendinger and Gragson made contact, which resulted with Allmendinger spinning as Gibbs also scraped the outside wall. With Larson still out in front over Byron and Blaney, Harvick was mired back in seventh behind Denny Hamlin.

At the start of the first overtime attempt, teammates Larson and Byron battled dead even for the lead through the frontstretch dogleg in front of the pack as the competitors behind jostled for late positions. Then as Larson and Byron continued to duel through the backstretch, Blaney and Reddick, who had four fresh tires, joined the battle as Blaney drew Byron and Larson in a three-wide battle while Reddick gave Byron a bump exiting the backstretch. This allowed Byron to muscle ahead on the outside lane while Reddick and Blaney continue to duel against Larson for second place.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Byron remained as the leader ahead of a three-wide battle involving Blaney, Larson and Reddick. Through Turns 1 and 2, Blaney and Reddick tried to gain a run on Byron, but the latter pulled away entering the backstretch. With Reddick boxed in between Blaney and Larson, this allowed Byron to cycle his way back to the frontstretch with no late challenges and claim his second consecutive checkered flag of the 2023 season.

With the victory, Byron notched his sixth NASCAR Cup Series career victory in his 184th series start and his first at Phoenix as he became the first repeat winner of the 2023 Cup season. In addition, he notched the 293rd Cup victory for Hendrick Motorsports and the 99th for the No. 24 in NASCAR’s premier series.

“I owe the last couple of weeks to [crew chief Rudy Fugle],” Byron said on FOX. “He’s done a really good job strategy-wise and execution-wise. We’ve done a good job to put ourselves in those positions on the front row with a shot at the end. Just thanks to everybody back at Hendrick Motorsports [for] putting together great cars and just doing a great job. This is a big credit to them, the engine shop, Mr. [Rick] Hendrick, everybody. Cool to have Valvoline back on the car. Really historic looking paint scheme, so nice to get it into Victory Lane.”

Amid a flurry of late battles during the overtime shootout, Blaney navigated his way into the runner-up result followed by Reddick, who nabbed his first top-five result of the season. Larson, who led a race-high 202 laps, ended up fourth while Harvick, who led 36 laps and was aiming for a 10th victory at Phoenix, settled in fifth.

“Well, we got lucky with the one caution,” Larson said. “[The] Team made a great call to take two [tires] and get us out to the lead. Restarts were just tough. I felt like I ran William [Byron] up pretty high and was expecting him to lose some grip, but he did a really good job of holding us up to his outside and clear me down the [backstretch]. I’m pissed off, but a great fight by the team. Great car. Way better than where we were last year. It’s a long season, but hopefully, we’re in the Final Four when we come back here in November and can have a run just similar to [today] with speed and try to execute a little bit better at the end.”

“I’d always rather be on offense,” Harvick said. “I just didn’t get a couple of cars when that first caution came out and kind of lost our chance, and still thought I had a chance there at the end. Those cars were quite a bit slower, but they get all jammed up. That’s the way it goes. Just smoked’em up until the last caution. [The crew] did a great job with our Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang. Just didn’t need that caution at the end.”

Bell came home in sixth while Briscoe, Kyle Busch, Bowman and Josh Berry completed the top 10 on the track.

There were 10 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 35 laps. In addition, 24 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

Following the fourth event of the 2023 Cup Series season, Alex Bowman leads the regular-season standings by three points over Kevin Harvick, six over Ross Chastain, 10 over William Byron and 17 between Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell.

Results.

1. William Byron, 64 laps led, Stage 1 winner

2. Ryan Blaney

3. Tyler Reddick

4. Kyle Larson, 201 laps led, Stage 2 winner

5. Kevin Harvick, 36 laps led

6. Christopher Bell

7. Chase Briscoe

8. Kyle Busch

9. Alex Bowman

10. Josh Berry

11. Joey Logano

12. Ryan Preece

13. Michael McDowell

14. Bubba Wallace

15. Chris Buescher

16. Austin Dillon

17. Martin Truex Jr.

18. Brad Keselowski

19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

20. AJ Allmendinger

21. Erik Jones

22. Daniel Suarez

23. Denny Hamlin

24. Ross Chastain

25. Austin Cindric, one lap down

26. Corey LaJoie, one lap down

27. Justin Haley, one lap down

28. Ty Gibbs, one lap down

29. Noah Gragson, one lap down

30. Ty Dillon, two laps down

31. Zane Smith, two laps down

32. Todd Gilliland, three laps down

33. Aric Almirola, four laps down

34. Cody Ware, six laps down

35. Harrison Burton, seven laps down

36. BJ McLeod – OUT, Fuel pump

Next on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is a trip back to the south for the series’ first of two visits of this season at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, March 19, at 3 p.m. ET on FOX.

March 12, 2023
Elliott scores wild final lap victory at Talladega, advances to Playoff’s Round of 8

Chase Elliott snapped a four-race streak of non-Playoff competitors winning throughout the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs by becoming the first Playoff competitor to win in the Playoffs after claiming a dramatic final lap victory in the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, October 2.

The 2020 Cup Series champion from Dawsonville, Georgia, led four times for 10 of 188-scheduled laps as he survived a late duel against Playoff rival Ryan Blaney during a two-lap shootout to the finish, including a pass on Blaney for the lead and win entering the final frontstretch, to grab his fifth victory of the 2022 season and his second at Talladega. By becoming the first Playoff competitor to win in the 2022 Playoffs, Elliott, whose average-finishing result through the first four Playoff events was 20.3, earned a one-way ticket to the Round of 8, where he will continue his quest to achieve his second championship in NASCAR’s premier series.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Playoff contender Christopher Bell secured his fourth pole position of the 2022 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 180.591 mph in 53.026 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Kyle Larson, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 180.516 mph in 53.048 seconds.

Prior to the event, Ty Gibbs dropped to the rear of the field due to an oil leak to his car along with teammate Bubba Wallace, who changed engines for the main event. Tyler Reddick, the winner of last weekend’s Cup event at Texas Motor Speedway, also started at the rear of the field due to having a splitter changed to his car along with BJ McLeod, who received unapproved adjustments to his car.

When the green flag waved and the race started, Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson dueled early for the lead until Larson received a push from Aric Almirola to clear the field entering the backstretch. Through the backstretch, however, Larson transitioned from the outside to the inside lane. This allowed Almirola to gain momentum as he moved into the lead. By the time the field returned to the frontstretch and the start/finish line, Almirola led the first lap by a hair over Ross Chastain as the field behind jumbled up in two tight-packed lanes.

Two laps later, a side-by-side action for the lead occurred between Chastain and Almirola, with Almirola moving to the bottom lane and being pushed by Larson while Chastain had Erik Jones pushing him on the outside lane.

Through the first five scheduled laps, Chastain and Almirola continued to duke for the lead while Erik Jones, Larson, Daniel Suarez, Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick were scored in the top 10. Chase Briscoe was in 11th while Kyle Busch, Noah Gragson, Cole Custer, William Byron, Ty Dillon, Joey Logano, Corey LaJoie, Tyler Reddick and Justin Haley were in the top 20.

Three laps later, the first caution of the event flew due to debris being reported on the track when a side mirror fell out of Ty Dillon’s car. By then, Chastain was scored as the leader ahead of Almirola, Erik Jones, Larson and Suarez. In addition, six of 11 Playoff contenders in the field were scored in the top 10. The rest that included Briscoe, Byron, Logano, Austin Cindric and Ryan Blaney, who dealt with radio issues and was delayed rolling his car off the grid with the field, were mired within the top 30. Meanwhile, Noah Gragson, who was substituting for Playoff contender Alex Bowman in the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 due to Bowman recovering from concussion-like symptoms, was in 13th.

During the caution period, some led by Larson pitted while the rest led by Chastain remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Cindric was penalized for speeding on pit road.

When the race restarted under green on Lap 11, Chastain quickly bolted his No. 1 Jockey Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead as he had both drafting lanes to his control. Meanwhile, teammates Suarez challenged Erik Jones for the runner-up spot with drafting help from Bell as the field again jumbled into two tight-packed lanes.

Another three laps later, Erik Jones emerged as the third different leader of the day as he was leading from the bottom lane. Shortly after, he moved up to the outside lane in front of Chastain, which allowed Almirola to launch a challenge on the inside lane with drafting help from Chase Elliott.

On Lap 24 and with the field fanning out to three lanes, the caution flew when a bump from Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got rookie Harrison Burton loose entering Turn 1 as Burton spun and ignited a multi-car wreck that included Gragson, Justin Haley, Ty Gibbs and Justin Allgaier. Also involved were Playoff contenders Cindric and Logano, both of whom managed to continue after sustaining little damage to their respective Team Penske Ford Mustangs.

During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by Chastain pitted while names like Corey LaJoie, McLeod, Martin Truex Jr. and Cody Ware remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Kyle Busch exited with the lead followed by Suarez, Blaney, Elliott, Briscoe and Almirola. LaJoie, McLeod, Truex and Ware would eventually pit prior to the restart, thus giving the lead to Kyle Busch.

When the race proceeded under green on Lap 29, Suarez challenged Kyle Busch for the lead on the outside lane for nearly a full lap until he succeeded through the frontstretch with drafting help from Elliott. During the following lap, however, Elliott moved in front of Kyle Busch’s No. 18 M&M Toyota TRD Camry on the inside lane to overtake Suarez’s No. 99 Tootsie’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for the lead. Busch and Blaney soon followed after while Suarez fell back to fourth, though he had drafting help from Almirola.

At the Lap 35 mark, Almirola and Suarez duked for the lead while Denny Hamlin, Elliott, Byron, Kyle Busch, Cole Custer, Blaney, Erik Jones and Briscoe were in the top 10. Behind, rookie Todd Gilliland was in 11th ahead of Chastain, Logano, Reddick, Bubba Wallace, Larson, Cindric, Harvick, Bell and Daniel Hemric were running in the top 20. By then, all 11 Playoff contenders were running in the top 20 while Gragson was back in 21st place.

Another five laps later, Almirola and Hamlin battled dead even for the lead and in front of the pack, with Almirola receiving drafting help from Suarez on the inside lane while Hamlin had Byron drafting him on the outside lane. By then, 34 of 37 starters were scored on the lead lap, with 26 separated by nearly two seconds.

On Lap 45, the caution returned when LaJoie cut a right-front tire as he slapped the outside wall in between Turns 1 and 2 before drawing and parking his wrecked car below the apron and near the inside wall in the backstretch as his race came to an early end. During the caution period, some led by Erik Jones pitted while the rest led by Hamlin remained on the track.

During the following restart on Lap 49, Hamlin gained a strong start on the outside lane before moving his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry in front of rival Byron’s No. 24 Raptor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 on the inside lane as the field behind started to pick up speed in the draft. Through the backstretch and when the field returned to the frontstretch to start the 50th lap, Hamlin maintained the lead ahead of Byron and Almirola while Cole Custer launched a charge on the outside lane as he ignited his bid for the lead.

A few laps later, the field scrambled and fanned out to three lanes as Hamlin maintained the lead followed by Byron, Almirola, Custer, Elliott and Suarez. By Lap 55, however, Byron drew himself beneath Hamlin as they battled for the lead through the frontstretch. While Byron pulled ahead through the first two turns, Hamlin gained the momentum on the outside lane to reassume the lead with drafting help from Elliott and Kyle Busch.

When the first stage concluded on Lap 60, Blaney surged his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang to the front on the outside lane with drafting help from teammate Cindric as he edged Hamlin by 0.009 seconds to claim his seventh stage victory of 2022. Hamlin settled in second while Elliott, Cindric, Logano, Stenhouse, Kyle Busch, Larson, Gragson and Erik Jones were scored in the top 10. By then, six of 11 Playoff contenders earned stage points by finishing in the top 10 while Byron, Suarez, Chastain, Briscoe and Bell were mired back in 11th, 14th, 16th, 19th and 20th, respectively.

Under the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Blaney pitted while names like Truex, Austin Dillon and Justin Allgaier remained on the track. All who remained on the track initially would eventually pit, giving the lead to Larson, who was the first to exit pit road following the pit stops ahead of Erik Jones, Chastain, Blaney, Bell and Harvick. During the pit stops, Landon Cassill was penalized for speeding on pit road.

The second stage started on Lap 65 and at the start, Larson and Erik Jones dueled for the lead as Larson had Chastain drafting him on the inside lane while Jones had Blaney pushing him on the outside lane. With the field jumbled up in two tight-packed lanes, Blaney soon moved into the lead with drafting help from Harvick while Erik Jones, who transitioned to the inside lane in front of Larson, fought back in a battle for the top spot.

On Lap 70 and with Blaney leading the field, Harvick, who was running in second place, got placed in a three-wide situation as he lost a bevy of spots while running in the middle of the pack as Brad Keselowski launched his bid for the lead with drafting help from teammate Chris Buescher. During the following lap, Blaney and Keselowski nearly made contact in Turn 1 as Blaney tried to move up and stall Keselowski’s momentum. This allowed Erik Jones to surge to the front on the inside lane. When the field returned to the frontstretch, Blaney pulled his car out of the lead pack and the draft as he dropped towards the rear of the field while Jones and Almirola duked for the lead.

By Lap 75 and with Almirola leading ahead of teammate Harvick and Erik Jones, the highest-running Playoff contender was Larson in 10th place while Hamlin was the lowest-running Playoff contender in 33rd place.

Ten laps later, Almirola was the leader of a long line of competitors running in a single-file line towards the inside lane followed by Harvick, Gilliland, Larson, Erik Jones, Kyle Busch, Michael McDowell, Chastain, Custer and Elliott while the first side-by-side battle was for 11th place between Reddick and Custer. By then, Larson was the highest-running Playoff competitor in fourth while Hamlin remained as the lowest-running Playoff contender in 31st behind teammate Martin Truex Jr.

At the halfway mark on Lap 94, Almirola was the leader followed by teammate Harvick, Todd Gilliland, Larson and Erik Jones while Kyle Busch, Chastain, McDowell, Custer and Cindric were scored in the top 10. Elliott was in 11th while Gragson, Reddick, Hemric, Stenhouse, Keselowski, Byron, Buescher, Bell and Ty Dillon occupied the top 20. By then, the event featured 15 different competitors having led a lap. In addition, six of 11 Playoff competitors were running in the top 20 as Suarez was in 25th, Blaney was in 27th followed by teammate Logano, Hamlin was still mired back in 30th and Briscoe was back in 31st.

Four laps later, pit stops under green commenced as Ford competitors Logano, Keselowski, Briscoe, Buescher and Blaney peeled off the track and onto pit road for fuel. A lap later and as a bevy of Toyota competitors led by Kyle Busch pitted, Bell locked up the front tires while trying to meet pit road speed as he spun approaching the pit road entrance. Despite avoiding the inside wall, he brought his No. 20 SiriusXM Toyota TRD Camry to his pit stall for fresh tires. The situation for Bell soon went from bad to worse after he was penalized for speeding on pit road.

By the Lap 100 mark, a wave of Chevrolet competitors led by Larson pitted under green while Almirola continued to lead.

On Lap 102, Almirola led teammates Harvick and Custer along with a handful of competitors to pit road for service under green. By the time they returned to the track, Reddick emerged as the new leader and in front of a long line of Chevrolet competitors with Suarez, Larson, Elliott, Chastain and Justin Haley scored in the top six.

At the Lap 110 mark, Reddick, who lapped Bell four laps earlier and was trying to manage both lanes, continued to lead followed by Suarez, Chastain, Buescher, Larson and a wave of competitors bunched up in two tight-packed lanes. By then, a bevy of Chevrolet and Ford competitors were duking it out within the lead pack while the highest-running Toyota competitor was Bubba Wallace in 21st.

When the second stage concluded on Lap 120, Elliott pulled a slingshot move on teammate Larson on the frontstretch to grab his sixth stage victory of the 2022 season. Haley, who drafted Elliott to the front, settled in second followed by Larson, Suarez, Erik Jones, Chastain, Landon Cassill, Buescher, Daniel Hemric and Briscoe. By then, five of 11 Playoff competitors were scored in the top 10 and awarded another round of stage points while Byron, Logano, Blaney, Hamlin, Cindric and Bell were scored in 13th, 16th, 17th, 23rd, 28th and 30th, respectively. In addition, Byron and Bell were the only two Playoff competitors to not achieve stage points of the day. Meanwhile, Reddick, who was in position to claim the second stage victory, fell all the way back to 29th after running out of fuel on the final lap of the stage.

Under the stage break, names like Cassill, Kyle Busch and Truex remained on the track while the rest led by Elliott pitted. Once Cassill, Kyle Busch and Truex pitted, Elliott cycled to the lead followed by Erik Jones, Larson, Buescher, Suarez and Byron.

With 62 laps remaining, the final stage started under green. At the start, Elliott had drafting help from teammate Larson on the inside lane while Erik Jones had drafting help from Buescher on the outside lane. Shortly after, Erik Jones emerged with the lead before Buescher broke away from the pack with the top spot as he was being drafted by Byron with 60 laps remaining. Chastain would then draw himself toward the front in his bid for the lead, which he succeeded during the following lap with drafting help from Blaney and Keselowski.

With 50 laps remaining, Chastain was leading a long line of competitors running on the outside lane while Blaney, Keselowski, Gilliland, Harvick, Kyle Busch, Stenhouse, Bell, Almirola and Cindric were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Hamlin was the first competitor leading a handful of competitors on the inside lane in 12th place.

Ten laps later and with the field bunched up in two tight-packed lanes, Chastain continued to lead ahead of Blaney, Keselowski, Gilliland, Harvick, Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Buescher, Stenhouse and Erik Jones.

With less than 30 laps remaining, the field was divided into two different long waves pitted under green for service and enough fuel to the finish. Following the pit stops, Harvick and Keselowski were forced to serve drive-through penalties for speeding through pit road.

Back on the track with 25 laps remaining, Blaney cycled back to the lead followed by Chastain, Erik Jones and a bevy of competitors running in a tight pack.

Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Blaney continued to lead on the outside lane followed by Chastain while Erik Jones was the lead competitor on the inside lane with drafting help from McDowell and Elliott. By then, 27 competitors were separated by less than two seconds while five Playoff competitors were running in the top 10. The lowest-running Playoff competitor was Logano, who was back in 26th.

With 10 laps remaining, Blaney retained the lead ahead of Chastain and Gilliland while Erik Jones remained as the first competitor on the inside lane with drafting help from McDowell. By then, the top 27 competitors were separated by more than two-and-a-half seconds as the front-runners fanned out to two tight-packed lanes.

A lap later, Erik Jones muscled his No. 43 FocusFactor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead followed by McDowell and Elliott while Blaney, who was back in fourth, remained as the first competitor on the outside lane as he tried to mount his way back to the front. Jones would then move up the track to block Blaney as he went to work in keeping both lanes under his control with the lead. Blaney, however, briefly fought back with drafting help from Chastain before Jones moved ahead by a hair.

Then with six laps remaining, the caution flew when Daniel Hemric stalled his No. 16 Celsius Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 on pit road with an engine issue. During the caution period, names like Stenhouse, Buescher, Truex and Keselowski pitted while the rest led by Erik Jones remained on the track.

At the start of a two-lap shootout to the finish, Blaney and Erik Jones duked for the lead entering the first turn until Blaney pulled ahead on the inside lane followed by McDowell. Elliott then launched his bid for the lead from the bottom to the outside lane as he was being pushed by Erik Jones through the backstretch. The inside lane, however, gained a brief advantage as Blaney cleared the field, but Elliott remained within close distance.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Blaney was still leading by a fender over Elliott, who drew himself alongside Blaney’s No. 12 Ford entering the first turn. With a bevy of competitors running in two tight-packed lanes through the backstretch, Elliott and Blaney continued to run dead even until Blaney again emerged ahead through Turns 3 and 4. Then, Elliott received another push of Jones to move his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in front of the field entering the frontstretch. As the field fanned out to multiple lanes approaching the start/finish line, Elliott was able to have both all lanes to his control as he blocked and beat Blaney by 0.046 seconds to win in front of a roaring crowd that erupted with cheers.

In addition to becoming the first Playoff competitor to win and transfer to the Round of 8, Elliott achieved his 18th career victory in NASCAR’s premier series and his first at Talladega since April 2019. He also recorded the 290th Cup career victory for Hendrick Motorsports and the 18th of the 2022 season for Chevrolet.

Photo by Chad Wells for SpeedwayMedia.com.

“First, how about these fans, man?” Elliott said on NBC. “That’s unreal. Moments like that, you have to really cherish. [The fans] are what makes this special to me, so thank you sincerely. I really appreciate it. It was a wild last couple of laps. I wasn’t super crazy about being on the bottom [lane] and fortunately, got just clear enough off of [Turn] 2 to slide up in front of Erik [Jones]. He gave me some great shoves, obviously, a Team Chevy partner there. Just had a good enough run to get out front and then, was able to stay far enough in front of Ryan [Blaney] here at the line to get it done. These things are so hard to win. You got to enjoy them. Just appreciate everybody’s effort today. [Owner Rick Hendrick] is here, so excited to celebrate with him. Get ready to go to the [Charlotte] Roval and try to grab another [win], but thank you guys so much for coming out. Great crowd, great show.”

“[The win] gets you through to the next [round],” Elliott added. “That’s all you can ask for is just to have more opportunities and that’s really what this is about. We got six more Playoff points to go with that win today, so that’s a big deal. We’re excited for these final handful of events and hopefully, we can make it out to Phoenix [Raceway in November] and give’em a run.”

Meanwhile, Blaney, who was a lap shy of recording his first elusive victory of the 2022 season, settled in second place for his 10th top-five result of the season. He, however, leaves Talladega with a 32-point advantage above the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings with the next round of eliminations looming.

“Yeah, I thought about [throwing a block],” Blaney said. “I thought about it, but when you go to the middle [lane] and you don’t have a Ford or teammate behind you, your chances of getting split are just so high. As much as I trust Chase, I don’t trust him not to take me three wide and leave me in the middle. I chose to stay down in front of Michael [McDowell] and he was awesome at pushing me the last restart and just giving me great shots. Just a little bit too late. Maybe I could’ve faked the top, go to the bottom there on the frontstretch. I don’t know if I would’ve got there anyway, but overall, not a bad day. I’m probably gonna replay in my head like five different things I could’ve done different, but overall, not a bad day. Go on to next week.”

McDowell came home in third place for his second top-five result of the season while Playoff competitors Chastain and Hamlin finished in the top five.

“You always wish you get a redo,” McDowell said. “Unfortunately, in motorsports, you don’t get that. It’s good to be challenging for wins, but when you come up short, it’s disappointing, for sure. [I] Felt like [Blaney] and I were hooked up good and had a good run. When [Hamlin] drug back off of me, that was probably my opportunity I needed to drag back off [Blaney] a little bit sooner. Just lost a little bit of that momentum and the energy just took a little too long to rebuild. It’s good to be close. It’s been a great season. We’re really proud of the season we’re having, but man, you come up a car length short of Victory Lane. It’s tough, for sure.”

“We made a lot of moves and a lot of moves got made on us,” Chastain, who is 28 points above the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings, said. “Every point earned is just better. It’s never-ending. You just want more. Twenty-eight [points] to ninth [in the standings] is really good. Really good points earned today for Daniel [Suarez] and myself. For this Trackhouse [Racing] group to keep executing throughout these Playoffs. We’re figuring this out as we go. I’m experiencing this. I’m loving every moment of it as I get to do this.”

“We executed a pretty good day,” Hamlin, who is 21 points above the cutline, added. “Our goal going into today was five stage points. If we got more than five in the first stage, we were gonna punt in Stage 2 and then, go try to get a good finish, and that’s what we did. Overall, a good day. Would I like to have more [points]? Yes. Obviously, we executed the day we wanted to and better than what we started the day. We’ll take it.”

Erik Jones, Todd Gilliland, Suarez, Cindric and Briscoe completed the top 10 on the track. With seven Playoff competitors finishing in the top 10, the rest that included Byron, Bell, Larson and Logano finished 12th, 17th, 18th and 27th, respectively. In addition, Gragson finished 19th while substituting for Alex Bowman.

There were 57 lead changes for 17 different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 25 laps. In total, 33 of 37 starters finished the event with 27 finishing on the lead lap.

Results.

1. Chase Elliott, 10 laps led, Stage 2 winner

2. Ryan Blaney, 31 laps led, Stage 1 winner

3. Michael McDowell

4. Ross Chastain, 36 laps led

5. Denny Hamlin, 20 laps led

6. Erik Jones, 23 laps led

7. Todd Gilliland, one lap led

8. Daniel Suarez, two laps led

9. Austin Cindric

10. Chase Briscoe

11. Landon Cassill, one lap led

12. William Byron, one lap led

13. Austin Dillon

14. Aric Almirola, 36 laps led

15. Justin Haley

16. Bubba Wallace

17. Christopher Bell

18. Kyle Larson, eight laps led

19. Noah Gragson

20. Kyle Busch, three laps led

21. Cole Custer, two laps led

22. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

23. Ty Dillon

24. Brad Keselowski

25. Chris Buescher, one lap led

26. Martin Truex Jr., one lap led

27. Joey Logano

28. Tyler Reddick, one lap down, 11 laps led

29. Kevin Harvick, one lap down

30. Justin Allgaier, two laps down

31. JJ Yeley, four laps down

32. Cody Ware, four laps down

33. BJ McLeod, six laps down

34. Daniel Hemric – OUT, Electrical

35. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Accident, one lap led

36. Harrison Burton – OUT, Accident

37. Ty Gibbs – OUT, Accident

*Bold indicates Playoff contenders

Playoff standings

1. Chase Elliott – Advanced

2. Ryan Blaney +32

3. Ross Chastain +28

4. Denny Hamlin +21

5. Joey Logano +18

6. Kyle Larson +18

7. Daniel Suarez +12

8. Chase Briscoe +0

9. Austin Cindric -0

10. William Byron -11

11. Christopher Bell -33

12. Alex Bowman -54

Next on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, which will determine the Playoff’s Round of 8 field. The event is scheduled to occur on Sunday, October 9, at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.

October 2, 2022
Reddick conquers chaotic Cup Playoff event for third victory of 2022 at Texas

A week after his championship hopes evaporated under the lights at Thunder Valley, Tyler Reddick responded with vengeance under the lights in the Lone Star state after winning a wild AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, September 25.

The two-time Xfinity Series champion from Corning, California, led three times for a race-high 70 of 334-scheduled laps in an event mired with multiple single-car incidents stemming from tire failures and a track record of 16 caution periods. A number of Playoff contenders ran into obstacles from start to finish and the race was interrupted by a rain delay that spanned nearly an hour.

When all was said and done, Reddick rallied from making an early unscheduled green flag pit stop and capitalized during a 24-lap dash to the finish to beat Playoff contender Joey Logano, capture his third checkered flag of the season and of his career. With the victory, he spoiled the hopes of the Playoff contenders as a win in the first Round of 12 event would have meant an early pass to the Round of 8.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Brad Keselowski achieved his first pole position of the 2022 season and the first as an owner/drive after posting a pole-winning lap at 188.990 mph in 28.573 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Joey Logano, the highest-starting Playoff contender who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 188.805 mph in 28.601 seconds.

Prior to the event, Justin Haley, Cody Ware and BJ McLeod dropped to the rear of the field for unapproved adjustments made to their respective cars.

When the green flag waved and the race started, former teammates Keselowski and Logano dueled for the lead early followed by William Byron. As the field returned to the frontstretch, Logano led the first lap by a hair before Keselowski reassumed the top spot. Byron settled in a close third while Michael McDowell was in fourth ahead of Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin. Meanwhile, Chase Elliott was in seventh while Austin Dillon and Daniel Suarez battled for eighth in front of Kyle Larson.

Through the first 10 scheduled laps and with the front-runners settling in a long single-file line, Keselowski was leading by more than a second over Logano followed by Byron, McDowell and Hamlin while Reddick, Elliott, Austin Dillon, Suarez and Larson were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Ross Chastain was in 11th ahead of rookie Austin Cindric, Chris Buescher, Martin Truex Jr. and Ryan Blaney while Bubba Wallace, Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kevin Harvick occupied the top 20. While 10 of 12 Playoff competitors were running in the top 20, the remaining two that included Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe were in 22nd and 31st, respectively.

Fifteen laps later and at the Lap 25 mark, Keselowski stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Logano while Byron, McDowell and Hamlin remained in the top five. By then, all but one of the 12 Playoff competitors were in the top 20 as Bell was scored in 18th behind Bowman while Briscoe was still mired outside the top 20 in 30th behind teammate Aric Almirola. Meanwhile, Bubba Wallace, who made a pit stop under green to address an issue nearing the Lap 15 mark, was in 36th place, dead last, as he had fallen off the lead lap category.

Another seven laps later, Keselowski’s No. 6 RoushParts.com Ford Mustang went up the racetrack in Turn 1. This allowed Logano to move his No. 22 AAA Insurance Ford Mustang into the lead. Shortly after, Byron moved his No. 24 Raptor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the runner-up spot while Keselowski fell back to third.

Then on Lap 40, the first caution of the event flew when Martin Truex Jr., who was running in ninth, slipped sideways and spun off of Turn 4 as he made light contact with the rear of his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota TRD Camry. During the first caution period, the leaders, led by Logano, pitted and Byron emerged with the lead after exiting and followed by Logano, Elliott, Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Larson. Following the first pit stops, Keselowski was penalized and sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.

When the race restarted under green on Lap 44, Byron and Logano dueled for the lead and they remained side-by-side for a full lap with Logano ahead by a nose. During the following lap, however, Byron managed to pull ahead while Hamlin prevailed in a battle for third place over Elliott, who soon lost two spots to Kyle Busch and Larson.

On Lap 49, the caution returned when Kyle Busch, who was eliminated from Playoff contention last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway and was running in fourth place, slipped sideways and backed his No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota TRD Camry hard into the outside wall off of Turn 4 as the field scattered to avoid hitting Busch. Despite getting his car re-ignited, Busch was quick to nurse his car to the garage and retire in 36th place, dead last. During the caution period, some of the drivers, including, Cindric, Landon Cassill, rookie Todd Gilliland and BJ McLeod pitted while the rest, led by Byron, remained on the track.

During the following restart on Lap 54, Byron engaged in another side-by-side battle with Logano as the field fanned out entering the first turn. Just as the field returned to the frontstretch, where Byron was back out in front, the caution flew when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. made contact with Ty Dillon and was sent sideways from the middle of the track through the frontstretch grass while keeping his car intact. During the caution period, Noah Gragson, BJ McLeod and Stenhouse pitted while the rest, led by Byron, remained on the track.

When the race restarted under green on Lap 60, Byron managed to pull away from Logano as Hamlin successfully made a bid for the runner-up spot in his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry on Logano. Behind, Larson, who briefly challenged Logano for third, was quickly overtaken by Reddick before settling in front of Elliott and Bell. A few laps later, a heated side-by-side battle for third place occurred between Logano and Reddick before the latter prevailed.

At the Lap 75 mark, Byron was leading by six-tenths of a second over Hamlin followed by Reddick, Larson and Logano while Elliott, Bell, Chastain, Buescher and Suarez were in the top 10. Bowman was in 11th ahead of Ryan Blaney, Erik Jones, Harvick and Truex while McDowell, the Dillon brothers, Haley and Cindric were in the top 20. By then, all but one of the 12 Playoff competitors were running in the top 20 on the track with Briscoe in 21st followed by Keselowski.

Three laps later, the caution returned when Playoff competitor Bell fell off the pace in Turn 1 after cutting a right-rear tire. Just behind him, Cole Custer veered into the outside wall in Turn 1 after he too cut a right-rear tire. While Bell continued, Custer dropped out of the event. During the caution period, some of the drivers, led by Blaney, pitted while the rest, led by Byron, remained on the track.

During another restart on Lap 83, the field fanned out to three lanes entering the first turn as Byron fended off Hamlin to retain the lead while Larson and Reddick battled for third. Behind, Logano and Elliott fended off Chastain in fifth and sixth while Bowman started to close in on eighth place. Three laps later, Byron briefly lost momentum after getting loose entering Turn 2. This allowed Hamlin to assume the lead followed by Reddick as Larson would overtake teammate Byron for third place during the following lap. Then on Lap 88, the battle for the lead ignited as Larson gained a strong run through the first two turns before overtaking both Hamlin and Reddick to assume the lead for the first time.

With 10 laps remaining in the first stage, Larson was out in front by seven-tenths of a second over Hamlin followed by Reddick, Byron and Logano while Elliott settled in sixth ahead of Chastain, Bowman, Buescher and Suarez.

Two laps later, the caution flew when Bowman, a Playoff contender who was running in the top 10, snapped sideways entering Turn 4 and slapped the outside wall and slowly nursed his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 back to pit road with damage. During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Reddick pitted while the rest, led by Larson, remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Buescher was penalized for removing equipment from his pit box.

With three laps remaining in the first stage, the race proceeded under green. At the start, Larson and Hamlin dueled for the lead while Chastain made a bold move beneath Byron to move up to fourth place behind Logano while teammate Suarez joined the battle. When the field returned to the frontstretch, Larson was clear out in front while Hamlin went to work to fend off Logano, Suarez, Chastain and Byron for second place.

When the first stage concluded on Lap 105, Larson, who made contact with Hamlin to retain the lead, captured his fourth stage victory of the 2022 season. Hamlin charged his way into second followed by Logano, Suarez, Chastain, Byron, Stenhouse, Keselowski, Cindric and McDowell. By then, seven of the 12 Playoff competitors were scored in the top 10 while Elliott, Blaney, Bell, Briscoe and Bowman were scored in 13th, 20th, 21st, 27th and 34th, respectively. In addition, Bowman was able to continue following repairs to his car but was eight laps behind the leaders.

Under the stage break, some of the drivers, led by Larson, pitted, while the rest, led by Stenhouse, who last pitted on Lap 57, remained on the track.

The second stage started on Lap 111 with Stenhouse and McDowell occupying the front row. At the start, Stenhouse retained the lead over McDowell while Reddick made a bold three-wide move to move into third place before being overtaken by rookie Harrison Burton in between Turns 3 and 4. During the following lap, Stenhouse was out in front of the field while Reddick challenged and overtook both Burton and McDowell for the runner-up spot. In addition, Elliott challenged Erik Jones for fifth place while Truex, Wallace and Bell were in the top 10.

Then on Lap 116, Reddick made an unscheduled pit stop under green and fell out of the lead lap category.

Back on the track on Lap 120, Stenhouse retained the lead by a tenth of a second over Burton as Elliott started to close in on the two leaders. Behind, Erik Jones was in fourth while Truex occupied fifth place. Three laps later, the No. 21 DEX Imaging Ford Mustang piloted by Harrison Burton moved into the lead. Elliott also quickly darted his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the runner-up spot while Stenhouse was left to fend off Erik Jones and Truex for third.

Through the first 135 scheduled laps, Burton was leading by nearly half a second over Elliott followed by Erik Jones, Truex and Stenhouse while Wallace, Bell, Blaney, Gragson and Larson occupied the top 10. McDowell, Austin Dillon, Byron, Keselowski and Hamlin were scored in the top 15 followed by Ty Dillon, Harvick, Chastain, Buescher and Logano.

Two laps later, the caution returned when Bell, who lost a tire, slipped sideways entering Turn 4 and pounded the outside wall hard before spinning his No. 20 Rheem Toyota TRD Camry below the apron and limping back to his pit stall with damage. During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by Burton pitted. Elliott exited with the top spot followed by Chastain, Erik Jones, Wallace, Truex and Hamlin. During the pit stops, Burton, who came in as the leader, endured a slow pit stop when a fire ignited in his pit box while his crew members were trying to change the left-side tires. In the process, Burton attempted to pull away, but he came to a stop when realizing that the left-rear tire on his car was not secured. By the time he returned to the track, he was scored in 32nd place and a lap down.

At the start of the following restart on Lap 141, Elliott and Chastain duked for the lead while Blaney made a bold three-wide move in a bid for a spot in the top five over Truex and Hamlin. As the field jostled for positions, Elliott retained the lead while Chastain was left to fend off Erik Jones for second place. Behind, Blaney overtook Wallace in fourth place as he launched his bid for second place.

By Lap 150, Elliott was leading by six-tenths of a second over Chastain followed by Blaney, Erik Jones and Truex while Wallace, Larson, Austin Dillon, Hamlin and Byron were in the top 10. Behind, Suarez was in 11th ahead of Gragson, Harvick, Keselowski and McDowell while Buescher, Logano, Ty Dillon, Cindric and Stenhouse were running in the top 20. While Briscoe was outside of the top 20, Bell, who was involved in the latest incident, became the first Playoff competitor to retire from the race in 34th place.

At the halfway mark on Lap 167, Elliott continued to lead by seven-tenths of a second over Chastain followed by Blaney, Larson, Erik Jones, Truex, Wallace, Austin Dillon, Byron and Hamlin. By then, half of the 12 Playoff competitors were running in the top 10 and 10 were running inside the top 20. With Bell out of the race, Briscoe was in 26th place behind Corey LaJoie.

Just then, the caution flew for a scary single-car wreck when Cody Ware, who got loose and pounded the outside wall hard in Turn 4, darted his damaged No. 51 Nurtec ODT Ford Mustang through the frontstretch grass and toward pit road at full speed. He then smacked against the pit road wall near Alex Bowman’s pit stall and came to a full stop in BJ McLeod’s pit box with extensive front-nose damage.

With the field remaining on the track under a cautious pace, the safety workers went to work on assisting Ware out of his car, with the driver managing to climb out before being placed on a stretcher and into an ambulance for further medical evaluation. Rick Ware Racing would eventually release a statement, noting Ware showed no fractures upon X-rays and was released from the infield care center following treatment but was experiencing discomfort in one of his ankles.

Following an extensive cleanup period on pit road, where Ware’s car was towed away, some of the drivers, led by Chastain, pitted while the rest, led by Elliott, remained on the track. Prior to the restart, Larson, who initially pitted for two right-side tires, pitted again for fresh left-side tires.

When the race restarted under green on Lap 177, Elliott and Blaney dueled for the lead as the former retained the top spot. Behind, Erik Jones was in third ahead of Wallace while Suarez battled Austin Dillon for fifth place. In addition, Reddick battled and overtook Gragson for seventh as Chastain joined the battle.

Seven laps later, the caution returned when the leader, Elliott. got loose after losing a right-side tire and hit the outside wall in Turn 4 as Blaney barely escaped the wreckage to assume the lead. With the No. 9 Chevrolet bursting in flames and the field fanning out to avoid him, Elliott turned his car into the frontstretch grass before climbing out uninjured and retiring from the event. At the time of caution, Wallace, who had earlier lost momentum and went up the track, had dropped from seventh to 20th.

Down to the final 19 laps of the second stage, the race proceeded under green. At the start, Blaney and Suarez dueled for the lead for nearly a full lap until Blaney managed to pull ahead on the inside lane. Behind them, Chastain and Byron battled for third while Austin Dillon was in fifth ahead of Keselowski, teammate Reddick, and McDowell.

During the following lap, Chastain and Byron overtook Suarez for second and third as Blaney retained the lead. Byron would quickly overtake Chastain for second while Reddick, who was in seventh, got loose and went up the track as he plummeted to 18th.

With 13 laps remaining in the second stage, the caution flew when Chris Buescher, winner of last weekend’s Cup event at Bristol Motor Speedway, got loose and spun entering Turn 4 as he slid through the frontstretch grass, though he managed to straighten his No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang and continue without sustaining any significant damage. During the caution period, some of the drivers, led by Almirola, Harvick and Larson, pitted while the rest, led by Blaney, remained on the track.

During the following restart with nine laps remaining in the second stage, Blaney and Byron battled for the lead ahead of Trackhouse Racing’s Chastain and Suarez while Austin Dillon was in fifth ahead of Keselowski and McDowell. A few laps later, Blaney was out in front while Chastain overtook Byron for second place. Behind, Keselowski battled and passed Suarez for fourth as the field behind continued to jostle for positions.

When the second stage concluded on Lap 210, Blaney captured his sixth stage victory of the 2022 season. Chastain settled in second while Byron, Keselowski, Suarez, Austin Dillon, Cindric, Logano, Truex and McDowell were scored in the top 10. By then, half of 12 Playoff competitors were scored in the top 10 with a total of nine still racing on the lead lap while the remaining three (Bowman, Elliott and Bell) were scored outside of the top 30.

Under the stage break, some of the drivers, led by Blaney, pitted, while the rest, led by McDowell and Erik Jones, remained on the track.

Then with 114 laps remaining, the field led by McDowell, who was missing fourth gear in his No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang, was led to pit road and the race was placed in a red flag period due to a weather delay and with reports of light rain around the circuit.

Following a rain delay that lasted 56 minutes, the field returned to the track under a cautious pace and the final stage started with 111 laps remaining as McDowell and Erik Jones occupied the front row. At the start, McDowell and Jones dueled for the lead for a full lap. Then during the following lap, Jones got into the outside wall in Turn 2 as McDowell cleared the field with the lead. Jones, however, retained second while trying to fend off Reddick with Harrison Burton and Buescher in the top five.

With 108 laps remaining, Reddick, who rallied from his early unscheduled pit stop under green while running toward the front, took the lead for the first time. Not long after, Jones overtook McDowell for second followed by Buescher while Harvick battled Burton for fifth place in front of Justin Haley.

Eight laps later and down to the final 100 scheduled laps, Reddick was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Erik Jones while third-place Buescher trailed by more than a second. McDowell was in fourth followed by Harvick while Byron was the highest-running Playoff contender in sixth place. Burton, Keselowski, Haley and Truex were scored in the top 10 while Briscoe was up in 11th in front of teammate Aric Almirola, Gragson, Chastain, Blaney, Logano, Larson, Ty Dillon, Suarez and Austin Dillon. Meanwhile, Hamlin was back in 22nd, Cindric was in 25th and Bowman was in 31st, eight laps down.

Then with 92 laps remaining, the caution returned when the third-place running competitor, Buescher, slapped the outside wall in Turn 4 and slowly crept around the circuit with damage and a flat right-rear tire. During the caution period, some of the drivers, led by Reddick, pitted, while the rest, led by Harvick, remained on the track.

At the start of the following restart with 87 laps remaining, Harvick fended off Truex to lead the field entering the backstretch while Burton and Byron battled for third in front of Chastain and the field.

Another five laps later, the record-tying 13th caution flag of the event flew when race leader Harvick slipped sideways and pounded the outside wall entering Turn 4 after his No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang cut a right-rear tire. With Harvick’s car sliding toward the middle of the turn, he was dodged by the field before he limped his car back to pit road for repairs. During the caution period, some of the field pitted while the rest, led by Truex and Byron, remained on the track.

When the race restarted with 76 laps remaining, Truex muscled ahead with the lead ahead of Byron while Hamlin and Austin Dillon battled for third in front of Larson and Blaney.

With less than 70 laps remaining, Truex continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over Austin Dillon, who muscled his way towards the front and started to close in on Truex for the lead, followed by Hamlin while Byron fell back to fourth in front of teammate Larson.

Then, with 66 laps remaining, the record-breaking 14th caution flew when race leader, Truex, lost a tire and went dead straight into the outside wall in Turn 3 as his car slid below the apron and came to rest with significant right-side damage. Amid Truex’s wreck, Byron, who was displeased with Hamlin running him out of room, bumped and spun Hamlin while battling for third place on the frontstretch, which prompted Hamlin to retaliate under caution as he tried to hit and turn Byron on the backstretch.

During the caution period, some, led by Austin Dillon, who initially took the lead, pitted, while the rest, led by Stenhouse, remained on the track.

With 58 laps remaining, the race proceeded under green. At the start, Stenhouse and Gilliland battled for the lead. Gilliland assumed the lead and led a lap but Stenhouse reassumed the top spot during the following lap as Reddick closed in and challenged the two leaders. Behind, Briscoe and Logano battled for fourth and to be the highest-running Playoff competitor on the track while Cindric and Haley battled for sixth in front of Chastain, Suarez and Byron.

Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Reddick, who captured the top spot three laps earlier, was leading by nine-tenths of a second over Stenhouse while Logano overtook Gilliland for third. Briscoe was in fifth ahead of Cindric, Haley, McDowell, Chastain and Blaney. By then, only five of 12 Playoff contenders were running in the top 10 with nine still scored on the lead lap.

Sixteen laps later, the caution flew when Stenhouse, running in third place in front of Gilliland, slipped sideways and backed his No. 47 NOS Energy Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the outside wall in the backstretch. As Stenhouse’s car veered from the top to the bottom lane, Cindric, who was approaching Stenhouse at full speed, veered his car to the left to avoid Stenhouse, but ended up spinning his No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang on the bottom lane, though he continued without sustaining any significant damage. During the caution period, Chastain, Erik Jones, the Dillon brothers, Harvick, Corey LaJoie, Landon Cassill and Garrett Smithley pitted while the rest, led by Reddick, remained on the track.

Just as the field restarted with 29 laps remaining under green, the caution, however, quickly returned when Almirola spun entering Turn 2 with Chastain sustaining minor damage to his car.

When the race proceeded under green with 24 laps remaining, Reddick and Logano battled for the lead as the field behind fanned out. Shortly after, Reddick assumed full command with the top spot while Haley, Briscoe and McDowell battled for third.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Reddick continued to lead by more than a second over runner-up Logano and third-place Haley as Blaney and Briscoe occupied the top five. Keselowski, Byron and Erik Jones were in sixth through eighth while Larson, who briefly lost momentum a few laps earlier, was back in ninth in front of Hamlin.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Reddick remained the leader by more than a second over Logano. With Logano unable to narrow his deficit in a single lap, Reddick was able to navigate his way back to the frontstretch, preserve his tires when it mattered most and streak across the finish line to cap off a wild event with the victory.

Reddick’s victory meant that the first four events of the 2022 Cup Series Playoffs have been won by competitors not eligible for this year’s championship battle. The Californian was eliminated from transferring out of the Round of 16 by two points. The Texas victory also marked Reddick’s third career victory of his Cup career and of this season, making him the second competitor overall to achieve three-plus victories this season, along with Chase Elliott.

The victory comes more than a week after Reddick, who will be replaced by Kyle Busch in the No. 8 Chevrolet for the upcoming season, was revealed to be remaining at Richard Childress Racing for the 2023 Cup Series season before moving to 23XI Racing in 2024.

“I was extremely worried [about the tires],” Reddick said on USA Network. “I’m not gonna lie. Unfortunately, just about every time I’ve had fast cars, we’ve had some tire problems. That last run, the right sides were vibrating really, really hard there. I was just trying to maximize and just use the advantage of the gap that I built over Joey [Logano], just in case. Every time we’ve had a strong car, we’ve been bit by something. Just really proud to get this Lenovo Chevy to Victory Lane. [The sponsor] deserve to get to Victory Lane. We got them there.”

“We just had two tough races [in the Round of 16],” Reddick added. “We brought a really fast car at Darlington and we were leading at Kansas when we broke and fell out early. It’s tough, but this [win] will make the pain of not making it through [to the Round of 12] a little bit easier, even though, yes, it would’ve locked us into the Round of 8, but hey, we’re winning races. That’s what we’ll keep trying to do. Let’s go!”

Logano, who led 15 laps compared to Reddick’s 70, emerged as the highest-finishing Playoff contender on the track in second place. With his result, Logano sits atop the Playoff standings and is 40 points above the top-12 cutline to transfer to the Round of 8.

“It’s kind of a bittersweet moment,” Logano said. “One side, I’m kind of frustrated that [the finish] was like that and maybe, we would’ve had a shot to beat [Reddick]. On the other hand, I’m just happy to finish the race and get a bunch of points with the AAA Mustang and have something for [the field] going to the next few races. We did what we had to do. We had to score a bunch of points. We did that, put ourselves in the point lead. Still not comforting, but it’s better than being further back. We’ll figure out how we want to run Talladega now. Overall, you got to be happy with that.”

Justin Haley achieved his second top-five result of the season by finishing third while Blaney and Briscoe completed the top five on the track. Erik Jones, Byron, Keselowski, Larson and Hamlin completed the top 10 on the track.

Overall, half of the 12 Playoff competitors finished in the top 10 with nine finishing on the lead lap.

There were 36 lead changes for 19 different leaders. The race featured a track-record 16 cautions for 91 laps.

Results.

1. Tyler Reddick, 70 laps led

2. Joey Logano, 15 laps led

3. Justin Haley

4. Ryan Blaney, 29 laps led, Stage 2 winner

5. Chase Briscoe

6. Erik Jones, one lap led

7. William Byron, 42 laps led

8. Brad Keselowski, 31 laps led

9. Kyle Larson, 19 laps led, Stage 1 winner

10. Denny Hamlin, two laps led

11. Michael McDowell, 12 laps led

12. Daniel Suarez, one lap led

13. Ross Chastain, one lap led

14. Corey LaJoie

15. Austin Cindric, three laps led

16. Ty Dillon

17. Austin Dillon, three laps led

18. Harrison Burton, 15 laps led

19. Kevin Harvick, nine laps led

20. Ty Gibbs

21. Noah Gragson

22. Landon Cassill

23. Garrett Smithley

24. Aric Almirola

25. Bubba Wallace

26. BJ McLeod, one lap down, one lap led

27. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap down, 23 laps led

28. Todd Gilliland, one lap down, one lap led

29. Alex Bowman, five laps down

30. Chris Buescher – OUT, Accident

31. Martin Truex Jr. – OUT, Accident, 15 laps led

32. Chase Elliott – OUT, Accident, 44 laps led

33. Cody Ware – OUT, Accident

34. Christopher Bell – OUT, Dvp

35. Cole Custer – OUT, Accident

36. Kyle Busch – OUT, Accident

*Bold indicates Playoff contenders

Playoff standings

1. Joey Logano +30

2. Ross Chastain +29

3. William Byron +17

4. Kyle Larson +16

5. Ryan Blaney +15

6. Denny Hamlin +8

7. Chase Elliott +4

8. Daniel Suarez +4

9. Chase Briscoe -4

10. Austin Cindric -11

11. Christopher Bell -29

12. Alex Bowman -30

The Round of 12 in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs will continue next weekend at Talladega Superspeedway for a 500-mile feature on Sunday, October 2. The event is scheduled to commence at 2. p.m. ET on NBC.

September 25, 2022
Buescher conquers a wild Bristol Night Race; Playoff’s Round of 12 field set

On a night where multiple Playoff contenders encountered on-track issues from start to finish, another non-Playoff contender captured the spotlight as Chris Buescher made a triumphant return to Victory Lane in the NASCAR Cup Series in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, September 17.

The 29-year-old Buescher from Prosper, Texas, led twice for a race-high 169 of 500-scheduled laps, including the final 61, as he prevailed through a two-tire pit strategy and in a 57-lap dash to the finish by holding off Playoff contender Chase Elliott to score his second career win in NASCAR’s premier series and snap a 222-race winless drought under the lights at Thunder Valley.

Buescher’s victory served as one of two major storylines to Saturday night’s event at Bristol. The second was the Playoff battle as the Round of 16 concluded with four big names, including Kyle Busch, Tyler Reddick, Austin Dillon and Kevin Harvick, being eliminated from the Playoffs.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Aric Almirola claimed his first pole position of the 2022 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 127.826 mph in 14.946 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Chase Briscoe, the highest-starting Playoff contender who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 127.503 mph in 14.968 seconds.

When the green flag waved and the race started, Almirola jumped ahead with the advantage on the outside lane followed by teammate Briscoe and Denny Hamlin as the field jostled early between two lanes for positions. When the field made their way back to the frontstretch, Almirola managed to lead the first lap ahead of Hamlin and Briscoe while Ryan Blaney was in fourth ahead of Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson.

Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Almirola remained as the leader ahead of Hamlin followed by Blaney, Briscoe and Bell while Bowman, Larson, Keselowski, Ross Chastain and Kevin Harvick were in the top 10. Bubba Wallace, the winner of last weekend’s event at Kansas Speedway, was in 11th ahead of William Byron, rookie Austin Cindric, Cole Custer and AJ Allmendinger while Michael McDowell, Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Martin Truex Jr. and Justin Haley occupied the top 20. By then, Playoff contenders Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon and Daniel Suarez were mired in 21st, 24th, 26th, 30th and 32nd, respectively.

Fifteen laps later on Lap 25, Almirola, who approached lapped traffic, stabilized his advantage to nearly half a second over a side-by-side battle between Hamlin and Blaney while Briscoe and Bell remained in the top five. By then, half of the 16 Playoff contenders were scored in the top 10 while Kyle Busch, Reddick, Elliott, Austin Dillon and Suarez were among five Playoff contenders still mired outside of the top 20 on the track.

Another 11 laps later, Blaney muscled his No. 12 Pennzoil/Menards Ford Mustang into the lead after he overtook Almirola as Hamlin started to challenge Almirola for the runner-up spot.

On Lap 42, the first caution of the event flew due to debris on the backstretch and following two right-front incidents affecting two competitors. The first was when JJ Yeley smacked the outside wall in Turn 2 and fell off the pace after losing a right-front tire. The incident occurred as Yeley, who was multiple laps down, was battling the top-five front-runners on the track. By then, rookie Harrison Burton got into the outside wall in Turn 3 after he lost a right-front tire to his No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang.

During the caution period, a majority of the field led by race leader Blaney pitted wile the rest led by Keselowski remained on the track.

When the race restarted under green on Lap 49, Keselowski rocketed his No. 6 Kohler Generators Ford Mustang with the lead while teammate Chris Buescher and Wallace battled for the runner-up spot, with the former prevailing over the latter. Behind, Tyler Reddick was in fourth followed by Corey LaJoie and Almirola, the first competitor on four fresh tires, while Hamlin was in seventh as he was trying to navigate his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry back to the front.

By Lap 60, Keselowski was leading by eight-tenths of a second over teammate Buescher followed by Wallace, Reddick and Almirola while Hamlin, Bell, Blaney, LaJoie and Suarez occupied the top-10 spots on the track. Briscoe was in 11th followed by teammate Harvick, Larson, Byron and Kyle Busch while Bowman, Chastain, Logano, McDowell and Truex were in the top 20. By then, Cindric was in 22nd ahead of Austin Dillon and Elliott was mired back in 25th ahead of Ty Gibbs and Ty Dillon.

Fifteen laps later and at the Lap 75 mark, Keselowski continued to lead by more than a second over teammate Buescher while Wallace, Hamlin and Reddick were running in the top five. Blaney, meanwhile, was in sixth while Almirola, Bell, Briscoe and Harvick were in the top 10 ahead of Larson, Kyle Busch, Bowman, Byron, Suarez and Chastain. While Logano and Austin Dillon were in 18th and 20th, Elliott was mired back in 22nd and Cindric was back in 24th.

Nine laps later, early disaster struck for Cindric, who pitted under green after he lost a right-side tire to his No. 2 Freightliner Ford Mustang and scrubbed the outside wall entering Turn 2. By the time he returned to the track, his hopes of advancing to the Playoffs were jeopardized as he was mired back in 36th place on the track, dead last, and five laps down to the leaders.

Then on Lap 91, the caution returned when Blaney smacked the outside wall through Turns 3 and 4 after losing a right-front tire to his No. 12 Ford. In the process to avoid hitting Blaney, Almirola spun his No. 10 Ford BlueOval City Ford Mustang in Turn 4 as he brushed the outside wall. Then as Blaney pitted for four fresh tires, the situation for him from bad to worse. In an effort to remain on the lead lap, he left his pit stall, but was unaware that his pit crew had removed the center lug nut from the left-rear wheel. This caused the left-rear wheel to roll off of Blaney’s car as Blaney came to a stop before spinning his car back to his pit stall for fresh left-side tires. In the process, he lost a lap to the leaders.

During the caution period, some led by Buescher pitted while the rest led by Keselowski remained on the track.

When the event restarted under green on Lap 99, Keselowski retained the lead on the outside lane for a second time while Bell quickly challenged and overtook Reddick for the runner-up spot in his No. 20 Yahoo! Toyota TRD Camry. Behind, Kyle Busch, who restarted seventh, used the outside lane to his advantage as he bolted his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota TRD Camry past a bevy of names, including Larson, Briscoe and Reddick, in one lap before settling in third place behind teammate Bell.

By Lap 115, Keselowski retained the lead by four-tenths of a second over Bell and nine-tenths of a second over third-place Kyle Busch while Briscoe and Larson battled for fourth. Meanwhile, Blaney, who had a part dragging to the rear end of his car following his pit road incident, had returned to the track following a lengthy pit stop as he was mired back in 36th place, dead last, and five laps behind the leaders. He would eventually be posted by NASCAR for not meeting minimum speed and pitted again to address a flat right-rear tire.

When the first stage concluded on Lap 125, Keselowski, who came into the event with an average-finishing result of 19.2, captured his first stage victory of the 2022 season. Bell settled in second followed by teammate Kyle Busch, Briscoe, Larson, Bowman, Buescher, Reddick, Byron and Truex. By then, Elliott was in 12th, Harvick and Hamlin were mired in 14th and 15th, Austin Dillon was in 17th, Chastain was in 19th ahead of Logano, Suarez was in 23rd, Cindric was five laps down in 35th and Blaney was 15 laps down in 36th, dead last.

Under the stage break, some led by Keselowski, who pitted for the first time, pitted while the rest led by Buescher remained on the track.

The second stage started on Lap 133 as Buescher and Harvick occupied the front row. At the start, Buescher retained the lead ahead of Harvick while Chastain and Hamlin duked for third in front of Wallace, Custer and Justin Haley.

Following another caution period on Lap 139 when Harrison Burton got hit by Cindric and spun on the frontstretch and during the following restart on Lap 145, Buescher retained the top spot in his No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang over Harvick’s No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang and the rest of the field.

At the Lap 150 mark, Buescher continued to lead by half a second over Harvick followed by Hamlin, Wallace and Custer while Chastain, Haley, Suarez, Briscoe and Logano were in the top 10.

Twenty-five laps later on Lap 175, Buescher stabilized his advantage to a tenth of a second over Harvick while Hamlin, Wallace and Chastain were scored in the top five. Shortly after, however, Wallace, who had smoke coming out of his No. 45 MoneyLion Toyota TRD Camry, pitted under green. The situation, which was deemed a right-front brake line failure, cost Wallace multiple laps as he remained in his pit stall while his pit crew diagnosed the issue.

Back on the track on Lap 190 and while Buescher continued to lead by a tenth of a second, seven of 16 Playoff contenders were scored in the top 10, with Harvick in second ahead of Hamlin and Chastain while Briscoe was in sixth, two spots ahead of Bowman, Larson and Bell. Kyle Busch was in 11th while Elliott was up in 12th place. Suarez was in 14th, Byron was in 16th, Logano was in 18th, Reddick was back in 23rd, Cindric was four laps down while mired in 34th and Blaney was 78 laps down in 36th as he continued to lose more laps to the leaders while he remained in the garage to have his car repaired. By then, Wallace’s 23XI Racing teammate Ty Gibbs took his No. 23 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry to the garage due to a power steering issue.

Six laps later, the caution flew when Erik Jones, who just went a lap down to the leader Buescher, spun his No. 43 U.S. Air Force Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in the backstretch after making contact with teammate Ty Dillon. The incident occurred as both Petty GMS Motorsports competitors were trying to avoid Harrison Burton, who encountered his third right-front tire issue of the night. During the caution period, names like Bell, Kyle Busch, Elliott, Suarez, Keselowski, Byron, Logano, McDowell, Almirola, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Todd Gilliland Reddick and the Dillon brothers pitted while the rest led by Buescher and Harvick remained on the track. By then, Truex took his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota TRD Camry to the garage and retired due to a power steering issue.

With 45 laps remaining in the second stage, the race proceeded under green. At the start, Buescher retained the lead over Harvick while Harvick was being challenged by Hamlin and teammate Custer. Behind, Chastain battled for fifth over Briscoe as both Haley and Larson joined the battle.

Twenty laps later and with 25 laps remaining in the second stage, Buescher stabilized his advantage to three-tenths of a second over Harvick followed by Hamlin, Custer and Larson while Chastain was locked in a side-by-side battle with Bell for sixth. Behind, Briscoe was left battling Kyle Busch for eighth while Keselowski was back in 10th ahead of Elliott, Bowman, Byron, Almirola, Haley and Logano. By then, Austin Dillon and Suarez were back in 20th and 21st while Cindric was in 31st, five laps down.

With 16 laps remaining in the second stage, the caution flew when Hamlin, who was in third, fell off the pace after blowing a right-front tire to his No. 11 Toyota as he just managed to keep his car off the outside wall. During the caution period, some led by Buescher pitted while the rest led by Bell remained on the track.

When the second stage proceeded with 10 laps remaining, Bell took off with the lead followed by a side-by-side battle involving Chastain and Briscoe while Elliott and Kyle Busch battled for fourth in front of Bowman and Byron.

When the second stage concluded on Lap 250, which marked the halfway point of the event, Bell, who is already guaranteed a spot in the Round of 12, captured his fourth stage victory of the 2022 season. Chastain settled in second followed by Briscoe, Elliott, Kyle Busch, Bowman, Byron, Austin Dillon, Larson and Harvick. By then, Suarez was in 11th, Logano was in 18th, Reddick was back in 23rd ahead of Hamlin, Cindric was five laps down in 31st and Blaney was still in the garage and mired in 36th place, 138 laps down.

Under the stage break, names like Chastain, Briscoe, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Bowman, Harrison Burton and Almirola pitted while the rest led by Bell remained on the track.

With 241 laps remaining, the final stage started under green as Bell and Elliott occupied the front row. At the start, Bell retained the lead while Byron made his way into the runner-up spot over teammates Larson and Elliott. Behind, Harvick battled McDowell for fifth while Keselowski was in seventh over Custer.

Eleven laps later, the caution returned when Kyle Busch, who came into the event two points below the top-12 cutline, fell off the pace entering the frontstretch and steered his car, which was billowing smoke, below the apron and to the garage, where he retired from contention due to an engine failure.

“I don’t even know what to say,” Busch said on USA Network. “I’m flabbergasted. I just feel so bad for my guys. They don’t deserve to be in this spot. They worked too hard, were too good of a group to be this low, down on the bottom and fighting for our lives just to make it through. Two engine failures in three weeks. That’ll do to you…This is not our normal.”

When the race restarted with 224 laps remaining, Bell cleared Byron to retain the lead as Larson went to work on teammate Byron for the runner-up spot followed by teammate Elliott and Harvick. Just as the front-runners were approaching Turns 3 and 4, the caution quickly returned for a multi-car wreck that started when Suarez got loose entering the backstretch as he clipped Stenhouse and spun, thus igniting carnage that collected teammate Chastain, Austin Dillon, Gilliland, Cindric, Elliott, Cassill, Burton, Briscoe, Reddick and Bowman, who retired after busting the radiator from his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, while Blaney, who returned to the track and was more than 150 laps down, was able to dodge the carnage.

When the race restarted with 214 laps remaining, Bell outdueled Byron to remain as the leader as Larson and Keselowski overtook Byron for second and third. Behind, Harvick, faced in a “must-win” situation to advance to the Playoffs, was in fifth and Elliott made his way up to sixth in front of Buescher, McDowell and Logano.

With 200 laps remaining, Bell was leading by six-tenths of a second over Larson followed by Keselowski, Byron and Harvick while Elliott, Buescher, Logano, McDowell and AJ Allmendinger were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Hamlin, Chastain and Briscoe were running 12th through 14th while Reddick was mired back in 28th place and still undergoing repairs to his No. 8 Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Meanwhile, Austin Dillon, who was involved in the latest multi-car wreck, took his No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to the garage as he retired and failed to advance past the Round of 12.

Fifty-two laps later, the caution flew when Erik Jones fell off the pace through the backstretch after he cut a right-rear tire to his No. 43 Chevrolet. By then, Bell continued to lead by by half a second over Larson followed by Keselowski, Elliott and Buescher while Harvick, Logano, Byron, McDowell and Allmendinger were in the top 10. In addition, Reddick, who found himself five points outside of the top-12 cutline to advance to the Playoffs, made another pit stop as his No. 8 pit crew went under the hood.

Under caution, the leaders led by Bell pitted and Larson emerged with the lead after beating Bell off of pit road in first place.

During the following restart with 140 laps remaining, Larson retained the lead over Bell while Keselowski launched a challenge on Bell for second place as the field scattered and jostled for positions. By then, Reddick, who was in 28th and 29 laps down, was scored four points behind Kyle Busch for the 12th and final transfer spot to the Playoffs.

With less than 120 laps remaining, Larson was leading ahead of Keselowski, Bell, Harvick and Buescher while Logano, Byron, Elliott, Allmendinger and Custer occupied the top 10. By then, Hamlin was in 11th, Chastain and Briscoe were in 14th and 15th, Suarez was back in 22nd, Cindric was in 25th and Reddick was in 28th. Blaney, meanwhile, was in 35th after he overtook a retired Truex.

Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Keselowski, who overtook Larson for the lead following a slide job 12 laps earlier, was leading by six-tenths of a second over Larson while Bell, Harvick and Buescher remained in the top five. By then, six of 16 Playoff contenders were scored in the top 10.

Not long after, Logano, who is guaranteed a spot in the Round of 12, made an unscheduled pit stop to address a flat right-front tire to his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang.

Then wit 87 laps remaining, disaster struck for Keselowski, who lost a right-front tire entering Turn 3 after he popped a right-front tire to his No. 6 Ford Mustang. With Keselowski limping his car back to pit road, the race remained under green as Bell returned to the lead followed by Larson, Harvick, Buescher and Elliott.

With less than 70 laps remaining, Bell remained as the leader by three-tenths of a second over Larson and more than a second over third-place Harvick while Buescher and Elliott remained in the top five. By then, pole-sitter Almirola took his car to the garage due to a power steering issue.

Down to the final 64 laps, however, the caution flew when Bell cut a right-rear tire as he lost the lead to Larson and fell off the pace through the backstretch, though he remained in second place in front of Harvick. During the caution period, the leaders led by Larson and including Bell pitted. Following the pit stops, Buescher emerged with the lead following a two-tire pit stop followed by Elliott, Byron, Larson and Allmendinger, all of whom elected for four fresh tires. During the pit stops, disaster struck for both Harvick and Hamlin after both encountered loose wheels that stalled their progress towards the front. For Harvick, he had fallen back to 10th after he backed his car back to his pit stall due to his left-front tire not being secured. For Hamlin, he was back in 11th after he had a loose left-rear wheel that needed to be tightened while trying to exit his pit stall.

With 57 laps remaining and with the field restarting under green, Buescher retained the lead while teammates Byron and Elliott battled for second in front of Larson, Bell and Allmendinger.

Sixteen laps later and with 40 laps remaining, Buescher stabilized his advantage to nearly nine-tenths of a second over Elliott while Byron, Larson and Bell battled for third. By then, Cindric, who took the wave around and was up in 21st while six laps behind, drew himself into a one-point advantage over Kyle Busch for the 12th and final transfer spot to the Round of 12. In addition, Logano retired due to a suspension issue.

Another 20 laps later, Buescher, who was navigating his way through lapped traffic, continued to lead by seven-tenths of a second over Elliott. Behind, Byron and Bell trailed by more than a second while fifth-place Larson trailed by more than two seconds. Meanwhile, Chastain was in sixth while Hamlin and Harvick were mired back in ninth and 10th.

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Buescher was ahead by eight-tenths of a second over Elliott while Byron continued to fend off Bell for third place.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Buescher remained as the leader by four-tenths of a second over Elliott’s No. 9 Hooters Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Despite encountering more lapped traffic for a final circuit, Buescher was able to maintain a reasonable gap to Elliott as he returned to the frontstretch and claimed his first checkered flag in six years.

The Bristol victory was Buescher’s second in the Cup Series and first since he claimed his first career win in the rain-shortened event at Pocono Raceway in August 2016. He also became the 19th different winner through 29 scheduled events of the 2022 Cup season and the 139th different competitor to achieve multiple victories in NASCAR’s premier series. In addition, Buescher recorded the first NASCAR victory for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing since the organization last won at Daytona International Speedway in July 2017, their first since the team was rebranded to RFK Racing and the first Cup victory for crew chief Scott Graves.

With Buescher’s victory, this marked the first time since the Playoff-elimination format debuted in 2014 where a Playoff round’s three events were swept by non-title contenders after Erik Jones and Bubba Wallace won the previous two Round of 16 events.

Photo by Jim Barnes for SpeedwayMedia.com.

“Man, this is just so special,” Buescher said on the frontstretch. “This team did such a great job. First Cup win for [sponsor] Fastenal for a points-paying race. That’s awesome. Glad to have Fastenal onboard tonight. Just so special here at Bristol. I love this racetrack. I love the fans. I love every time we come here. It’s so special. [I] Lost one [at Bristol] that really broke our heart back in 2015 on the Xfinity side with [Scott] Graves atop the pit box. This makes up for that. That’s pretty awesome. Pretty special.”

“It was up to me at that point [during the final restart],” Buescher added. “Just hold on and make it work. We really had a fast Fastenal Mustang. Just so proud of everybody. We knew we had a good race car after practice. [I] Didn’t quite get the job done in qualifying, but what a race car. It’s special. Get [Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing] in Victory Lane for the first time. We had great race cars. Brad [Keselowski] had really good speed, too. I don’t know what else to say. I’m out of breath. This place will wear you flat out and I love that about it, but such a special night. This [race] is number one on the list right here. This is it.”

Meanwhile, Elliott rallied from qualifying 23rd to finish in second place for his 11th top-five result of the season while Byron, Bell and Larson completed the top five on the track. All four are among 12 competitors to advance to the Playoff’s Round of 12.

“I wasn’t close enough to do anything with [Buescher],” Elliott said. “We had a long day yesterday. [I] Was able to battle back for a bad qualifying effort to get a top two [finish. Proud of that. Glad to be moving on [in the Playoffs]. Looking forward to some more opportunities in these coming weeks.”

Playoff contender Chastain came home in sixth while Allmendinger, Custer, Hamlin and Harvick completed the top 10 on the track.

When all was said and done on the track, drivers Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson, William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe, Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez and rookie Austin Cindric transferred to the Round of 12 in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch, Tyler Reddick, Austin Dillon and Kevin Harvick were eliminated from title contention for the 2022 season.

For Cindric, good fortune was on the rookie’s side in spite of the early unscheduled pit stop for a flat right-front tire. With a multitude of Playoff contenders also running into on-track issues throughout the night, Cindric’s 20th-place result was enough for him to claim the 12th and final transfer spot to the Round of 12 by two points over both Kyle Busch and Reddick.

“That was easy, right?” Cindric said. “[I] Came in plus two [points] and leave plus two. Just how we drew it up. What a night. We had right-front tires going down left and right from the beginning of the race. To get all of us into the Round of 12 after a very scary night for Team Penske, proud to do my job and hang in there. Got that one out.”

For Harvick, the final pit stop prior to the final restart was the endgame of his hopes of transferring to the Round of 16 as he left Bristol mired in 16th place in the standings and without an opportunity to contend for a second championship despite rallying for a 10th-place result.

“It was pretty tough,” Harvick said. “We pitted in front of [Buescher], so just kind of the way the year has gone. [I] Just went from having a chance to lead the parade to being a part of the parade. Just difficult to pass.”

The night was also adventurous for both Blaney and Reddick, both of whom encountered on-track issues of their own from start to finish. In the end, Blaney managed to work his way to 30th place in the final leaderboard and transfer to the Round of 12 while Reddick failed to transfer to the Round of 12 by two points for a second consecutive season.

“Lucky to get in, I guess,” Blaney said. “We were really fast early and just had a right front [tire] go down like almost everybody else in the race. We just hit the wall a little bit harder than some other guys. Spent a long time fixing [the car], but was able to get back out. We built a good enough gap the first two [Playoff] races to give ourselves a bit of a cushion and then, some guys had their issues tonight. Pretty crazy turn of events, for sure. Good perseverance by this No. 12 group. Looking forward to getting into Texas.”

“Frustrating, for sure,” Reddick said. “We unloaded in the race and just quite didn’t have the pace or the balance to make our car better. Unfortunately, with the balance issues we were fighting, we were pretty much limited. We couldn’t really adjust on it without hurting the downforce of the car, overall. We were kind of boxed in. Then, we just got collected in that accident back there. I checked up in time, but yeah, I got absolutely ran over from there. Caught the right front and broke the upper control arm for the second week in a row.”

There were 12 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured 11 cautions for 80 laps.

Results.

1. Chris Buescher, 169 laps led

2. Chase Elliott

3. William Byron

4. Christopher Bell, 143 laps led, Stage 2 winner

5. Kyle Larson, 34 laps led

6. Ross Chastain

7. AJ Allmendinger

8. Cole Custer

9. Denny Hamlin

10. Kevin Harvick

11. Michael McDowell

12. Justin Haley

13. Brad Keselowski, one lap down, 109 laps led, Stage 1 winner

14. Chase Briscoe, two laps down

15. Corey LaJoie, three laps down

16. Harrison Burton, three laps down

17. Cody Ware, three laps down

18. Todd Gilliland, four laps down

19. Daniel Suarez, six laps down

20. Austin Cindric, seven laps down

21. Erik Jones, eight laps down

22. Landon Cassill, eight laps down

23. JJ Yeley, nine laps down

24. BJ McLeod, nine laps down

25. Tyler Reddick, 31 laps down

26. Ty Dillon – OUT, Steering

27. Joey Logano – OUT, Suspension

28. Aric Almirola – OUT, Steering, 36 laps led

29. Bubba Wallace, 92 laps down

30. Ryan Blaney, 162 laps down, nine laps led

31. Austin Dillon – OUT, Dvp

32. Alex Bowman – OUT, Accident

33. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Accident

34. Kyle Busch – OUT, Engine

35. Ty Gibbs – OUT, Steering

36. Martin Truex Jr. – OUT, Steering

*Bold indicates Playoff contenders

Playoff standings

1. Chase Elliott – Advanced

2. Joey Logano – Advanced

3. Ross Chastain – Advanced

4. Kyle Larson – Advanced

5. William Byron – Advanced

6. Denny Hamlin – Advanced

7. Christopher Bell – Advanced

8. Ryan Blaney – Advanced

9. Chase Briscoe – Advanced

10. Alex Bowman – Advanced

11. Daniel Suarez – Advanced

12. Austin Cindric – Advanced

13. Kyle Busch – Eliminated

14. Tyler Reddick – Eliminated

15. Austin Dillon – Eliminated

16. Kevin Harvick – Eliminated

The Round of 12 in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs will commence next weekend at Texas Motor Speedway for a 500-mile feature on Sunday, September 25. The event is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

September 18, 2022
Reddick wins wild overtime thriller at the Indianapolis Road Course

From winning the pole on Saturday to capping off a dominant run by winning on Sunday, Tyler Reddick made an emphatic statement in his bid to contend for this year’s NASCAR Cup Series championship after winning the Verizon 200 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in overtime.

The 26-year-old Reddick from Corning, California, led three times for a race-high 38 of 86 over-scheduled laps and outdueled a late battle with Ross Chastain, who was penalized for using the access road in the first turn before rejoining the track to challenge Reddick for the win, during an overtime shootout to capture his second victory of the 2022 season and of his Cup career at the Brickyard, which solidified his hopes of making the 2022 Cup Series Playoffs.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Tyler Reddick claimed his first Cup pole position of the season and the second of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 99.378 mph in 88.354 seconds. Joining him on the front row was rookie Austin Cindric, who posted his best lap at 99.095 mph in 88.606 seconds.

Prior to the event, Aric Almirola dropped to the rear of the field due to an engine change along with Cody Ware, who received unapproved adjustments to his car.

When the green flag waved and the race started, Reddick jumped ahead with an early advantage in front of a side-by-side between Cindric and Chase Briscoe. Then in Turn 1 and amid the field fanning out to five lanes, Justin Haley got turned while running in 17th place as he spun in the middle of the track and in front of oncoming traffic, but the field dodged him as the race proceeded under green.

As the field made its way through the first three turns before entering Turns 4 to 6 and a brief straightaway leading to Turn 7, Reddick continued to lead ahead of the field with the competitors jostling early for positions. In Turn 7, Joey Logano made a three-wide move on Christopher Bell and Michael McDowell in a bid for fourth place as more competitors behind him fanned out as far as five lanes. The field remained fanned out from Turns 7 to 14.

By the completion of the first lap, as the field made their way back to the frontstretch, Reddick led the first lap by more than eight-tenths of a second over Briscoe followed by Cindric, Christopher Bell and Joey Logano. By then, Haley pitted his No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

Then in Turn 1, more on-track trouble ensued as Ross Chastain went for a spin in Turn 1 while running towards the top 15. Three turns later, Hamlin, who was running in 12th, got loose entering Turns 5 and 6 as he spun his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry through the infield straightaway as he plummeted below the leaderboard.

Following the second lap, Reddick’s No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 remained out in front by more than a second over Cindric’s No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang followed by Briscoe’s No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang. Bell remained in fourth followed by Logano while Michael McDowell, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott and rookie Harrison Burton were in the top 10.

Through the first five scheduled laps, Reddick extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Cindric followed by Briscoe, Bell and McDowell while Logano, Suarez, Blaney, Elliott and rookie Todd Gilliland were in the top 10. Burton was back in 11th followed by Kyle Busch, Chris Buescher, Brad Keselowski and William Byron while Kyle Larson, AJ Allmendinger, Bubba Wallace, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. were in the top 20. Meanwhile, Cole Custer was in 21st ahead of Alex Bowman, Joey Hand, Ty Gibbs, Ty Dillon, Ross Chastain, Erik Jones, Austin Dillon, Josh Bilicki and Corey LaJoie. Hamlin, whose rough start became rougher as he missed Turn 1, was mired in 34th behind Aric Almirola, former Formula One star Daniil Kvyat was in 36th and Haley was mired a lap down in 38th, dead last.

Shortly after, Brad Keselowski overshot the first turn while trying to out-brake Kyle Busch as he spun his No. 6 Castrol Ford Mustang. By the eighth lap, trouble ensued again for Chastain as he spun his No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for a second time in the turn after overshooting the turn, where he collected Joey Hand in the process.

At the Lap 10 mark, Reddick stabilized his advantage to less than two seconds over Cindric while Briscoe, Bell and McDowell remained in the top five. By then, Chastain, who spun twice in the opening stage, pitted for four tires and repairs under green despite losing a lap to the leaders.

During the following lap, names like AJ Allmendinger, Kevin Harvick, Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon, Hamlin and Chris Buescher, whose car was on fire while on pit road and lost two laps in the process, pitted under green. Back on the track, Elliott spun his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Turn 1 after he snapped loose entering the turn and hopped the curb while barely missing Logano.

By Lap 12, Reddick surrendered the lead to pit along with Cindric, Suarez, Bell and McDowell as Briscoe inherited the lead.

When the first stage concluded on Lap 15, Briscoe, who has yet to pit, claimed his third stage victory of the season. Blaney settled in second followed by teammate Byron, Logano and Elliott while Gilliland, Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Burton and Truex were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, some led by Briscoe pitted while the rest led by Blaney remained on the track. During the stage break, a pop-up canopy was flown out on the track between Turns 1 and 2, which promoted the safety workers to tend to the cover.

The second stage started on Lap 19 as Blaney and Byron occupied the front row. At the start and as the field fanned out to multiple lanes entering the first, Byron and Blaney dueled for the lead. Then in Turn 1 as the field scrambled to make it through the turn, Harvick got bumped by Austin Dillon as he spun and plummeted to the bottom of the leaderboard with Ty Gibbs and Hamlin sustaining minimal damage to their respective Toyotas after hitting Harvick’s Ford.

Back at the front, Blaney retained the lead ahead of Byron, Cindric, Cindric, Brad Keselowski and Reddick as the field made their way through the infield turns.

During the following lap, Bowman pitted his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for repairs as Blaney retained the lead ahead of Byron, Cindric, Keselowski and Reddick while Allmendinger, Corey LaJoie, Bubba Wallace, Suarez and Bell were in the top 10.

By Lap 25, Blaney, who has yet to pit, remained as the leader by half a second over Byron followed by Reddick, Cindric and Allmendinger while Keselowski, Suarez, Bell, McDowell and Wallace were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Aric Almirola, who sustained a flat left-rear tire after locking up his front tires and making contact with Larson in Turn 1, took his No. 10 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang to the garage and retired for the day. Larson, meanwhile, fell out of the lead lap category as his pit crew popped the hood of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 open while repairing the right side of Larson’s car.

During the following lap, the on-track chaos continued as Allmendinger’s No. 16 Gold Fish Casino Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 went off the track and into the gravel in Turn 3 while Harrison Burton locked up the front tires of his No. 21 DEX Imaging Ford Mustang and made contact against Cole Custer’s No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang as both spun in Turn 1.

On Lap 30, Byron, who briefly challenged Blaney for the lead, pitted his No. 24 Acronis Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for the first time. Suarez and Harvick also pitted as Blaney continued to lead. Three laps later, however, Blaney surrendered the lead to pit his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang for the first time along with Reddick and Cindric as Bell moved into the lead. By then, McDowell, Truex, Austin Dillon, Stenhouse, Logano, Gilliland and Burton had pitted.

When the second stage concluded on Lap 35, Bell captured his second stage victory of the season. Teammate Kyle Busch settled in second ahead of a tight battle against Wallace and Elliott. Ty Dillon, Hamlin, Briscoe, Custer, Erik Jones and Cody Ware were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, some led by Kyle Busch pitted while the rest led by Bell, who opted to remain on the track as part of a strategic move, remained on the track.

With 43 laps remaining, the final stage started as Bell and Wallace occupied the front row. At the start and the field fanned out entering the first turn, Bell retained the lead followed by Wallace while Briscoe engaged in a battle and eventually overtook Hamlin for third place. Not long after, Reddick overtook Ty Dillon in Turn 7 to bolt his way back in the top five.

At the halfway mark with 41 laps remaining, Bell retained the lead by more than two seconds over Wallace followed by Reddick, Briscoe and Hamlin while Ty Dillon, Blaney, Byron, Erik Jones and Chastain were in the top 10. McDowell was in 11th ahead of Suarez, Custer, Allmendinger and Cindric while Truex, Logano, Harvick, Austin Dillon and Elliott occupied the top 20. Gilliland was in 21st followed by Ty Gibbs, Kyle Busch, Burton and Bowman while Stenhouse was in 26th. Meanwhile, Keselowski plummeted to 32nd after spinning and going off the course in Turn 7 a lap earlier.

Down to the final 35 laps of the event, Bell continued to lead by less than six-tenths of a second over Reddick, who was closing in on Bell for the lead. Meanwhile, Blaney and Byron moved up to third and fourth while Wallace retained fifth ahead of Briscoe, Hamlin, Allmendinger, Ty Dillon and McDowell.

Then two laps later, Reddick made his move and overtook Bell to reassume the lead in Turn 12. By then, Wallace, Briscoe, Hamlin and the Dillon brothers pitted under green. Additional names like Harvick and Logano would also pit.

With 31 laps remaining, the leader Reddick pitted along with Bell, Chastain and Byron as Blaney inherited the lead while Reddick exited pit road ahead of Bell upon his completed service. Once Blaney pitted with less than 30 laps remaining, Allmendinger cycled to the lead. By then, Keselowski encountered more trouble as he spun in Turn 6.

With 25 laps remaining, Todd Gilliland, who has yet to pit, was leading followed by Kyle Busch, Bowman, Joey Hand and Reddick. By then, Allmendinger, Cindric, Suarez, Elliott, Stenhouse and Truex had made a pit stop. Kyle Busch would then pit his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota TRD Camry with 24 laps remaining.

Three laps remaining, the caution flew for a vicious wreck when Larson, who was multiple laps behind the leaders, lost his brakes entering the first turn and collided with Ty Dillon at full speed as both cars were sent spinning towards the infield while briefly catching air. Both competitors emerged uninjured as the field settled in a cautious pace. By then, Daniil Kvyat, who was slow for a full lap with a flat tire earlier, limped his No. 26 Team Hezeberg Toyota TRD Camry to pit road.

During the caution period, names like initial leader Joey Hand, Stenhouse, Harvick, Custer, Austin Dillon, Burton, Erik Jones, and Briscoe pitted while the rest led by Reddick remained on the track as Reddick cycled back to the lead.

Down to the final 18 laps of the event, the race restarted under green as Reddick and Bell occupied the front row. At the start, Reddick retained the lead by a narrow margin over Blaney, who made a three-wide move and muscled his way into the runner-up spot over Bell entering the first turn. Then through Turns 4 to 6 as the field jumbled, a three-wide action occurred between Bell, Allmendinger and Elliott as Allmendinger bolted his way to third followed by Elliott and Byron while Bell was being challenged by McDowell for sixth. Behind, Bowman and Harvick got together between Turns 8 and 9, but the race proceeded under green.

With 15 laps remaining, Reddick was leading by more than a second over Blaney followed by Elliott, who retained third ahead of Allmendinger, Byron and Bell while Chastain, McDowell, Suarez and Gilliland were in the top 10. By then, Truex was in 11th ahead of Cindric, Kyle Busch, Hamlin and Austin Dillon while Logano, Briscoe, Wallace, Stenhouse and Custer were in the top 20.

Five laps later, Reddick extended his advantage to nearly three seconds over Blaney while Elliott, Allmendinger and Byron remained in the top five. By then, Custer spun in Turn 6 while Bowman and Harvick retired in the garage following their late contact. A few laps later, Elliott emerged as the new runner-up competitor after he overtook Blaney while Reddick continued to lead by more than three seconds.

The caution returned with six laps remaining due to debris on the frontstretch as the right-front tire off of Bell’s No. 20 CRAFTSMAN Toyota TRD Camry was shredded. During the caution period, some like Hamlin, Keselowski, Stenhouse, Erik Jones, Custer and Cody Ware pitted while the rest led by Reddick remained on the track.

Down to the final three laps of the event, the field restarted under green. At the start, Reddick and Elliott dueled for the lead entering the first turn. Then in Turn 1, Elliott got bumped by Blaney as he spun along with Byron, Briscoe and Kyle Busch as Wallace, who sustained damage, went through the grass. Meanwhile, Reddick rocketed away with the lead followed by Allmendinger, Blaney, Chastain, Suarez and McDowell. As the field proceeded through the infield turns, the caution flew and the race was sent into overtime as Austin Dillon, who spun in Turn 4 with Erik Jones, was stuck in the gravel trap while Truex sustained a flat tire in the ensuing contact.

At the start of the first overtime attempt, Reddick retained the lead in front of the field that was fanning out to multiple lanes through the frontstretch. Then in Turn 1, Chastain and Austin Dillon bolted their way off the track and through the run-off access road through the first three turns while the rest of the field made their way through the first turn. That was where Blaney, who needed a victory and a strong run to stabilize his Playoff hopes, got sandwiched in between Suarez and Allmendinger before getting turned by Allmendinger as he stacked the field.

Back at the front, Chastain, who rejoined the racing surface after going off the course and using the access road to blend back on the course, challenged Reddick for the lead in Turn 3. Through Turns 4 to 6, Chastain muscled his way into the lead as he nearly went sideways in the process. Reddick, however, fought back, beginning in Turn 7 as he drew himself alongside Chastain’s Chevrolet. Despite Chastain’s valiant effort to remain out in front from Turns 8 to 12, Reddick seized an opportunity on the outside lane entering Turn 13 and managed to reassume the lead in Turn 14 as Cindric tried to join the battle.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Reddick was still out in front by a narrow margin over Chastain and Cindric. Through the first three turns followed by the infield Turns 4 to 6, Reddick remained as the leader over Chastain and Cindric, both of whom were battling for the runner-up spot. He continued to lead through Turns 7 to 12 as he started to gap himself from Chastain. With both Chastain and Cindric unable to mount a final charge through Turns 13 and 14, Reddick was able to smoothly navigate his way through the final turns and cycle back to the frontstretch as he grabbed his second checkered flag of the season and of his Cup career.

By winning for the second time in his career and on a road course, Reddick, who achieved his first Cup victory at Road America in early July, became the 137th different competitor to achieve multiple victories in NASCAR’s premier series and the 17th overall to win a NASCAR Cup Series event at the Brickyard. He also became the sixth competitor to achieve multiple Cup victories this season, thus placing himself in a comfortable position to contend in this year’s NASCAR postseason battle for the title, and he recorded the fourth Cup win for Richard Childress Racing.

The victory also eased the off-track tensions surrounding Reddick and Richard Childress Racing amid Reddick’s move in early July that he will be joining 23XI Racing in 2024.

“I was like, ‘Uh-oh’ [about Chastain],” Reddick, who celebrated with his son Beau on the frontstretch, said on NBC. “That was the scenario that had been talked about if [you] get bottled up. What do you do? You take the access road. I couldn’t believe he got ahead of me. I was kind of waiting to see if he was gonna have a penalty because I didn’t want to move him out of the way and make his race worse than what it was. I was really surprised by that, but hey, we made it work. Hats off to Ross for trying to do that, but really glad that it didn’t end up working out because I would’ve been pretty pissed off.”

“We know what we’re capable of,” Reddick added. “We did that at Road America. Certainly, it was a little bump in the road, but hey, we’ve gone out and won a race fair and square couple weeks ago. If we change nothing, we just keep working very, very hard. We find a way back to Victory Lane. Just really glad to be able to do it here at Indianapolis. This is one really special place to race and really excited to kiss the bricks here in a little bit. Really excited that we got 3CHI their win in their hometown.”

Following the event, Chastain, who initially finished second, was given a 30-second time penalty from NASCAR for cutting the first turn and using the access road along with Austin Dillon. As a result, Chastain was demoted to 27th place in front of teammate Daniel Suarez, who lost pace with the field after cutting a tire.

“[I was] Just trying not to be in the carnage there in Turn 1,” Chastain said. “I thought we were four wide. [I] couldn’t go any farther right and decided to take the NASCAR access lane. Just pure reaction there.”

With Chastain’s demotion, Cindric was promoted into the runner-up spot followed by his fellow rookie rivals Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland, both of whom notched their career-best results in the Cup Series. Bubba Wallace rounded out the top five in fifth place for this third top-five result of the season.

“It’s easy on paper, right?” Cindric said. “Oh, my gosh. I feel like we probably deserved 10th at best today. There were a few things I was good at, but I needed the whole track to do it and I kind of struggled a bit, probably a little lower than my expectations were today, but those restarts, survival, holy crap. All I can say is ‘wow.’ There’s no other sport, no other form of racing other than NASCAR that you’re going to get that. ”

“We’ll take it,” Burton said. “[I] Wouldn’t have picked this weekend to get my best career finish so far. Just a lot of aggression on the last restarts and putting myself in good positions. Honestly, we weren’t doing our job at the start of the race. We didn’t execute well. I made a mistake, spun out, got into Custer there. Was kind of pretty upset midway through the race, and then just got our heads down, came in, got tires and started picking guys off and restarted in a good spot to kind of go get some more. It’s just exciting. Proud of our team to keep persevering through those hard moments. Cool to get DEX Imaging a podium here in the Wood Brothers No. 21 [Ford]. It’s really neat to drive this car. Just proud to carry those colors every time we get out on the racetrack. It’s just a step, right? We’re not going to go blast off a podium every weekend. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to try to. We have to step and get top 10s more often and top fives and build. In the beginning of the year, that was our plan from the start. Just building to get up and race at this level with a new team is really fun.”

Completing the top 10 were Logano, Allmendinger, McDowell, Cole Custer and Chris Buescher. Notably, Kyle Busch finished 11th in front of teammate Bell, Hamlin settled in 14th in his 600th Cup career start, Elliott ended up 16th in front of Ty Gibbs, Truex came home in 21st and Blaney fell all the way back to 26th. In addition, newcomer Daniil Kvyat ended up 36th in his Cup debut.

There were nine lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 15 laps.

With four regular season races remaining this season, Chase Elliott continues to lead the regular season standings by 125 points over Ryan Blaney and 129 over Ross Chastain.

Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, William Byron, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe, Daniel Suarez, Kurt Busch, Christopher Bell, Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman and rookie Austin Cindric are currently guaranteed spots for the 2022 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning once throughout the regular-season stretch while Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. are above the top-16 cutline based on points. Kevin Harvick trails the top-16 cutline by 96 points, Aric Almirola trails by 156, Erik Jones trails by 175, Bubba Wallace trails by 213, Austin Dillon trails by 216, Justin Haley trails by 246, Chris Buescher trails by 256, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. trails by 280, Cole Custer trails by 287, Michael McDowell trails by 295 and rookie Harrison Burton trails by 302.

Results.

1. Tyler Reddick, 38 laps led

2. Austin Cindric

3. Harrison Burton

4. Todd Gilliland, four laps led

5. Bubba Wallace

6. Joey Logano

7. AJ Allmendinger, three laps led

8. Michael McDowell

9. Cole Custer

10. Chris Buescher

11. Kyle Busch

12. Christopher Bell, 17 laps led, Stage 2 winner

13. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

14. Denny Hamlin

15. Erik Jones

16. Chase Elliott

17. Ty Gibbs

18. Corey LaJoie

19. Justin Haley

20. Brad Keselowski

21. Martin Truex Jr.

22. Josh Bilicki

23. Chase Briscoe, five laps led, Stage 1 winner

24. Cody Ware

25. Josh Williams

26. Ryan Blaney, 17 laps led

27. Ross Chastain

28. Daniel Suarez

29. Joey Hand, one lap down, two laps led

30. Austin Dillon, one lap down

31. William Byron – OUT, Accident

32. Alex Bowman – OUT, Dvp

33. Kevin Harvick – OUT, Accident

34. Ty Dillon – OUT, Accident

35. Kyle Larson – OUT, Accident

36. Daniil Kvyat – OUT, Suspension

37. Loris Hezemans – OUT, Drivetrain

38. Aric Almirola – OUT, Accident

Next on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ lone annual visit of the season to Michigan International Speedway. The event is scheduled to occur on Sunday, August 7, at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.

July 31, 2022
Elliott awarded Cup Series victory at Pocono; Hamlin, Kyle Busch DQ’d following post-race inspection

In a late turn of events, Chase Elliott was declared the winner of the M&M’s Fan Appreciation 400 at Pocono Raceway on Sunday, July 24, after NASCAR disqualified the initial results of race winner Denny Hamlin and runner-up finisher Kyle Busch.

The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion from Dawsonville, Georgia, initially came home in third place behind Joe Gibbs Racing’s Hamlin and Busch. Two hours after Hamlin claimed the checkered flag on the track, however, the news of the disqualification involving Hamlin and Busch following the post-race inspection process was announced. This prompted NASCAR to award Elliott, who currently leads the regular-season standings, his fourth victory of the 2022 Cup season.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Denny Hamlin claimed his third pole position of the season after his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry posted a pole-winning lap at 169.991 mph in 52.944 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Kyle Busch, whose No. 18 M&M’s Toyota TRD Camry clocked in a fast qualifying lap at 169.498 mph in 53.098 seconds.

On Saturday, NASCAR assessed L1 penalties to Petty GMS Motorsports’ two entries piloted by Ty Dillon and Erik Jones after both were found to have violated NASCAR’s Rule Book pertaining to the Rocker Box Assemblies. As a result, both entires were docked 35 driver/owner points and their crew chiefs, Jerame Donley and Dave Elenz were suspended for Sunday’s event. With the team electing not to appeal the penalty, Joey Cohen served as Dillon’s interim crew chief while Danny Efland served as Jones’ interim crew chief.

Prior to the event, William Byron, Ross Chastain, Justin Haley, Erik Jones and Cody Ware dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective cars. In addition, the No. 45 23XI Racing entry normally piloted by Kurt Busch dropped to the rear of the field due to a back-up car and for a driver change as Xfinity Series competitor Ty Gibbs took over the ride. Gibbs filled in for Busch, who was not medically cleared to compete following his wreck during qualifying on Saturday.

When the green flag waved and the race started, Hamlin rocketed toward the front with an early advantage exiting the frontstretch, but Kyle Busch gained a huge run through the first turn and grabbed the lead. Then, entering the Long Pond straightaway, Hamlin scrubbed the outside wall as he was overtaken by Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney. As the field fanned out through the Tricky Triangle’s three turns, Busch led the first lap as the field returned to the frontstretch. By then, Hamlin was back in fifth.

Through the first five scheduled laps, Kyle Busch was leading by two-and-a-half seconds over Chase Elliott followed by Larson, Hamlin and Blaney while Chris Buescher, Daniel Suarez, Martin Truex Jr., Bubba Wallace and Alex Bowman were in the top 10.

During the following lap, the first caution flew when rookie Austin Cindric slipped sideways and spun in Turn 3 as he barely tapped the inside wall toward the frontstretch and flat-spotted the tires on his No. 2 Keystone Ford Mustang. During the extensive caution period, Joey Logano, Justin Haley, Bubba Wallace, William Byron, Kevin Harvick, rookie Todd Gilliland, Aric Almirola, rookie Harrison Burton, Michael McDowell, Cole Custer, Josh Bilicki and JJ Yeley pitted while the rest, led by Kyle Busch, remained on the track.

When the race restarted under green on Lap 12, Kyle Busch launched ahead on the outside lane, but he then went wide entering the first turn and lost both the lead and his momentum. With Busch losing the top spot and a bevy of spots, a three-wide battle for the lead occurred between Larson, Elliott and Hamlin through the Long Pond straightaway before Larson assumed the top spot with a strong move on the outside lane through the Tunnel Curve.

By Lap 15, Larson was leading by more than six-tenths of a second over teammate Elliott followed by Hamlin, Blaney and Suarez while Bubba Wallace, Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were in the top 10. Ross Chastain was in 11th followed by Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr. and Erik Jones while Corey LaJoie, Michael McDowell, Austin Dillon, William Byron and rookie Harrison Burton were in the top 20. Meanwhile, Kevin Harvick was mired in 23rd behind teammate Chase Briscoe, Aric Almirola was in 25th in front of Logano, Brad Keselowski was in 29th and newcomer Ty Gibbs was in 33rd.

At the Lap 20 mark, Larson continued to lead by nearly four-tenths over teammate Elliott while Hamlin, Blaney and Suarez were in the top five. Behind, Kyle Busch started to challenge Suarez for sixth place while Wallace, Bell, Buescher and Chastain were in the top 10. Shortly after, Austin Dillon pitted under green as part of a strategic move.

By Lap 27, Bubba Wallace, Bell, Buescher, Chastain, Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman and Stenhouse pitted under green. Just as they all peeled off the track to pit, the caution flew when Aric Almirola got loose and spun his No. 10 Haas Automation Ford Mustang in Turn 3 as he flat-spotted his tires. Almirola’s spin was enough for NASCAR to conclude the first stage scheduled for Lap 30 to conclude under caution and Larson claimed his third stage victory of the 2022 Cup season. Teammate Elliott settled in second followed by Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Suarez, Blaney, Erik Jones, Byron, Martin Truex Jr. and Harvick.

Under the stage break, Burton, Logano, BJ McLeod, Cody Ware, Bell, Chastain, Wallace, Buescher, Gilliland, Stenhouse, Austin Dillon, Reddick and Custer remained on the track while the rest, led by Larson, pitted.

The second stage started on Lap 34 as Burton and Logano occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out to multiple lanes approaching the first turn as Bell, who restarted behind Burton, challenged Burton for the lead. When the field returned to the start/finish line, Bell assumed the lead while Wallace overtook Bell for the runner-up spot. By then, Logano was back in sixth as Kyle Busch and Chastain were in the top five.

During the following lap and as the field continued to scramble for positions, the caution returned when Josh Bilicki suffered a flat tire, spun and wrecked in Turn 1.

As the race proceeded under green on Lap 40, the field fanned out to multiple lanes again approaching the first turn as Bell’s No. 20 Rheem Toyota TRD Camry retained the top spot ahead of Harrison Burton’s No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Mustang and Wallace’s No. 23 DoorDash Toyota TRD Camry. Not long after, however, the caution returned when Hamlin, who was running in 18th, got loose and spun his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry past the Tunnel Curve in Turn 2 as he was dodged by the field. During the caution period, some drivers, including Austin Dillon, pitted, while the rest, led by Bell, remained on the track.

As the race restarted under green on Lap 44 and with the field fanning out, Bell retained the top spot on the outside lane while Wallace and Kyle Busch battled for the runner-up spot. Just as the field made its way through the first turn and entering the Long Pond straightaway, the caution flew when Corey LaJoie got loose underneath Michael McDowell. This caused McDowell to slip and slap the outside wall while LaJoie pounded the wall and came to a rest sideways and with damage to his car. During the caution period, Erik Jones, Stenhouse, Haley, McDowell, Noah Gragson, Cody Ware and McLeod pitted while the rest, led by Bell, remained on the track.

When the race restarted under green on Lap 48, Kyle Busch’s No. 18 M&M’s Toyota TRD Camry received a push from Ross Chastain’s No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to the lead ahead of teammate Bell as the field spread out through the Long Pond straightaway and entering the Tunnel Curve.

By Lap 55, Kyle Busch was leading by more than a second over teammate Bell followed by Wallace, Larson and Byron while Truex, Chastain, Reddick, Bowman and Blaney were in the top 10. Burton was back in 11th ahead of Suarez, Buescher, Elliott and Harvick while Logano, Hamlin, Erik Jones, Briscoe and Almirola were in the top 20. By then, Logano pitted under green.

Two laps later, Wallace and Burton pitted under green while Kyle Busch extended his advantage to more than two seconds over teammate Bell and more than three seconds over third-place Larson. Bowman would also pit his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 under green.

Just past the Lap 60 mark, Byron and Harvick also pitted under green along with Bell, Larson, Suarez and Elliott as Kyle Busch remained the leader by more than six seconds over teammate Truex and nearly seven over Chastain.

On Lap 65, Kyle Busch surrendered the lead to pit under green followed by Buescher as Truex assumed the lead. By then, Chastain had also pitted. Another two laps later, Truex surrendered the lead to pit along with Almirola as Blaney cycled to the lead. By then, Reddick had completed his pit stop.

Through Lap 75, Erik Jones, who overtook Blaney for the lead two laps earlier, was leading by six-tenths of a second over Hamlin followed by Blaney Austin Dillon and Ty Dillon while Stenhouse, Brad Keselowski, McDowell, Kyle Busch and LaJoie were in the top 10.

At the halfway mark on Lap 80, Erik Jones continued to lead by eight-tenths of a second over Hamlin followed by Blaney, Austin Dillon and Stenhouse while Kyle Busch, McDowell, LaJoie, Gilliland and Larson were in the top 10. Shortly after, Blaney, who led seven laps, pitted under green.

Two laps later, the caution flew when Ty Dillon, who had just made a pit stop under green, spun past the Tunnel Curve in Turn 2. During the caution period, Wallace and Blaney remained on the track while the rest of the field, led by Erik Jones, pitted.

With seven laps remaining in the second stage, the event proceeded under green. At the start, Wallace received a push from Kyle Busch on the outside lane to emerge with the lead followed by Busch while Blaney fell back to third in front of Erik Jones, Hamlin, Chastain, Larson, Suarez and Byron. Through the Tunnel Curve, Busch quickly cycled his way back to the lead as Blaney also overtook Wallace for the runner-up spot. Not long after, Chastain, Erik Jones and Hamlin all overtook Wallace for spots in the top five as Kyle Bush ran away from the field.

With three laps remaining in the second stage, Wallace, who was falling below the leaderboard on old tires, pitted under green as Kyle Busch was out in front by nearly a second over Chastain. Meanwhile, Blaney and Erik Jones battled for third in front of Hamlin.

When the second stage concluded on Lap 95, Kyle Busch clinched his second stage victory of the 2022 season. Chastain settled in second followed by Blaney, Erik Jones, Hamlin, Harvick, Byron, Suarez, Elliott and Larson.

Under the stage break, some of the drivers, led by Buescher, pitted while the rest, led by Kyle Busch, remained on the track.

With 60 laps remaining, the final stage started as Kyle Busch and Chastain occupied the front row. At the start, Kyle Busch retained the lead ahead of Chastain while Hamlin made a bold three-wide move on Blaney and Erik Jones through the Long Pond straightaway and entering the Tunnel Curve to move into third place. Shortly after, Byron rocketed his No. 24 Raptor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into fourth place as Jones and Blaney fell back to fifth and sixth in front of Harvick and Bell.

Ten laps later, Kyle Busch retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Chastain while Hamlin, Byron, Bell, Harvick, Erik Jones, Suarez, Elliott and Larson were in the top 10. A few laps earlier, Blaney pitted under green after his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang sustained a flat left-rear tire.

Nearing the final 40 laps, names like Chris Buescher, Reddick, Stenhouse, Harvick and Austin Dillon pitted under green while Kyle Busch held a narrow advantage over Chastain. Soon after, Elliott pitted along with Suarez, Truex, Larson, Byron, Erik Jones and Aric Almirola. Following the pit stops, Byron was penalized for equipment interference.

With 37 laps remaining, Kyle Busch surrendered the lead to Chastain as he pitted under green along with teammate Bell and Bowman. During the following lap, Chastain pitted under green as Hamlin cycled to the lead.

Two laps later, Buescher spun in Turn 3, but the race continued under green as the leader, Hamlin, pitted under green. Once the rest of the field, including Logano and Wallace, pitted, Chastain cycled to the lead ahead of Kyle Busch and Hamlin.

Down to the final 30 laps of the event, Chastain was leading by nearly a second over rival Hamlin while third-place Kyle Busch trailed by one-and-a-half seconds.

Then seven laps later, the caution flew when Blaney got loose in Turn 3, spun and pounded the inside wall head-on. During the caution period, names like Gilliland, Austin Dillon, Keselowski, Bowman, Chase Briscoe, Byron, Haley, Ty Dillon, Gragson and Stenhouse pitted while the rest led by Chastain remained on the track.

With 19 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Chastain and Hamlin dueled for the lead entering the first turn. Then through the first turn, Hamlin, who was still irritated over his share of run-ins with Chastain throughout the season and vowed payback, moved up the track and edged Chastain into the outside wall, causing him to pound the wall. While Hamlin ran away with the lead, Chastain, who lost his momentum, was then hit by Harvick’s No. 4 Busch Light Apple Ford Mustang and Bell scraped the outside wall as Chastain spun and clipped the inside wall. The wreck spoiled Chastain’s opportunity to win along with Harvick’s opportunity to grab a win and keep his Playoff hopes alive.

When the race proceeded under green with 13 laps remaining, Hamlin retained the lead with a strong start on the outside lane followed by teammate Kyle Busch while Elliott was in third followed by Bell and Reddick. Behind, Suarez was in sixth followed by McDowell, Truex, Larson and Erik Jones.

With 10 laps remaining, Hamlin continued to lead by nearly eight-tenths of a second over teammate Kyle Busch followed by Elliott and Reddick while Suarez and Bell battled fiercely for fifth in front of McDowell, Truex and Larson. By then, Wallace rallied his way into 10th place.

Down to the final five laps of the event, Hamlin remained the leader by seven-tenths of a second over teammate Kyle Busch followed by Elliott, Reddick and Suarez.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hamlin led by nearly nine-tenths of a second over teammate Kyle Busch. Despite enduring a bumpy road to victory from start to finish, Hamlin was able to smoothly navigate his way around the Tricky Triangle’s turns and straightaways for a final time as he beat Busch by nearly a second to grab what would have been his third victory of the 2022 season and a record-achieving seventh victory at Pocono.

“It’s the team,” Hamlin, who shared a victorious moment with his daughter, Taylor, on the frontstretch, said on USA Network. “They just were able to come back with a great strategy there to get us back upfront from the mistake I made. I just wanted to be a local short-track racer in Virginia. That’s all I really cared about. I was able to get a great break from [the late] J.D. Gibbs. That’s why I’m driving the No. 11 for Joe Gibbs Racing. It feels good to win here at Pocono.”

Following the event, however, NASCAR disqualified the first and second-place cars of race winner Hamlin and runner-up, Kyle Busch, due to their cars failing the post-race inspection process. NASCAR later stated that an issue with the front fascia was found on both cars, which prompted the sanctioning body to strip the results of both Joe Gibbs Racing competitors.

With Hamlin and Busch disqualified, Chase Elliott, who initially finished in third place, was awarded the victory. As a result, Elliott notched his fourth victory of the year, becoming the first four-time winner of this season. It was his first at Pocono and his 17th career win in NASCAR’s premier series. This also marks the first time this season that an initial Cup winner was disqualified due to an issue stemming from the post-race inspection process.

“Yeah, unfortunately, we were doing our post-race inspections, which we do,” Brad Moran, NASCAR Cup Series managing director, said following the announcement. “There were some issues discovered that affect aero of the vehicle. The part was the front fascia. There really was no reason why there was some material that was somewhere it shouldn’t have been, and that does basically come down to a DQ. It is a penalty, both for the 11 of Denny Hamlin and the 18 of Kyle Busch have been DQed. Their vehicles are being loaded in the NASCAR hauler and they’re going to go back to the R&D Center [in Concord, North Carolina].”

Joe Gibbs Racing has been given until 12 p.m. ET Monday to file an appeal.

Tyler Reddick was promoted to second place while Suarez, Bell and Larson finished in the top five. McDowell, Truex, Wallace, Erik Jones and Austin Dillon completed the top 10. Notably, Ty Gibbs finished 16th in his Cup debut.

There were 15 lead changes for 10 different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 37 laps.

With five regular season races remaining this season, Chase Elliott continues to lead the regular season standings by 105 points over Ross Chastain.

Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, Joey Logano, William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez, Tyler Reddick, rookie Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe and Kurt Busch are currently guaranteed spots for the 2022 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning at least once throughout the regular-season stretch. Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. are above the top-16 cutline based on points. Kevin Harvick trails the top-16 cutline by 83 points, Aric Almirola by 140, Erik Jones by 182, Austin Dillon by 206, Michael McDowell by 207, Bubba Wallace by 236, Justin Haley by 247, Chris Buescher by 266, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. by 287 and Cole Custer trails by 301.

Results.

1. Chase Elliott

2. Tyler Reddick

3. Daniel Suarez

4. Christopher Bell, 14 laps led

5. Kyle Larson, 18 laps led, Stage 1 winner

6. Michael McDowell

7. Martin Truex Jr., two laps led

8. Bubba Wallace, four laps led

9. Erik Jones, 11 laps led

10. Austin Dillon

11. Alex Bowman

12. William Byron

13. Aric Almirola

14. Brad Keselowski

15. Chase Briscoe

16. Ty Gibbs

17. Cole Custer

18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

19. Corey LaJoie

20. Joey Logano

21. Justin Haley

22. Ty Dillon

23. Harrison Burton, four laps down

24. Noah Gragson

25. Todd Gilliland

26. Cody Ware

27. Kevin Harvick

28. JJ Yeley, one lap down

29. Chris Buescher, two laps down

30. BJ McLeod, two laps down

31. Austin Cindric, six laps down

32. Ross Chastain – OUT, Accident 16 laps led, Stage 2 winner (*Awarded after Kyle Busch’s disqualification)

33. Ryan Blaney – OUT, Accident, seven laps led

34. Josh Bilicki – OUT, Accident

35. Denny Hamlin – Disqualified, 21 laps led

36. Kyle Busch – Disqualified, 63 laps led

Next on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ second annual event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, which will also mark the series’ fourth road course event of this season. The event is scheduled to occur on Sunday, July 31, at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

July 24, 2022
Elliott captures first home Cup victory at Atlanta

The crowd inside Atlanta Motor Speedway was left cheering with pride and joy as Chase Elliott achieved his first victory on home turf following a wild and dominant run in the Quaker State 400 on Sunday, July 10. The 2020 Cup Series champion from Dawsonville, Georgia, led nine times for a race-high 97 of 260-scheduled laps and swept all three stages of the race.

During a three-lap dash to the finish, Elliott muscled his way from fourth to first before he fended off a valiant run by Corey LaJoie on the final lap to emerge out in front of the field with the caution flying for a multi-car wreck that involved LaJoie. From there, Elliott cruised back to the frontstretch to claim his long-awaited first win at his home track amid a chorus of cheers from the crowd.

With on-track qualifying that was initially set for Saturday canceled due to rain, the starting lineup was determined by NASCAR’s rulebook’s qualifying metric. As a result, Chase Elliott was awarded the pole position at his home track. Joining him on the front row was Ross Chastain.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Chastain received a strong push from Kyle Larson on the inside lane to jump to an early advantage as he led the first lap ahead of Elliott, Tyler Reddick and the field while Larson got loose entering Turn 4 and dropped out of the top 10. During the following lap, however, Elliott assumed the lead after overtaking Chastain’s No. 1 Jockey Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Turn 1 as he led the second lap before Chastain reassumed the top spot.

Through the first 10 scheduled laps and with the front-runners packed tightly in superspeedway formation, Chastain was leading followed by Ryan Blaney, Reddick, Denny Hamlin and Elliott while Alex Bowman, Michael McDowell, Chase Briscoe, Daniel Suarez and Chris Buescher were in the top 10. William Byron was in 11th followed by Kevin Harvick, Aric Almirola, Christopher Bell, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Justin Haley, Larson, Cole Custer and Kurt Busch. By then, Martin Truex Jr. was in 21st, rookie Austin Cindric was in 24th ahead of Bubba Wallace, Brad Keselowski was in 27th and Erik Jones was in 31st.

Ten laps later and with the 36-car field separated by 12 seconds, Chastain continued to lead ahead of a side-by-side duel between Hamlin and Blaney while Reddick and Elliott battled for fourth. By then, Kyle Busch challenged Bowman for sixth while Byron cracked the top 10.

Two laps later, Hamlin muscled his No. 11 Coca-Cola Toyota TRD Camry into the lead as he overtook Chastain on the outside lane with drafting help from Blaney’s No. 12 Wabash Ford Mustang. Another two laps later, Blaney used the outside lane to his advantage as he moved into the lead. With Elliott and Chastain battling for the runner-up spot, Hamlin settled back in fourth.

When the competition caution flew on Lap 25 and with the field fanned out to multiple lanes entering the frontstretch, Elliott, who managed to overtake Blaney during the previous lap, was scored the leader followed by Blaney, Reddick, Bowman and Hamlin while McDowell, Kyle Busch, Chastain, Bell and Byron were in the top 10. Prior to the competition caution, Hamlin made the slightest contact with Chastain through Turns 3 and 4 as Chastain briefly lost his momentum and dropped from the top five to the top 10.

During the competition caution, some of the drivers, led by Elliott, remained on the track while the rest of the field pitted. During the pit stops, Larson’s pit crew popped the hood of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to diagnose steering issues in the car while Bubba Wallace and Daniel Suarez had to back up for missing their mark toward their pit lanes. Following the pit stops, Truex was penalized for speeding on pit road.

When the race proceeded under green on Lap 30, Elliott assumed the lead and managed to retain the top spot when the field returned to the start/finish line despite being challenged by Blaney and teammate Alex Bowman.

Through the first 40 scheduled laps, Elliott remained as the leader followed by Blaney, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch and Bowman while Byron, Chastain, Reddick, Hamlin and rookie Todd Gilliland were in the top 10.

Eleven laps later and with the front-runners continuing to run in a tight, side-by-side pack, Blaney made his move through the backstretch to assume the lead as he led a lap for himself. Elliott, however, quickly returned to favor and reassumed the top spot entering the first two turns, leaving Blaney to settle in the runner-up spot in front of Bowman while Chastain and Hamlin battled for fourth place.

When the first stage concluded on Lap 60, Elliott managed to fend off a steaming pack of cars to claim his fourth stage victory of the season. Teammate Bowman settled in second followed by Chastain, Blaney, Byron, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Hamlin, Larson and Bell. By then, the top 17 competitors were separated by under two seconds.

Under the stage break, the leaders led by Elliott pitted and Reddick utilized a two-tire pit stop to his advantage as he exited with the lead followed by Chastain, Truex, Elliott and Bell.

The second stage started on Lap 66 as Reddick and Chastain occupied the front row. At the start and with the field jostling for positions in a tight, side-by-side pack, Reddick rocketed with the lead as he defended the field from the top to bottom lane to lead through the frontstretch before Chastain launched his challenge through the backstretch. Truex, however, drafted Reddick’s No. 8 Alsco Uniforms Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 back to the front as he commenced his challenge for the lead.

Then on Lap 70, Truex launched his No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota TRD Camry into the lead following a bold pass on the inside lane over Reddick through the first two turns as teammate Bell’s No. 20 Rheem Toyota TRD Camry followed in pursuit.

By Lap 75, Truex was ahead by a hair over Blaney followed by Bell, Reddick and Elliott while Hamlin, Chastain, Kurt Busch, McDowell and Larson were in the top 10. By then, the top-eight competitors were locked in a tight side-by-side battle as Truex and Blaney continued to duel dead even for the lead.

A few laps later, the caution flew for a three-car wreck that ensued on the backstretch and involved Ty Dillon, Chris Buescher and BJ McLeod. During the caution period, some led by Hamlin pitted while the rest led by Truex remained on the track.

When the race proceeded under green on Lap 83, teammates Truex and Bell dueled for the lead through the backstretch as Truex retained the lead with drafting help from Blaney. Shortly after, Blaney attempted to launch his bid for the lead on the inside lane, but Truex remained as the leader with the outside lane gaining the advantage as Elliott and Reddick moved up into the top three. Elliott, however, made his bid for the lead executed perfectly on Lap 86 as he overtook Truex on the inside lane and gained control of both lanes through the frontstretch.

Then on Lap 90, the caution flew when Truex slipped sideways off the front nose of Chastain as he spun and made contact against the outside wall between Turns 1 and 2. The incident between Truex and Chastain ignited a multi-car wreck that collected McDowell, Logano, Kyle Busch, Larson, Noah Gragson, Bell and Austin Dillon, whose No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 took a hard hit against the outside wall after being clipped by a spinning McDowell.

During the extensive caution period, most of the front-runners led by Blaney pitted while some led by rookie Harrison Burton remained on the track.

When the event resumed under green on Lap 98, Stenhouse, who spent the majority of the event having the hood of his car up during his pit stops, assumed the lead while Byron and Harrison Burton battled for the runner-up spot.

At the Lap 100 mark, Stenhouse was leading ahead of Burton while Byron, who briefly got loose entering the first turn, was in third. During the following lap, Burton received a draft from Byron to assume the lead and Todd Gilliland and Blaney made their move to the front. Another five laps later, Byron returned to the front as Reddick charged his way into the top five behind Stenhouse, Reddick, Burton and Gilliland. Not long after Byron assumed the lead, the caution flew when Buescher made contact with the outside wall in Turn 4 after blowing a right-rear tire.

When the event restarted under green on Lap 112, Byron and Stenhouse dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Byron received a push from Burton to clear the field and gain control of both lanes entering the frontstretch. Not long after, the field lapped Kyle Busch as Byron continued to lead ahead of Stenhouse, Reddick, Burton and Gilliland. During this process, Kurt Busch bolted his No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry into fourth place followed by Blaney while Burton and Gilliland fell back to sixth and seventh.

On Lap 119, Stenhouse briefly lost his momentum in Turn 1 and was slowly drifting out of the top 10 as Kurt Busch, Bell and Blaney made their way into the top five. By then, Byron remained the leader ahead of Reddick. McDowell also made an unscheduled pit stop under green to address a flat tire.

Eleven laps later and with most of the front-runners settling in a long single-file line, Byron continued to lead ahead of Reddick, Kurt Busch, Bell and Blaney while Burton, Gilliland, Erik Jones, Bowman and Elliott were in the top 10. By then, Keselowski was in 11th ahead of Chastain, Almirola, Corey LaJoie, Haley, Briscoe, Hamlin, Stenhouse, Daniel Suarez and Kevin Harvick. Wallace, Truex, Cindric and Larson were mired outside of the top 20.

Another seven laps later, the caution returned when Briscoe spun his No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford Mustang through the backstretch after cutting a right-rear tire. During the caution period, some, led by Erik Jones, pitted while the rest, led by Byron, remained on the track.

During a restart on Lap 142, Byron and Reddick dueled for the lead as Byron managed to make the outside lane work to his advantage again. Five laps later on Lap 147, Reddick made a bold move to the outside of Byron between Turns 1 and 2 to return to the lead followed by Blaney while Byron remained in hot pursuit for the lead on the inside lane.

Then with seven laps remaining in the second stage, Elliott navigated his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 from the bottom to the top and back to the bottom for a full lap as he returned to the lead followed by Reddick while Kurt Busch battled Blaney for third place. Meanwhile, Brad Keselowski made his way into the top five as he battled Blaney and Bowman.

Just prior to the start of the final lap of the second stage, the caution flew when Bowman, who was running towards the front, slipped sideways after cutting a right-rear tire and backed his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the outside wall entering the frontstretch, which his car came to a rest near the restart zone and needed assistance from a wrecker to return to his pit stall due to both rear tires on his car flat. The incident was enough for the second stage scheduled for Lap 160 to conclude under caution as Elliott claimed his fifth stage victory of the season. Reddick settled in second followed by Keselowski, Blaney, Kurt Busch, Bell, Burton, Byron, Chastain and Corey LaJoie.

Under the stage break, some led by Elliott pitted while others led by Cindric and Almirola remained on the track. Stenhouse, who had the hood of his No. 47 Kroger/Ball Park Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 pop up again, retired due to engine issues that had persisted in his car throughout the event.

With 95 laps remaining, the final stage started under green as Cindric and Almirola occupied the front row. At the start, Cindric and Almirola dueled for the top spot before Cindric benefitted on the outside lane with drafting help from Erik Jones. Harvick would soon join the battle and draft Jones clear of the field in the runner-up spot while Justin Haley and Chastain made their way into the top five.

Four laps later, the caution returned when Larson sent Ty Dillon into Garrett Smithley, which sent Smithley spinning entering Turns 3 and 4 and in front of a pack of cars as a number of competitors including Byron, Reddick, Gilliland, Keselowski, Wallace and Landon Cassill wrecked. The wreck spoiled strong runs being produced by Keselowski, Gilliland, Byron and Reddick, with the latter two retiring in the garage.

With 84 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Erik Jones received drafting help from Cindric on the outside lane to emerge out in front while Chastain fought back as the lead competitor on the inside lane. Four laps later, however, Chastain muscled his way into the lead on the inside lane while Elliott, LaJoie and Bell broke away from the pack and settled from second to fourth. Behind, Hamlin and Jones battled for fifth ahead of Cindric, Suarez, Harvick and Haley.

Nearing the final 70 laps of the event, the ninth caution of the event flew when Kyle Busch spun entering Turn 2 while Cody Ware, who was loose in Turn 2, ended up veering into the outside wall in the backstretch. Under caution, names like LaJoie, Suarez, Blaney, Logano and Kurt Busch pitted only for fuel while others like Chastain, Elliott, Hamlin, Bell, Truex, Erik Jones, Cindric, Harvick, Larson, Burton and Haley pitted for two fresh tires. Everyone else pitted for four tires.

With 66 laps remaining, the race proceeded under green as LaJoie made his way into the lead followed by Elliott and Chastain as the field duked and jostled for positions through multiple lanes.

Then with less than 60 laps remaining, the battle for the lead ignited between LaJoie and Elliott as both led a group of competitors stacked up through double lanes. Despite LaJoie’s persistence on the outside lane, Elliott managed to carve his way back to the lead as he cleared LaJoie with 55 laps remaining. By then, Truex was back in the race for the win as he battled LaJoie for the runner-up spot.

With 50 laps remaining, Elliott retained the lead ahead of Truex while LaJoie, Kurt Busch and Chastain were in the top five. By then, Blaney, Hamlin, Bell, Erik Jones and Suarez were in the top 10 as the top 18 competitors were separated by less than two seconds.

Ten laps later and with the field settling in a long single-file line, Elliott continued to lead ahead of Truex, LaJoie, Chastain and Hamlin while Bell, Blaney, Erik Jones, Haley and Cindric were scored in the top 10.

Another 15 laps later, the caution flew when Bell, who was running in sixth place, slipped sideways as he spun below the apron and through the frontstretch grass before he straightened his car through pit road. During the caution period, the situation went from bad to worse for Bell, whose left-rear tire came off as he was exiting his pit stall. Along with Bell, names like Wallace, Harvick, Gilliland, Kurt Busch, Almirola and Briscoe pitted under caution while the rest led by Elliott remained on the track.

Down to the final 19 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Elliott and Truex dueled for the lead until Truex received a strong push from Chastain on the inside lane to take the lead. With Truex clearing the field, Elliott and Chastain battled for the runner-up spot before Chastain attempted to make his move for the lead on the inside lane.

Three laps later, Elliott made his move to the inside of Truex through Turns 1 and 2 in a bid for the lead before Truex fought back on the outside lane as LaJoie made his way into the runner-up spot while Elliott fell back to third.

Then with 14 laps remaining, the caution flew when contact from Chastain sent Hamlin, who was running in fourth, spinning in Turn 4 as Keselowski also spun through the frontstretch grass to avoid hitting Hamlin.

Down to the final eight laps of the event, the race proceeded under green as Truex and LaJoie occupied the front row. At the start, Truex received drafting help from Elliott on the outside lane while LaJoie bolted his way into the lead on the inside lane with drafting help from Chastain. Just as the field led by LaJoie was approaching Turns 3 and 4, the caution quickly returned when Bell made contact with teammate Hamlin and Logano as all three collided and wrecked across the backstretch.

With the event set for a three-lap dash to the finish, the field restarted under green. At the start, LaJoie and Truex briefly dueled until LaJoie managed to pull ahead through the backstretch. Behind, Elliott, who restarted fourth, made a bold between Chastain and Truex as he launched his final bid for the lead and win. Then through the frontstretch, Elliott rocketed to the outside of LaJoie and he assumed the lead while Erik Jones and LaJoie battled for the runner-up spot in front of Chastain and Blaney.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Elliott was still leading ahead of LaJoie and Erik Jones. Then in Turn 1, LaJoie tried to make a move to the outside of Elliott, but Elliott fended off LaJoie’s charge as LaJoie, who got into the rear of Elliott, got loose and scraped the wall. After trying to keep his car straight, LaJoie veered sideways and barely clipped Blaney before he turned back across the outside wall and wrecked along with Kurt Busch and Cole Custer. The wreck was enough to conclude the event under caution as Elliott emerged out in front of Chastain and made his way back to the frontstretch for his first checkered flag at his home track.

In addition to claiming his first victory at his home track, Elliott became the first three-time winner of this year’s NASCAR Cup Series season as he recorded his 15th career win in his 240th series start. The Atlanta victory was the 16th for Hendrick Motorsports as Elliott joined a long list of icons, including his father Bill, to win a Cup race at Atlanta, Georgia.

“This one’s up there, for sure,” Elliott said on USA Network. “To win at your home track is a really big deal, I think, to any race car driver. I’ve watched a lot of guys do it over the years. Jimmie [Johnson] out in California. We haven’t really had a very good run here, so I felt like today was a great opportunity for us. Just so proud. This is home for me, home to a lot of great fans who made a lot of noise out today, home to NAPA. Couldn’t be more proud of the team. What a car. I’m not sure we’ve ever had a speedway car that good. If we had, I probably wrecked it at Daytona. What a few weeks it’s been. I felt like I gave one away last week [at Road America]. To come back and put on a performance like that, I’m really proud of that. Excited to get home. It’s gonna be a big one tonight. I’m looking forward to it.”

While Elliott was left beaming and saluting the crowd on the frontstretch, LaJoie, who was in position to achieve his first Cup victory, was left heartbroken on pit road as he concluded the event in 21st place and with a wrecked race car.

“[That was the] Closest I’ve ever been, for sure,” LaJoie said. “That was fun. I’m proud of my guys, Spire [Motorsports], RAZE Energy, Built Bar, Schluter, everybody that’s helped us out. It was nice to have [the car] out in the wind for once. I made my move, didn’t work out. [Elliott] made a good block and the siren’s ringing in Dawsonville. Unfortunately, I wished that granny in the front row over there wouldn’t have been clapping so much. I wished that No. 7 car was going to Victory Lane. We keep running like this, more consistently, that time will come…I was having some fun. I know that. Hopefully, we can have that No. 7 car up front more often.”

Chastain settled in second place after finishing in second at Atlanta earlier in March while Cindric came home in third place. Erik Jones earned his second top-five result of the season by finishing fourth while Blaney finished fifth.

“I hated I took the best car here and I tore it a couple of times,” Chastain said. “It’s incredible. Hats off to Chevrolet and Trackhouse [Racing] for bringing this fast of a Jockey Chevrolet. To be able to come back, our road crew and pit crew did an awesome job. To rebound through all the damage repairs. We had a shot and I got inside of [Elliott] coming off of [Turn] 2, coming to the checkered, and the caution came out…Almost gave it to us.”

Suarez, Haley, Almirola, Custer and Harrison Burton completed the top 10 on the track.

There were 27 lead changes for 12 different leaders. The race featured 13 cautions for 64 laps.

With seven regular-season races remaining this season, Chase Elliott leads the regular-season standings by 47 points over Ryan Blaney and 50 over Ross Chastain.

Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, William Byron, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, Daniel Suarez, Kurt Busch, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman and rookie Austin Cindric are currently guaranteed spots for the 2022 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning once throughout the regular-season stretch while Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr. and Christopher Bell are above the top-16 cutline based on points. Kevin Harvick trails the top-16 cutline by 19 points, Aric Almirola trails by 42, Erik Jones, trails by 76, Austin Dillon trails by 116, Michael McDowell trails by 117, Justin Haley trails by 149, Chris Buescher trails by 163, Bubba Wallace trails by 178, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. trails by 190 and Cole Custer trails by 200.

Results.

1. Chase Elliott, 96 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

2. Ross Chastain, 32 laps led

3. Austin Cindric, seven laps led

4. Erik Jones, 10 laps led

5. Ryan Blaney, two laps led

6. Daniel Suarez

7. Justin Haley

8. Aric Almirola

9. Cole Custer

10. Harrison Burton, nine laps led

11. Martin Truex Jr., 27 laps led

12. Kevin Harvick

13. Kyle Larson

14. Bubba Wallace

15. Michael McDowell

16. Chase Briscoe

17. Todd Gilliland

18. Brad Keselowski

19. Christopher Bell

20. Kyle Busch

21. Corey LaJoie, 19 laps led

22. Kurt Busch, one lap down

23. Cody Ware, one lap down

24. Landon Cassill, one lap down

25. Denny Hamlin, one lap down, two laps led

26. Joey Logano – OUT, Dvp

27. Garrett Smithley, eight laps down

28. Ty Dillon – OUT, Dvp

29. Tyler Reddick – OUT, Accident, 13 laps led

30. William Byron – OUT, Accident, 41 laps led

31. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Engine, two laps led

32. Alex Bowman – OUT, Dvp

33. Chris Buescher – OUT, Accident

34. Noah Gragson – OUT, Suspension

35. Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident

36. BJ McLeod – OUT, Accident

Next on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ lone annual visit of the season to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire. The event is scheduled to occur on Sunday, July 17, at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.

July 10, 2022
Kyle Busch Motorsports to surpass 750 combined Truck Series starts at Mid-Ohio

With the 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular season stretch reaching its conclusion, Kyle Busch Motorsports is set to surpass a milestone start in the team’s 13th season in Truck competition. When KBM drivers Corey Heim, John Hunter Nemechek and Chandler Smith compete in this weekend’s inaugural event at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, KBM will surpass a combined 750 career starts in the Truck Series.

Kyle Busch Motorsports debuted in the NASCAR Truck Series in 2010 with trucks purchased from Roush Fenway Racing and assets acquired from Xpress Motorsports as the team headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina. By then, Busch had campaigned in seven part-time seasons in the series while accumulating 16 victories, all occurring with Billy Ballew Motorsports.

For the 2010 season, Kyle Busch Motorsports planned on fielding three trucks: one that would be split between Busch and Brian Ickler, another that would be driven on a full-time basis by Taylor Malsam and a third that would be piloted by former champion Johnny Benson Jr. pending additional sponsorships. Prior to the start of the season, however, Miccosukee Resorts, one of Busch’s key Truck sponsors that initially followed him to KBM from Billy Ballew Motorsports, terminated its partnership with NASCAR and left Busch without a full-time sponsor throughout his part-time campaign. In addition, Benson’s role was limited to a part-time status as he shared the No. 18 Toyota Tundra entry with Busch, Ickler and Kasey Kahne while the second KBM entry, the No. 56 Toyota Tundra that was piloted by Malsam, was terminated following the first seven events. Despite the rocky start, it only took the first four events of the season for Kyle Busch to record the first victory for KBM at Nashville Superspeedway in April 2010. Busch went on to achieve victories at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, Bristol Motor Speedway and Chicagoland Speedway in August, New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September, Talladega Superspeedway in October and at Texas Motor Speedway in November, all occurring in the No. 18 entry. After winning the season-finale event at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November following a four-lap shootout, Busch captured the 2010 Truck Series owners’ championship on the strength of eight victories in 16 starts throughout the 25-race schedule. In total, KBM achieved eight victories, six poles, 16 top-five results and 21 top-10 results in its first season in NASCAR competition.

For the team’s second season in 2011, Busch fielded the No. 18 Toyota Tundra as the primary, “all-star” entry that was split between himself, Kasey Kahne, Brian Ickler, Josh Richards and Denny Hamlin. Busch also fielded the Nos. 15 and 51 entries that both campaigned in limited events and was shared between Kimi Räikkönen, German Quiroga and Richards. Throughout the 2011 Truck season, Busch notched six victories in 16 starts, Kahne won at Darlington Raceway in March and Hamlin notched his first Truck victory at Martinsville Speedway in October, all occurring in KBM’s No. 18 entry. Despite accumulating a total of eight victories, two poles, 16 top-five results and 18 top-10 results throughout the 25-race schedule, the No. 18 entry settled in second place in the final owners’ standings behind the No. 2 Kevin Harvick Inc. entry.

Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR.

The 2012 Truck season was a difficult season for Kyle Busch Motorsports despite the team fielding the No. 18 Toyota Tundra on a full-time basis for a third consecutive season while the No. 51 Toyota Tundra competed the final five scheduled events with Quiroga and Hamlin behind the wheel. At the start of the season, veteran Jason Leffler piloted the No. 18 Toyota as the team’s primary competitor, but was released in August after only recording six top-10 results through the first 10 events. For the remainder of the season, the No. 18 entry was split between Busch, Hamlin, Brian Scott, Kurt Busch, Drew Herring and David Mayhew. After going winless for the majority of the season, Hamlin recorded the first victory of 2012 for KBM when he piloted the No. 51 Toyota to a win at Martinsville in October. Two races later, Scott overtook rookie Kyle Larson during a two-lap shootout to wheel the No. 18 Toyota to a late victory at Phoenix Raceway in November. In the end, KBM capped off the season with Busch being edged by Cale Gale in a photo finish at Homestead as Busch concluded a Truck season winless for the first time since 2004.

In 2013, Kyle Busch Motorsports fielded three full-time entries for the first time in the team’s history with the No. 51 Toyota Tundra entry becoming the team’s “all-star” entry that was piloted between Busch, Erik Jones, Chad Hackenbracht, Scott Bloomquist and Hamlin throughout the 22-race schedule. For the new season, the No. 18 Toyota Tundra entry was taken sole possession by full-time competitor Joey Coulter while KBM’s No. 54 Toyota Tundra entry debuted for newcomer Bubba Wallace. Through the first 20 events, the No. 51 entry visited Victory Lane four times, all with Busch. At Phoenix in November, Jones became the youngest winner in the series at age 17 years, five months and nine days after recording his first career victory in KBM’s No. 51 truck. During the following weekend at Homestead, Busch survived three late-race restarts to capture his fifth win of the 2013 season and clinch the owners’ title for his No. 51 entry in a tie-breaker against ThorSport Racing’s No. 88 entry piloted by the 2013 drivers’ champion Matt Crafton. Meanwhile, the No. 18 entry that was piloted by Coulter achieved a total of five top-10 results and a 15th-place result in the final drivers’ standings while the No. 54 entry managed to earn a trip to Victory Lane at Martinsville in October as Wallace became the first African-American competitor to win in the Truck Series. To go along with his first Truck career victory, Wallace capped off his first full-time campaign in the series with a pole, five top-five results, 12 top-10 results and an eighth-place result in the drivers’ standings.

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Photo by Gary Buchanan for SpeedwayMedia.com.

The 2014 season was a breakout year for Kyle Busch Motorsports, which featured Busch and Erik Jones splitting driving responsibilities of the No. 51 Toyota Tundra while Bubba Wallace returned as the driver of the No. 54 Toyota Tundra. In total, KBM won 14 of the 22 races to the schedule as Busch and Jones, both of whom earned a combined 10 victories, guided the No. 51 entry to the team’s third owners’ championship. Wallace piloted the No. 54 truck to four victories, two poles, nine top-five results and 14 top-10 results as he finished in third place in the final drivers’ standings.

A month following the conclusion of the 2014 season, Kyle Busch Motorsports unveiled its driver lineup for the 2015 season with Erik Jones headlining the lineup as he was promoted to a full-time Truck Series campaign in the No. 4 Toyota Tundra while newcomer Justin Boston replaced Bubba Wallace, who graduated to the Xfinity Series with Roush Fenway Racing, in the No. 54 Toyota Tundra. Meanwhile, KBM’s No. 51 Toyota Tundra team remained as an “all-star” entry that was split between Busch, Daniel Suarez, Matt Tifft and Christopher Bell. Early in the season, Suarez and Tifft served as the primary competitors of the No. 51 entry with Busch recovering from injuries sustained in a late multi-car wreck during the Xfinity season-opening event at Daytona in February. Boston, however, was released by KBM nine races into the new season due to a breech of contract involving the driver and his sponsor Zloop. With Boston out, the No. 54 entry was split between Tifft, Cody Coughlin, Gray Gaulding, Bell and Busch, who returned to full-time competition in May. Despite the early season drama for KBM, Bell captured his first career victory at Eldora Speedway in July following a two-lap shootout while Busch piloted the No. 51 truck to two victories at Pocono Raceway and at Michigan International Speedway between July and August. Meanwhile, Jones earned victories at Iowa Speedway in June, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in August and at Texas Motor Speedway in November. To go along with five poles, 11 top-five results and 20 top-10 results, Jones claimed the 2015 Truck Series championship following a sixth-place result at Homestead and by 15 points over Tyler Reddick and 22 over Matt Crafton. With Jones’ accomplishment, Kyle Busch Motorsports achieved its first drivers’ championship along with its fourth owners’ title in NASCAR.

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The 2016 Truck Series season featured another new driver lineup for Kyle Busch Motorsports as Bell, coming off his first career victory at Eldora, replaced Erik Jones, who moved up to the Xfinity Series with Joe Gibbs Racing, as the driver of the No. 4 Toyota Tundra while William Byron, the reigning ARCA Menards Series East champion who made his Truck debut with KBM at Phoenix in November during the previous season, piloted the No. 9 Toyota Tundra. The No. 51 Toyota Tundra entry was split between Daniel Suarez, Cody Coughlin, Jones and Gary Klutt throughout the season while the No. 18 KBM entry made a total of five starts between Busch, Coughlin and Harrison Burton. Throughout the season, Busch wheeled the No. 18 truck to victories at Martinsville in April and at Chicagoland Speedway in September while Suarez drove the No. 51 Toyota to his first Truck career victory at Phoenix in November. The No. 9 Toyota team piloted by Byron achieved great success throughout the season with the Charlotte native earning his first career victory at Kansas Speedway in May after dodging a final lap incident involving Johnny Sauter and Ben Rhodes. He went on to win at Texas and Iowa Speedway in June followed by Kentucky Speedway in July as KBM became the winningest team in the Truck Series with 51 victories. After Byron won at Pocono in July, he established a new record for achieving the most victories by a rookie Truck competitor with five. After qualifying for the inaugural 2016 Truck Playoffs, he won the first postseason event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September and utilized consistency to transfer all the way to the Playoff’s Round of 6. Byron’s title hopes, however, came to an end at Phoenix in November after his No. 9 entry suffered an engine failure with 10 laps remaining while he was leading, which prevented him from earning a ticket to the Championship Round at Homestead. Nonetheless, he went on to win the season-finale event at Homestead for his unprecedented seventh victory of the season as he wrapped up both the 2016 Rookie-of-the-Year title and the fifth career owners’ title for KBM. In comparison to Byron and the No. 9 team, Bell and the No. 4 team rallied from a rocky start to generate a consistent regular season run, including a victory at Gateway in June, to qualify for the Playoffs. Bell remained consistent throughout the Playoffs to make it all the way to the Championship Round at Homestead and contend for the drivers’ title. During the finale, however, Bell finished in eighth place on the track and in third place in the final drivers’ standings.

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For the 2017 season, Kyle Busch Motorsports retained Bell as driver of the No. 4 Toyota Tundra while welcoming Noah Gragson as a full-time competitor of KBM’s No. 18 Toyota Tundra. Busch remained as a part-time competitor of his No. 51 Toyota Tundra as he split the ride with rookies Harrison Burton, Todd Gilliland and Myatt Snider while also debuting the No. 46 Toyota Tundra for a total of four events, with himself and Gilliland earning two events apiece. Busch earned a total of three victories throughout the 2017 Truck season: two in the No. 51 entry at Kansas and at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May and one in the No. 46 entry at Bristol Motor Speedway in August. In addition, the No. 51 team earned a total of nine top-10 results and settled in fourth place in the final owners’ standings. For the No. 18 entry, Gragson earned his first career victory at Martinsville in October following a late duel with former champions Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter. To go along with three poles, four top-five results and 13 top-10 results, Gragson finished in 10th place in the final drivers’ standings and in his first full-time Truck campaign. For Bell, who entered the season as a potential title favorite, he achieved five victories along with five poles, 15 top-five results and 21 top-10 results as he made his second consecutive appearance both in the Playoffs and in the Championship Round at Homestead. During the finale, Bell finished in the runner-up spot on the track and captured the 2017 Truck Series drivers’ championship over Sauter, Austin Cindric and Crafton. With his first championship in NASCAR, Bell recorded the second drivers’ championship and the sixth owners’ title overall for KBM.

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During the following season, Busch retained Gragson in the No. 18 KBM Toyota Tundra while Todd Gilliland contended for the 2018 Truck Rookie-of-the-Year title in the No. 4 Toyota Tundra, thus replacing Bell as Bell became a full-time Xfinity competitor for Joe Gibbs Racing. Gilliland, however, missed four of the first six events due to age restrictions and spent the early portions of the season splitting the No. 4 Toyota with his father David, Busch and newcomer Spencer Davis while Davis, Busch, David Gilliland, Harrison Burton, Brandon Jones, Riley Herbst, Logan Seavey and Christopher Bell took turns piloting the No. 51 Toyota Tundra. The No. 46 KBM Toyota Tundra also returned for a total of six events that was split between Brandon Jones, Herbst and newcomer Christian Eckes. Throughout the season, the No. 46 entry’s best on-track result was third at Charlotte in May made by Jones while the No. 4 entry achieved a season-best result of second place at Gateway in June with Todd Gilliland, who finished in 10th place in the final drivers’ standings. The No. 51 entry went to Victory Lane twice during the season with Busch at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March and at Pocono in July while Gragson wheeled the No. 18 entry to a dominant win at Kansas in May. Despite being absent at Pocono due to illness, where he was replaced by Erik Jones, Gragson utilized consistency to qualify for the 2018 Truck Playoffs and transfer all the way to the Championship Round at Homestead, where he settled in the runner-up spot in the final drivers’ standings.

The 2019 season featured Harrison Burton replacing Noah Gragson, who graduated to the Xfinity Series, as the driver of Kyle Busch Motorsports’ No. 18 Toyota Tundra while Todd Gilliland remained as a full-time driver of the No. 4 Toyota Tundra. Meanwhile, the No. 51 Toyota Tundra entry returned as the “all-star” entry that was split between Busch, Eckes, Brandon Jones, Greg Biffle, Chandler Smith, Alex Tagliani and Riley Herbst. The No. 46 Toyota Tundra entry returned for a total of seven events that was split between Herbst, Smith and Raphaël Lessard. In comparison to recent seasons, KBM endured a difficult 2019 season as both Burton and Gilliland did not make the Playoffs. While Burton finished in 12th place in the final drivers’ standings with no victories and 11 top-10 results, Gilliland managed to record his first Truck career victory at Martinsville in October along with 14 top-10 results before settling in 11th place in the final standings. With the No. 46 entry finishing no higher than fourth at Gateway in June made by Chandler Smith, the No. 51 entry won six of the 23-scheduled events: five with Busch and one with Biffle. To go along with a total of 15 top-five results and 17 top-10 results throughout the 23-race schedule, the No. 51 entry managed to capture the 2019 Truck owners’ title as KBM achieved its seventh owners’ championship in NASCAR.

Photo by Brad Keppel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

For the following season, Kyle Busch Motorsports introduced new drivers to the Nos. 4 and 18 entries as Harrison Burton moved up to the Xfinity Series with Joe Gibbs Racing while Todd Gilliland moved over to Front Row Motorsports. The No. 18 Toyota was taken over by Christian Eckes while Raphaël Lessard took over the No. 4 Toyota. The No. 51 Toyota also returned as Busch, Brandon Jones, Chandler Smith, Riley Herbst and Alex Tagliani took turns to drive the truck throughout the season. In his first full-time campaign in the series, Eckes qualified for the 2020 Truck Playoffs, but was eliminated from title contention following the Round of 10 as he ended up in eighth place in the final drivers’ standings with no victories and 11 top-10 results. Lessard, on the other hand, did not make the Playoffs, but he managed to capture his first career victory at Talladega in October along with a total of seven top-10 results before finishing in 12th place in the final standings. Meanwhile, the No. 51 entry went to Victory Lane four times: three with Busch and once with Brandon Jones, who captured his first elusive series win at Pocono in June. To go along with a total of 10 results in the top five, the No. 51 entry settled in sixth place in the final owners’ standings.

This past season, Kyle Busch Motorsports welcomed John Hunter Nemechek as the driver of the No. 4 Toyota Tundra, where he replaced Lessard, while Chandler Smith replaced Christian Eckes as a full-time competitor of the No. 18 Toyota Tundra. The No. 51 Toyota Tundra remained as the “all-star” entry for a ninth consecutive season as the truck was piloted between Busch, Drew Dollar, Parker Chase, Martin Truex Jr., Corey Heim, Brian Brown, Derek Griffith and Dylan Lupton throughout the 22-race schedule. Three races into the new season, Nemechek recorded his first win with KBM at Las Vegas in March before the No. 51 entry visited Victory Lane during the following two events: the first with Busch at Atlanta and the second at the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Course with Truex, who claimed his first Truck career victory. Not long after, Nemechek fended off Busch to win at Richmond Raceway before Busch capitalized on a late restart to win at Kansas. Those five victories followed by three additional victories by Nemechek capped off a strong regular season stretch as Nemechek, who claimed the regular season championship, and Chandler Smith qualified for the 2021 Truck Playoffs. During the Playoffs, Smith claimed his first Truck career victory at Bristol in September to advance from the Round of 10 to 8 along with Nemechek. During the Round of 8, Smith’s title hopes evaporated while Nemechek was able to earn enough points through consistency to secure a spot in the Championship 4 finale at Phoenix Raceway. An early tire issued, however, derailed Nemechek’s title hopes as he ended up in third place in the final drivers’ standings while Smith won the finale and captured the 2021 Truck Rookie-of-the-Year title. Meanwhile, the No. 51 entry settled in 10th place in the owners’ standings.

This season, Kyle Busch Motorsports retained John Hunter Nemechek and Chandler Smith as drivers of the Nos. 4 and 18 entries, respectively. In addition, Corey Heim returned with an expanded part-time Truck schedule as he split the No. 51 entry with Kyle Busch and Buddy Kofoid. Through the first 14 scheduled events, all three KBM entries have visited Victory Lane at least once, with Smith winning at Las Vegas in March, Nemechek winning at Darlington in May, Busch winning at Sonoma Raceway in June and Heim recording his first two career victories in the series at Atlanta in March followed by Gateway in June. Heim is scheduled to take over the No. 51 entry for the remainder of the season as he contends for the 2022 Truck Rookie-of-the-Year title while Nemechek and Smith, both of whom are pursuing their first championship in NASCAR, are guaranteed spots for the 2022 Truck Playoffs.

Photo by Simon Scoggins for SpeedwayMedia.com.

Photo by David Myers for SpeedwayMedia.com.

Through a combined 749 Truck starts, Kyle Busch Motorsports has achieved two drivers’ championships, a record seven owners’ championships, 95 victories, 63 poles, 276 top-five results, 439 top-10 results and 13,196 laps led with 51 different competitors making at least one start for the organization.

Kyle Busch Motorsports is primed to surpass 750 career starts in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Saturday, July 9, with coverage to occur at 1:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

July 6, 2022