1. Kyle Busch: Busch passed Ryan Blaney late at Phoenix to win the TicketGuardian 500 to complete the weekend sweep at ISM Raceway.
“Richard Petty’s 200 wins is on my radar,” Busch said. “And I plan on smashing that record and staking my claim as the best NASCAR driver in history. I won’t call myself the ‘King,’ and my name’s not Richard, but people already see me as the biggest ‘Dick’ in NASCAR.”
2. Joey Logano: Logano finished 10th at Phoenix and is now second in the Monster Energy Cup points standings.
“Kyle Busch is one win away from matching Richard Petty’s 200 wins,” Logano said. “I think this is a great promotional opportunity for Goody’s Powders, because Kyle has traditionally been one of NASCAR’s biggest headaches.”
3. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex finished second at Phoenix as Joe Gibbs Racing took three of the top five spots, with Kyle Busch winning.
“Hats off to Kyle Busch,” Truex said. “He won the Xfinity race on Saturday, and capped the weekend with Sunday’s win, giving him the sweep. It seems like every week Kyle is a threat to pull off the sweep. The last time a broom was this prominent in NASCAR, Teresa Earnhardt was riding it.”
4. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin took fifth in the TicketGuardian 500 at Phoenix.
“I score a hole-in-one on the golf course last week,” Hamlin said. “It was on a par 3, and the club I used was a tire iron.”
5. Kevin Harvick: Harvick finished ninth at Phoenix and is third is the points standings, nine out of first.
“How about that Daniel Suarez-Michael McDowell altercation on Friday during qualifying?” Harvick said. “Those guys were heated! I guess starting 27th on the grid was a big deal to them.”
6. Kurt Busch: Busch finished seventh at Phoenix.
“My Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Daniel Suarez took down Michael McDowell with a body slam,” Busch said. “I think McDowell deserved a right hand to the chin. How do I know? Because of all the drivers in NASCAR, I know what a punchable face looks like.”
7. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski finished 19th at Phoenix, hampered by an early tire issue that left him unable to contend for the win.
“I blew a tire and slammed the wall during Stage 1,” Keselowski said. “That really caused some issues with the front end. So, for the second time this season, I had a problem with ‘bodily functions.’”
8. Kyle Larson: Larson finished sixth at Phoenix, earning his second top 10 of the season.
“NASCAR moved our year-end awards banquet from Las Vegas to Nashville,” Larson said. “That’s surprising, because I’ve always heard you can get more bang for your buck in Las Vegas.”
9. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: Stenhouse finished 13th at Phoenix.
“Hailie Deegan is an up-and-coming 17-year-old female driver,” Stenhouse said. “Her aim is to be better than Danica Patrick. Someone should ask Danica what she thinks about this, but it won’t be me, because I’m afraid to pop the question.”
10. Aric Almirola: Almirola finished fourth at Phoenix, the top finish among Stewart-Haas Racing drivers.
“Stewart-Haas is winless so far this year,” Almirola said, “but it’s no time to panic. Maybe a short pep talk would be helpful, like these words from Tony Stewart, NASCAR’s poet laureate, ‘You mo fo’s need to find your mo jo’s.’”
Kyle Busch sweeps the weekend at ISM Raceway to win the TicketGuardian 500 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
“Man, that makes last week feel so much stupider (after Busch lost the chance at a sweep at his hometown of Las Vegas when he was penalized for speeding on pit road). I wish we could have swept last week too. That would have been pretty awesome to start this season with two sweeps in a row,” said Busch, who led a race-high 177 of 312 laps on Sunday.
Busch faced a late race charge to pass pole sitter and Stage One winner Ryan Blaney, who was in fuel conservation shortly after, and held off a fast charging teammate Martin Truex Jr. in the closing laps.
“I knew before we went back green (on the last run), that we were going to be right on the verge (of running out of fuel),” Busch said. “You got to go race hard first and then you have to worry about fuel afterwards.”
Truex marched through the field in the last green flag run, but ran out of time to finish second, putting Joe Gibbs Racing in the top-two spots.
“We were at least second-place car at the end, I felt,” Truex said. “We deserved to be up there.”
Despite grabbing the pole, running strong across all practice sessions and winning the first stage, a mishap on pit road for the third race in a row put Blaney behind in the second half of the race. Last minute pit strategy put him in great contention for the win but he finished third. This was the first top five of the season for the No. 12 team after starting the year finishing 22nd or worse in the opening three races.
“I was kind of riding, trying to save tires, trying to save gas,” said Blaney, who opted for two tires and track position on his final stop. “I think [Busch] was kind of riding back there, too. He knew what situation I was in. I started to get real tight and we got to lapped cars and I was done.
“It definitely was a good weekend after the start of the year we had. A good day, the day we needed. We’ve been poised to have days like this and contend for wins and it just hasn’t happened this year. This is what we deserve.”
Aric Almirola and Denny Hamlin completed the top five. Kyle Larson, Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano round out the top 10. To the shock of many, Harvick did not lead a lap throughout today’s race. Busch takes over the points lead from Joey Logano.
Blaney Claims a Caution-Filled Stage One
At the start of the race, Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott started side-by-side, but on the initial start, Elliott beat Blaney by a nose to the line as the field took the green. That is a rule violation for the initial start, so Elliott had to serve a pass-through penalty. Elliott was technically out front for the opening couple laps, but Blaney was credited as the leader for the first 30 laps. Elliott stayed on the lead lap, about five seconds in front of the leaders.
On Lap 37, Erik Jones had reported a vibration, as his right-rear tire let go and the No. 20 Toyota slapped the outside wall. The damage looked minimal, so the Joe Gibbs Racing driver brought his vehicle to pit road for service and he continued on in the race. Everyone visited pit road, with a few drivers electing for two tires. Two penalties were handed out for speeding to Martin Truex Jr. and Ryan Newman.
On the restart, four tires appeared to dominate over two tires, but as the run went on it appeared that two tires didn’t lose much ground in the long run compared to the competitors taking four tires. Later in the run, Brad Keselowski reported something mechanical broken on the car as he spun through the turn. Ryan Preece was close to collision, but was able to avoid the wreck with a last second maneuver.
When the field took the green with only a handful of laps left in the first stage, Blaney elected to take the top lane to reclaim the lead. In the middle of the field, everyone was aggressive to grab what positions they could on the restart, even racing four-wide in the first turn. Blaney would win the first stage over Aric Almirola and Joey Logano.
Kyle Busch Dominates the Second Stage
The pit road strategy continued into the second stage as drivers elected a little of everything. Some teams stayed out, Ty Dillon was first off pit road with fuel only, some cars took two tires and others took four. After the shuffle was complete, Keselowski would claim the Lucky Dog and get the free pass, but with an extended stay on pit road would go back one lap down. Daniel Suarez would be the other car one lap down after a stall on the track during a yellow flag session.
The field took the green with the front dozen staying on track, and Kyle Busch would claim the top spot from Denny Hamlin five laps into the run. With three laps to go, Bowman had a tire failure and kept it off the wall, but not off the track in time and the yellow flag was displayed. There was no free pass because Bowman was the first car one lap down but brought out the yellow flag. Kyle Busch would claim the second stage over Clint Bowyer.
Strategies Shuffle During Final Stage at ISM Raceway
On the restart, the field scattered even more as the middle of the pack went four-wide, two deep on the first lap. A lap and a half in, McDowell had a mechanical failure that resulted in a flat tire going into Turn 3. The car hit the outside wall, and the race went back under yellow. He would later report that he had a stuck throttle on the back stretch.
“As I got on the back straightaway the throttle pedal was gone. I was just wide open,” McDowell said. “I tried to jam on the brakes as hard as I could. I was just trying to do everything I could to get it shut off, and yeah, really unfortunate for us today.”
The field took the green flag with just under 150 laps to go, and everyone took this restart much more calmly. Kyle Busch continued to lead over Bowyer, Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Logano with 20 cars on the lead lap.
The right side tire failures continued throughout the day as Bowman lost another right front going into Turn 3 on Lap 193. This time around, the damage looked fatal when he came to pit road.
As the race approached 100 laps to go, the various strategies started to surface. Johnson took two tires and was running second when battling with Bowyer. Harvick’s team worked on his car all day and found themselves in fourth. Elliott realized he had a problem and spun through Turn 3 but made no contact with the wall. Under yellow, everyone elected to come to pit road. Austin Dillon took fuel only, about 10 cars took two tires and the rest of the field took four fresh tires.
As the field took the green, Hemric stayed out of pit road and led the field to the green. The field was five-wide at one point, and Ryan Preece would spin to hit the inside wall on the backstretch. Keselowski also collected some damage from scraping the inside wall avoiding Preece. At this point, many drivers and teams started to communicate about fuel strategy, since everyone would be close on fuel with the remaining distance of the race.
A short green flag run ended when Preece dropped some debris in Turn 1 to bring out the yellow quickly once again. Hemric, Harvick and Bowyer brought their race cars to pit road. Almirola led for the next restart, but the first stage winner, Ryan Blaney, was able to get around the No. 10 on the outside and lead once again. Blaney was out front up until 15 laps to go, when Kyle Busch was able to reel him in and pass him for the win and held off a late race charge from Martin Truex Jr. as Blaney was on fuel conservation. Quin Houff placed 30th and Bayley Currey placed 31st in their series debuts.
The next race for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will be held at Auto Club Speedway on March 17 for the Auto Club 400.
As the laps ticked away, it seemed two tires would be enough to win the day at Phoenix. Then Kyle Busch was added to the equation.
As one of the few cars that pitted under the seventh caution of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series TicketGuardian 500, Blaney used the two new right-side tires, and three subsequent restarts to run down and pass race leader Aric Almirola with 60 laps to go.
“I fired off really good,” he said.
After Kyle Busch passed him with 55 to go, he reeled in Blaney, who was conserving fuel and tires.
Despite this, Blaney maintained a small advantage over Busch with less than 30 to go. With 20 to go, however, the handling of his car went to the tight side and four laps later, Busch passed him on the inside of Turn 2 and cleared him going into Turn 3.
Throw in lap traffic, and Blaney was “just done.”
“Honestly, we hung on better there on two tires than I thought we would,” he said.
“I think (Busch) was kind of riding back there too. I don’t think he was in the situation I was in (fuel saving), but then I started to get real tight.”
The remaining laps, he went into fuel save mode and came home third. It’s his best finish of the season to date and first top five and top 10 finish in 2019. He also led 94 laps and won a stage.
The only hiccup was when he pitted a second time under caution for loose lug nuts.
“Shame we couldn’t get Money Lion and Ford a win, but definitely a good weekend, after the start we’ve had. This is where this team deserves to run.”
Blaney leaves Phoenix 12th in points, 64 back of new points leader Busch.
Ryan
Truex captured second place in Saturday’s Xfinity Series iK9 Service Dog 200 at ISM Raceway, tying his series career best
finish.
It was Truex’s debut in the No. 8
JR Motorsports Chevrolet and his first Xfinity Series start this season. He had
a strong showing this weekend, making it to the final round of qualifying to
start ninth.
It
was an encouraging beginning for the 26-year-old who has struggled to find a top-tier
team where he could showcase his talent. In 2018, his first full season in the
series, Truex made it through to the Playoffs with Kaulig Racing and finished
12th in the year end standings. But, the two-time K&N Pro Series East champion found himself out of
a ride when the team replaced him with Justin Haley for the 2019 season.
Truex
took a gamble this year, opting to run a part-time schedule with JR Motorsports
rather than opt for a possible full time ride with a less proven team. The down
side is that he will have to share driving duties in the No. 8 with Ryan
Preece, Jeb Burton, Spencer Gallagher and Zane Smith. His next scheduled race
will be at Kentucky Speedway on June 12.
However,
it looks as though the gamble is already paying off.
As
Truex said regarding his second place finish, “I guess it’s good when you
lose to Kyle Busch.”
He
also talked about the challenges of racing a part-time schedule.
“Felt good (to get back out there.) I kind of spent
the first stage learning. It’s been a while since I’ve been in one of these
cars. Well, not a while but it feels like a
while. “Took a little bit to get my bearings and we were behind the 8-ball
taking off and we were pretty free,” Truex explained. “I’m just proud
of the team for being as young of a team as it is and Taylor (Moyer) being a
first-time crew chief in these cars to make the right adjustments and we got
the right restarts and in the right lanes and the car was just badass.”
But more than anything else, Truex feels like his
talent has been validated.
“It’s one thing to say you can do it. It’s one thing for everybody to think you can do it. But to go out and prove it feels really good.”
Follow @angiecampbell_ for the latest NASCAR news and feature stories.
The NASCAR Xfinity series competed at ISM Raceway Saturday for the iK9 Service Dog 200 and this race showed who the big dog is that everyone is chasing after.
Kyle Busch in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota just dominated the race leading four times for 116 of the 200 total laps. Early on it seemed as if Christopher Bell in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota would be able to challenge Busch but when he ran into trouble it was clear sailing for Busch.
“Christopher (Bell) was certainly going to give me a run for my money today,” Busch stated, “I can’t say enough about our guys at Joe Gibbs Racing, obviously they build really fast Supras.”
He added, “I want to thank the fans. It’s always cool to come out with Rowdy Nation and having their support, and everyone that backs us. Congrats to all these guys who work so hard to get me where I’m at.”
Stage 1 had only one caution in it when the No. 17 of Bayley Curry hit the wall. Some of the drivers opted to pit while others stayed out. Austin Cindric took advantage of the caution staying out and winning the stage.
Stage 2 went caution free and saw Bell and Busch battle for the lead. Halfway through the stage, Bell took the top spot and the stage win setting up what would be a great battle to the finish line. However, it wasn’t meant to be today.
The final stage saw Busch leading and Bell in second when the No. 01 of Stephen Leicht appeared to have an engine let go causing a huge plume of smoke. When the smoke cleared the No. 7 of Justin Allgaier had damage from tagging the wall, but Bell’s car was heavily damaged from hitting the wall and his day ended early.
Ryan Truex had a great day in the No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet bringing it home in second place.
“I guess it’s good when you lose to Kyle Busch.” Truex commented, “ Our car was just so good in the long runs. I was able to hold Tyler Reddick off and finish second. He added, “ I’m thankful to JR Motorsports for this opportunity, it felt good to be back up here.”
Tyler Reddick, Cole Custer and Austin Cindric round out the top five. Chase Briscoe, Brandon Jones, Michael Annett, John Hunter Nemechek, and Ryan Sieg finished sixth through 10, respectively.
Reddick is leading the NASCAR Xfinity Series Standings with 169 points, Bell is second with 165 points and Custer is in third with 158 points. Annett is in fourth with 147 points and Brandon Jones rounds out the top five with 147 points.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads next to the Auto Club Speedway on Saturday, March 16.
With a lap time of 25.480 seconds, Ryan Blaney captured his sixth career pole for Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
Blaney was also fastest in practice earlier in the day after only 10 laps on track with a slightly faster time at 25.403. He was the only driver to break the 25.4 second bracket in both first practice and qualifying on Friday.
“Nice to get our first pole of the year,” Blaney shared on Twitter. “Really great to have Money Lion with us for their first Cup race.”
Chase Elliott will share the front row for Sunday’s race. Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski complete the top five qualifying positions.
Alex Bowman and William Byron will start sixth and seventh respectively, putting three of the four Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet cars in the final round of qualifying.
Kevin Harvick, defending race winner, will go for his 10th career victory at the Arizona 1-mile oval, and start from the eighth position.
Martin Truex Jr. and Erik Jones finish the top-10 starting spots. Rookie Daniel Hemric will start his No. 8 Okuma Chevrolet in 11th place.
The 2018 MENCS Champion, Joey Logano, will start from 12th place, the last position of the final round of qualifying.
Kyle Larson was third fastest in practice, but had terrible track position during the first round of qualifying. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to continue past the first round, and will start in 31st on Sunday. Bayley Currey was the only driver that elected not to run a timed lap.
A lot of attention went to pit road shortly after the first session when Daniel Suárez and Michael McDowell had a brief fight. Crew members eventually broke up the fight, and the two would eventually calm down to have a more civil conversation about the on-track altercation.
“I always have my helmet when I get in and out (of the race car), just an old habit,” McDowell shared with Jamie Little from FOX Sports. “Just miscommunication on the race track. We all kinda waited until the end and then we just had a lot of traffic. Just unfortunate. He was upset that I held him up on his good lap, and then he tried to crash us. I just didn’t appreciate it.
“It’s just ‘heat of the moment’ stuff. It’s racing. These shorter practice sessions, shorter qualifying, getting late going through tech, intensity ramps up so it’s all a part of it.”
Suárez felt disrespected by the No. 34 driver’s racing etiquette.
“Just lack of respect,” after Vince Welch from FOX Sports asked for Suárez’s take on the altercation. “Track position is very big in races these days, and you have to qualify well to have a good stall on pit road, and obviously to have a good start in the race. The race is long, so we can overcome that, but just a lack of respect. Everyone here in the garage knows the second lap is a good one. You have to try to get out of the way if somebody is coming into a hot lap, and he didn’t. He killed me in one corner. I thought he would get out of the way in that second corner, and he didn’t and I almost wrecked him.
“He was disappointed because I was trying to wreck him afterwards, but that’s about racing.”
Coincidentally, McDowell (27th) and Suárez (28th) will start together from the 14th row on Sunday.
The TicketGuardian 500 will be on television on FOX or over radio with MRN on Sunday, March 10 with the green flag scheduled to wave at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
YRB in PHX! Retweet to congratulate Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 team on their POLE. pic.twitter.com/hjwngqSRom
The Pennzoil 400 had the most green flag passes across the field and most green flag passes for the lead over the past five races. While we’ve had a couple of races with the new package, the reception has been mixed. There’s a good variety of tracks coming up that will help get a better overall understanding of where that is compared to last year.
Joey Logano stopped the weekend sweep of Kyle Busch by winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday. Busch, who won both the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series and the NASCAR Xfinity race, sped on pit road and recovered to finish third on Sunday. Keselowski put on a late race charge to win back to back Cup races.
Here are this week’s By The Numbers.
0 – This was technically a caution-free race when excluding stage cautions. Logano mentioned in the media center after the race that he wasn’t that surprised. This was the first caution-free race since the fall race at Talladega in 2002.
2 – There were two very interesting and possibly controversial penalties on front runners Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon. It was also (probably) the number of fingers that actually touched the pavement by Larson’s crew member.
4 – Four drivers shuffled four positions in points. Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr. moved up four spots with Logano taking over the points lead. Clint Bowyer and Ryan Newman dropped four spots, with Newman outside of the cutoff line for the Playoffs.
52 – Kevin Harvick was the fastest car on track for 52 out of the 267 laps. That’s just shy of 20 percent for the Stage One winner. He’s also going to a track where he’s won five of the last 10 times.
129 – It was on this lap that Kyle Busch knew he… well, you can finish the rest. The speeding penalty on Lap 129 while coming on pit road was one of Busch’s rare mistakes that potentially cost him the triple sweep.
3,345 – Total number of green flag passes in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 according to NASCAR’s official loop data. This was more than the five previous races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
5.0 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. holds the best average start at 5.0 in the first three races of the Cup season.
23.4 – Aric Almirola’s average start at ISM Raceway over the last five races is 23.4. His average finish improves to 11.8, one of the best start to finish improvements across all active drivers.
100% – Kevin Harvick is the only active driver that has finished 100 percent of the laps in the last 10 races at ISM Raceway.
375 – In the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, Matt Crafton is the only competitor to complete all 375 total possible laps for the 2019 season. They have a big break before returning to racing action at Martinsville Speedway at the end of the month.
149 – Christopher Bell has led 149 total laps this season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, one shy of doubling that of second place full-time Xfinity driver Tyler Reddick (Kyle Busch has led 98 laps but is competing for the Cup Series championship).
6 – If Kevin Harvick wins this weekend’s Cup race at ISM Raceway, he will become the sixth driver in NASCAR Cup history to win 10 or more times at a single track.
The Sun is setting on the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. The championship will be decided on Sunday. But for the third time in four years, NASCAR demonstrated inconsistent officiating in a pivotal Playoff race at ISM Raceway.
Yesterday Kurt Busch was held a lap for passing the pace car on pit entry.
“When following the caution vehicle during a caution period, drivers must maintain their position in relation to other vehicles in the field or as otherwise directed by NASCAR and will not be permitted to pass other vehicles or the caution vehicle when preparing to enter pit road.”
I don’t take issue with the enforcement of the rule. By the letter of the law, Busch was in violation of passing the pace car on pit entry. What I take issue with, however, is its inconsistent application.
Earlier in this same race, Chase Elliott appeared to (TV camera cut from an aerial shot to a ground shot) have passed the pace car when he hit pit road.
It *looks* like Chase Elliott came pretty close to passing the pace car at the end of the first stage — what Kurt Busch just got penalized for.
While that’s ambiguous, this one from March at Phoenix isn’t.
It’s close, but Kurt Busch passed the pace car heading to pit road in the 2018 spring race at Phoenix and didn’t get penalized. pic.twitter.com/fRSg1Kptze
I looked up the penalty report from the Phoenix race in March, and Busch wasn’t penalized for passing the pace car on pit entry.
While it was more blatant yesterday than in March, that’s a missed call on NASCAR’s end. And one could argue that it put Busch in the position that led to him being taken out in a wreck.
And this isn’t the first time this has happened. Two years ago, Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr. were dinged for this same thing. In the race at Phoenix earlier that year, however, NASCAR no-called Carl Edwards for the same thing.
This is a screenshot from pit stops earlier this season at Phoenix.
Given the layout of the pit road entrance at most tracks (particularly Phoenix and Darlington Raceway), passing the pace car is unavoidable.
I understand that things will sometimes slip through the cracks, but it’s an incredibly bad look on NASCAR when there are multiple examples through the season of cars not being penalized for passing the pace car on pit entry.
And keep in mind that this is the third time in the last four years in which NASCAR made inconsistent penalty calls in the November race at Phoenix.
It also doesn’t help that this comes a week after NASCAR mistakenly sent Jimmie Johnson to the rear of the field at Texas Motor Speedway for failing pre-race tech inspection multiple times (except he didn’t fail a third time, which would’ve resulted in that). Now to NASCAR’s credit, they came out after the race and said it was “unacceptable” and that they dropped the ball.
NASCAR, I can live with you either enforcing the “pulling up to pit” rule 100 percent of the time or not at all. The “somewhere in between” amount, however, has to stop. If not, we run the risk of it marring Sunday’s championship race.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series visited the newly reconfigured ISM Raceway, formerly known as Phoenix International Raceway. It was the final race in the Round of 6 in order to set the stage for the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Southern Florida.
The race saw some familiar faces up front and it was interesting throughout the race, where drivers who were in a must-win situation were actually leading the race but fell short in the end.
Here’s a look at this week’s power rankings from ISM Raceway.
1. Brett Moffitt – After having a couple of weeks of strong finishes, Moffitt and the No. 16 team returned to victory lane this past weekend. He won Stage 1, led 16 laps and finished second in Stage 2. With a late race caution, Moffitt found himself in contention for the win. He made a pass for the lead after the restart and held on to win the final three laps for his fifth victory of the season. It was Moffitt’s first since his thrilling victory at Michigan in the summer. It’s been a dream season for Hattori Racing and Moffitt, who are now locked into the championship race.
Previous Week Ranking: 2nd
2. Noah Gragson – From a somewhat dismal finish last week at Texas, Gragson rebounded and followed it up with a dominant performance at ISM, but fell one spot short of winning. He sat on the pole and led the first 32 laps. Gragson overslid his pit stop during a caution early and lost several spots. In Stage 1, he finished second with an eighth-place finish in Stage 2. It took him a little while to get back up front, but Gragson was the leader again on Lap 136. He had to fend off a hard charging Grant Enfinger who was also fighting for a spot in the championship. At one point, Gragson was out of the championship race, but came back and finished second ahead of Enfinger. It will be his first championship appearance.
Previous Week Ranking: Fell Out
3. Stewart Friesen – It was a quiet night for the No. 52 Halmar Racing driver who finished fifth. Friesen finished third in both stages and earned his eighth top ten of the season. Furthermore, he expressed his displeasure with the zones on pit road and NASCAR.
Previous Week Ranking: Not Ranked
4. Grant Enfinger – An A for effort for Enfinger. He came into the night in a must must-win situation and he almost pulled it off. After qualifying 12th, Enfinger finished sixth in Stage 2. At times he had a better truck than Gragson as he led twice for 10 laps. With a late race restart, Enfinger found himself in contention for the win. He had the lead for a split second, but Moffitt and Gragson got around him, while Enfinger ultimately finished fourth. It wasn’t enough for the No. 98 Thorsport team as he fell short of advancing to the championship race. Nonetheless, a strong finish and year for Enfinger.
Previous Week Ranking: Not Ranked
5. Harrison Burton – Burton qualified third and finished third, making his seventh start of the season this past weekend at ISM Raceway. He topped the speed charts for both practices and it showed during the race. Burton took the lead on Lap 49 and led for 94 laps. Burton finished fourth in Stage 1 and won Stage 2, ending the race in third place.
Previous Week Ranking: Not Ranked
Fell Out
1. Johnny Sauter – Sauter started 14th and finished seventh after finishing eighth in Stage 1. It was another dismal finish and week for the No. 21 team who were strong a couple of weeks ago.
2. Myatt Snider – Snider has had decent showings a couple of weeks in a row, but he was off this weekend. No top-10 stage finish and he wound up 22nd, three laps down. It was a forgettable week for the No. 13 team.
3. Todd Gilliland – Like Snider, no top-10 stage finish for Gilliland and he was caught up in an accident early on Lap 28, and could never rebound. Ultimately, Gilliland finished 17th.
4. Justin Haley – Haley finished sixth and fourth in both stages, but an oil leak prevented him from having a strong finish. He finished 28th after starting in second place.
Kyle Busch won at ISM Raceway in the Can-Am 500 as the Championship 4 is set for the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series. It was his eighth victory of the season and the 51st of his Cup career.
“I’d like to think it gives us a lot (of momentum), but I don’t know – talk is cheap,” said Busch in the newly designed Gatorade Victory Lane, a part of the $178 million renovation project at the 1-mile raceway. “We’ve got to be able to go out there and perform and just do what we need to do. Being able to do what we did here today was certainly beneficial. I didn’t think we were the best car, but we survived and we did what we needed to do today. It’s just about getting to next week and once we were locked in, it was ‘all bets are off and it’s time to go.’”
Adam Stevens, crew chief for the No. 18 M&Ms Toyota, and team owner Joe Gibbs addressed the media as they head into the final race of the 2018 season.
“Well, I think it’s important to come into the last race firing on all cylinders,” Stevens said about today’s victory. “And it’s hard to do that when you’re just riding around trying to score points. It’s not like we were throwing caution to the wind by any means. The job that we set out to do is to win the championship, and to do that you’ve got to beat them all.”
Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano will join Busch in the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Logano crashed early in the race and did not join the others in the press conference.
“We just got a little bit of luck, a little bit of ‘right place, right time’ kinda thing,” Truex shared when discussing the various wrecks that happened in front of him. “One last hurrah next week and we’re gonna go give ’em all we got.”
“I think we have a chance every time we show up,” Harvick shared assessing his chances to win his second career Cup championship. “Our guys are doing a great job. Obviously, to accomplish everything we did this weekend was quite the feat without your crew chief and car chief, but Tony Gibson and Nick did a great job filling in. Everybody kept their head about them and we were competitive all weekend.”
William Byron also locked up the Rookie of the Year standings with his ninth-place effort.
“I take away my growth as a person and our growth as a team,” Byron told the media. “I think of road course races were really good. I feel like I’m in a good position for next year.”
Harvick-Chase Battle Creates Early Drama in Stage 1
The first two stages were split by 75 laps each. The remaining 162 laps would be scheduled for the final stage. As the green flag dropped, Harvick would show the way early, but throughout most of the run, Elliott was within a second of him. After the race last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, most of the bottom four drivers were in a must-win situation. But since Wednesday’s announcement of Harvick’s penalty, there was hope for some drivers to possibly sneak in on points.
About 20 laps into the race, Elliott started inching his way closer to the rear bumper of Harvick, but as they started to approach lapped traffic, Harvick looked to claw his way through the field better and was able to put some distance between them. Elliott was completely silent on the radio, presumably happy with the handling of his Napa Chevrolet.
With three laps to go, tragedy struck for Harvick as he had a flat tire and had to come to pit road. Elliott inherited the lead and won Stage 1. Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch also finished in the top-10 and gained valuable bonus points. Elliott won the battle off pit road. Paul Menard stayed on pit road as the team lifted the hood and appeared to begin examining the engine. Harvick ended up going one lap down, and since he pit after pit road was closed (two laps to go in the stage), he was not eligible for the free pass under yellow, or the wave-around. At this point, Harvick and Truex would be knocked out of the Championship 4; Truex and Kurt Busch were tied in points, but Busch wins the tie-breaker with a better finish because he was second at this time, despite Truex finishing third at Martinsville.
Kurt Busch Shows Strength in Stage 2
On the restart, Kurt Busch fought hard on the outside to take over the lead from Chase Elliott. Elliott then had to fight off Ryan Blaney for a couple of laps but eventually settled into the second position.
With about 55 laps to go in the stage, Harvick made his way into the “Lucky Dog” position. One lap later, Joey Logano got a flat left-rear tire and crashed going into Turn 1. He is already locked in with his win at Martinsville, but this helped Harvick get himself back onto the lead lap. However, the carnage was just beginning.
Clint Bowyer crashes at the entrance to Turn 3, then drives away. Photo by Rachel Schuoler for Speedway Media.
With roughly 30 laps to go, Clint Bowyer crashed to bring out the yellow, ending his championship hopes. On pit road, lots of strategies took place, including a penalty. Roughly eight of the lead lap cars elected not to pit, but most of the other leaders came to pit road. Kurt Busch was caught passing the pace car and served a one-lap penalty.
It was addressed in the driver’s meeting, and we’ve seen similar penalties throughout the year. When entering pit road, the leader usually accelerates to create a gap between their car and the cars behind, a slight advantage that can be huge in certain circumstances. However, the leader is not allowed to pass the pace car before entering pit road. In this case, the nose of the No. 41 Haas Automation Ford was just ahead of the pace car before the first yellow line signaling the start of pit road. Even though he was in the lead at the time of the yellow, and won the battle off pit road, he would be served a penalty that would put their team one lap down.
Kyle Busch was one of the first cars out with fresh tires. He easily took over the top spot a couple of laps into the restart, winning Stage 2. Martin Truex Jr. finished third, and Kevin Harvick battled his way back up to the fourth position, making the “Big 3” the big discussion once again. Some of the leaders stayed out, preventing a “free pass” car and keeping Kurt Busch one lap down. Other drivers on older tires came to pit road for either two or four tires.
Championship Contenders Go Wild in the Final Stage
The field races through the new Turns 3 & 4 after one lap taking the green flag for a restart at ISM Raceway. Photo by Rachel Schuoler for Speedway Media.
With 160 laps to go, Kyle Busch would keep the lead ahead of Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney. At this time, most of the championship contenders were running in the top-11, except for Logano and Bowyer, who was out of the race. Kurt Busch was still stuck one lap down in the “Lucky Dog” position.
Green flag pit stops began as the race approached 85 laps to go. During some of the pit stops, including while Harvick was on pit road, Tanner Berryhill spun at the entrance of pit road. He did a great job of correcting the car to continue on, but not before NASCAR had to throw a yellow flag. The rest of the field came to pit road, but Elliott sped on pit road, forcing his No. 9 car to the rear of the field. Kurt Busch was the “Lucky Dog”, but most of the field elected for the wave-around.
On the restart, the Playoffs started to come into play for every point possible. We saw the field go three, even four wide in the dogleg. Blaney slowed suddenly and came to pit road. Harvick continued to claw his way up along with teammate Kurt Busch. As the two were getting around the lapped car of David Ragan, he appeared to slip entering Turn 3. Harvick misjudged his speed and got into the rear of Ragan and spun him out to bring out the sixth caution flag. A couple of drivers were toward the end of the field, but Kyle Busch visited pit road so his crew could examine some minor damage as he was outside of Harvick during that contact.
The field took the green again for a few laps, and just when the race seemed to mellow for a brief moment, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. took a hard hit to the outside wall in Turn 1. The rear end of the car was completely destroyed and even a brief fire ensued while he was still spinning. NASCAR displayed the red flag for 10 minutes with so much fluid coming from the No. 17. At this time, Kurt Busch was one point ahead of Harvick for the fourth and final Championship spot. However, that would quickly change.
As the field took the green, Erik Jones started to the inside of Kurt Busch but Jones got loose in the middle of Turns 1 & 2, forcing Busch up the track slightly. No harm was done, but Denny Hamlin made an aggressive move to get by both drivers. He couldn’t clear Busch in time and pinched him in the wall. However, with the championship on the line, Busch didn’t back out and stayed in the throttle. As he bounced off the wall, he continued to collide with Hamlin, eventually spinning him out and collecting Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott along the backstretch. That eventually ended the day for Busch as the damage clock expired, and his brother Kyle Busch officially locked himself into the Championship 4 on points. Elliott rejoined the track and was able to maintain minimum speed, but ran three laps down in the 24th position.
The sun sets behind the grandstands as Kyle Busch pulls away to his 51st career NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series win. Photo by Rachel Schuoler for Speedway Media.
The Cup drivers went racing again with about 30 laps to go. However, with all the nose damage on Bowman’s No. 88 Chevrolet, he went up in a ball of fire and smoke at the end of the frontstretch, causing him to crash in Turn 2 alongside pit entrance. NASCAR had to throw another red flag to clean up the incident. At this point, Harvick was back in the good on points. Aric Almirola was the only other driver left that could steal a spot in the Championship 4 if he won at ISM Raceway. Almirola was running fourth at the time when the field went back under yellow. Some of the leaders elected for a pit stop, including Kyle Larson, who took four tires and would restart in the eighth position.
This restart would be the first time for the Cup Series facing speedy dry in Turns 1 and 2. On Friday night, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race had a restart with speedy dry in the first set of turns that prevented Grant Enfinger from getting a strong restart against Noah Gragson and Brett Moffitt. However, this wouldn’t faze Kyle Busch as he pulled away from a hard-charging Almirola but he got a second chance as Berryhill crashed to bring out another caution flag on the track.
With about 15 laps to go, the field took the green flag but Almirola appeared to just not have the right setup to run with Kyle Busch on the outside. Brad Keselowski tried to push him through to the front, but that caused Almirola to go wide through Turns 1 and 2. Keselowski was able to get by both him and Harvick to put a late race charge toward the lead, but there just wasn’t enough time to catch Busch.
“It certainly feels really good,” Busch said in the media center after celebrating his win with the fans. “It feels good to go off into next week with a win under our belt and hopefully do it again.”
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race Unofficial Race Results for the 31St Annual Can-Am 500 – Sunday, November 11, 2018 ISM Raceway – Avondale, AZ – 1 Mile Paved
