Amidst the sea of crew members and race fans lay three scenes of interest. At one end of pit road, Kevin Harvick hugs his family and crew members. At another end, Ross Chastain smashes a watermelon to celebrate his race victory. Finally, at the center of attention is the runner-up finisher. Surrounded by photographers, fellow drivers and eventually race fans, Ryan Blaney exits his car to a storm of confetti as the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion.
The 75th season of NASCAR concludes with the changing of eras.
The curtain call on the Winston Cup era
After a seventh-place finish at his playground of Phoenix Raceway, Harvick hangs up his helmet and transitions to calling NASCAR races for FOX Sports. His retirement severs the last connection to the Winston Cup Series era.
Sure, there are several drivers from the mid to late 2000s still active, but Harvick was the last full-time driver from the season-long points era.
In other words, the drivers of my childhood are gone.
My childhood hero, Jeff Gordon, retired just before I joined the media corp. Tony Stewart, NASCAR’s ultimate smartass, retired in my first season on the NASCAR beat. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth*, rookies when I started following NASCAR, retired in 2017.
*Yes, I know Kenseth raced in 2018 and 2020, but that was in substitution roles.
Finally, Harvick, an A-type personality who took over the ride of the late Dale Earnhardt, rides off into the sunset with a career that’s frankly on par with “The Intimidator.” Not necessarily numbers-wise, but like the man in black, he established himself as a member of his generation’s elite drivers.
Harvick finishes 10th on NASCAR’s all-time wins list (60), the champion of the 2014 season and five Championship 4 appearances. He’s a first-ballot entry into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Somewhere in the racing afterlife, I imagine Earnhardt sporting his signature Chesire grin at his replacement.
The young guns
When I started covering NASCAR in 2016 and even into 2017, the scuttlebutt of who’s gonna fill the shoes of the stars permeated the airwaves of SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Cut to Sunday, and the roar of fans drowns out Blaney’s SportsCenter hit.
The young guns who replaced the older stars fit their shoes. Chase Elliott, Gordon’s (initial) replacement is NASCAR’s most popular driver, until one of Earnhardt Jr.’s daughters joins the Cup Series. William Byron, Gordon’s next replacement, made the Championship 4. Christopher Bell, Kenseth’s replacement, did the same two years in a row. Larson is the only driver to win both the Knoxville Nationals and Cup Series championships in the same year.
Now Blaney, one year removed from a winless season, hoists the Bill France Cup.
Of this group, only Larson is over the age of 30.
And there’s more youth coming up the NASCAR pipeline.
As the late George Jones sang, “Who’s gonna fill their shoes?”
Yeah, I think we can put those fears to rest now.
The future
Is the present perfect?
No. Not by a long shot.
But as I wrote, on Saturday, there’s reason for optimism about NASCAR’s future. Sunday at Phoenix Raceway encapsulated that the waning star power we feared in the late 2010s is a solved problem.
For now, we take a much-needed vacation and do this all again in February.
As Ross Chastain concluded the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season on a strong note by winning the season-finale NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, November 5, Ryan Blaney captured the main spotlight by winning his first NASCAR Cup Series championship with a runner-up finish and by outdueling title rivals Kyle Larson, William Byron and Christopher Bell on the track.
The 29-year-old, third-generation Blaney, who was born in Hartford, Ohio, but grew up in High Point, North Carolina, led two of 312-scheduled laps in a finale where he started the deepest of the four championship finalists in 15th place, but used the long runs to his advantage as he methodically carved his way through the field and found himself mixed within the battle for the title against Byron, Larson and Bell. With Bell falling out of contention amid an early incident and Blaney left to battle against two Hendrick Motorsports competitors for the title for the remainder of the finale, Blaney continued to persevere against the competition, even against a multitude of non-title contenders vying for the finale victory.
Despite being overtaken by both Larson and Byron during the final pit stop during a caution period with less than 40 laps remaining, Blaney, who restarted inside the top 10 during the final restart with 31 laps remaining, drove his way back to the front and overtook Larson for both the runner-up spot and the lead in the championship battle with 20 laps remaining. From there, Blaney managed to pull away and remain ahead of Larson by more than a second for the remaining scheduled laps as he crossed the finish line in the runner-up spot behind race winner Chastain and captured his first championship in his eighth full-time season in NASCAR’s premier series.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, November 4, title contender William Byron notched his fourth Cup pole position of the 2023 season and the 12th of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 132.597 mph in 27.150 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Martin Truex Jr., who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 132.509 mph in 27.168 seconds. Byron’s title rivals, which included teammate Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney qualified fourth, 13th and 15th, respectively.
Before the event, Brad Keselowski dropped to the rear of the field after being absent during Saturday’s qualifying session due to his wife going into labor, which resulted in this year’s Xfinity Series champion Cole Custer qualifying Keselowski’s No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing entry.
When the green flag waved and the finale commenced, William Byron rocketed ahead with the lead over Martin Truex Jr. as the field fanned out through the frontstretch’s dogleg and the first two turns. With the field still fanning out through the backstretch, Byron proceeded to lead the first lap while Kevin Harvick challenged Truex for the runner-up spot followed by a hard-charging Kyle Larson.
Then as Larson used the dogleg in an attempt to overtake both Harvick and Truex for the runner-up spot during the following lap, Harvick and Larson continued to battle for the runner-up spot through the first two turns while Bubba Wallace battled and overtook Truex for fourth place. As Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney tried to muscle their way into the top 10, Byron retained the lead by a steady margin over Harvick and teammate Larson through the fifth lap.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, title contender Byron was leading by more than a second over Harvick followed by teammate/title contender Larson, Wallace and Denny Hamlin as Truex, Ross Chastain, Erik Jones, Tyler Reddick and rookie Ty Gibbs were in the top 10. Behind, Ryan Preece and Chris Buescher were running in 11th and 12th followed by title contenders Bell and Blaney while Kyle Busch occupied 15th place in front of Daniel Suarez, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Michael McDowell and Austin Dillon. Meanwhile, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was in 21st ahead of Alex Bowman, Aric Almirola, Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland while Brad Keselowski, Chase Briscoe, Carson Hocevar, Austin Cindric and AJ Allmendinger were mired in the top 30 ahead of Justin Haley, Corey LaJoie, Ty Dillon, JJ Yeley, BJ McLeod and Ryan Newman.
Ten laps later, Byron stabilized his advantage to a second over Harvick while third-place Larson trailed by more than three seconds. As Wallace and Truex continued to run in the top five on the track, title contenders Bell and Blaney were still mired back in 13th and 14th, respectively. Byron would continue to lead by more than a second over runner-up Harvick and by more than three seconds over teammate Larson by Lap 30 while Bell and Blaney were mired back in 11th and 14th, respectively.
At the Lap 40 mark, Byron retained the lead by more than a second over Harvick. Behind, Wallace overtook Larson for third place followed by Chastain, Truex, Buescher, Erik Jones and Hamlin. Meanwhile, Bell cracked the top 10 as he was up to 10th place while Blaney battled Tyler Reddick for 11th place.
By Lap 50, Byron’s advantage decreased to six-tenths of a second over runner-up Harvick, who started to gain ground on the former’s lead and used the inside lane through the turn to gain even more ground amid lapped traffic, while third-place Wallace trailed by a second. Behind, Larson was back in fifth after being overtaken by Chastain, Bell was running ninth behind Erik Jones and Blaney was battling Hamlin for 10th.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 60, title contender Byron fended off a late charge from Harvick to claim his ninth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season and to strike first in his bid for his first Cup title. Harvick settled in second place after following Byron by four-tenths of a second followed by Chastain, Wallace and Larson while Buescher, Truex, Erik Jones, Bell and Blaney were scored in the top 10 on the track. By then, all four championship finalists that included Byron, Larson, Bell and Blaney were scored in the top 10.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Byron pitted for the first service of the afternoon. Following the pit stops, Byron retained the lead after exiting pit road first from the first pit stall ahead of Harvick and Chastain while Larson, Buescher, Wallace, Truex, Blaney, Bell and Hamlin followed suit. Amid the pit stops, Kyle Busch and BJ McLeod were sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.
The second stage period started on Lap 68 as Byron and Harvick occupied the front row. At the start, Byron retained the lead from Harvick and Chastain as the field fanned out through the frontstretch’s dogleg before navigating their way through the first two turns and the backstretch. With Byron maintaining the lead through the frontstretch, Harvick and Chastain battled for the runner-up spot ahead of Larson and Wallace while Blaney moved up to sixth as Bell battled Buescher for seventh. Blaney would proceed to overtake Wallace for fifth place as Bell followed suit in sixth, leaving both to gain ground on Larson for fourth place. Meanwhile, Byron retained the lead in both the race and the championship battle by seven-tenths of a second over Harvick at the Lap 75 mark.
Just past the Lap 80 mark, Byron extended his advantage to more than a second over Harvick followed by third-place Chastain, who trailed by two seconds. Behind, title contenders Larson, Blaney and Bell occupied fourth through sixth on the track while Wallace, Buescher, Truex and Hamlin were running in the top 10 ahead of Erik Jones, Daniel Suarez, Chase Briscoe, Reddick, and Ryan Preece. Byron would retain the lead by six-tenths of a second over Harvick and by a second-and-a-half over third-place Chastain by Lap 90 while Larson, Bell and Blaney retained fourth through sixth, respectively.
Then on Lap 93, Harvick used the outside lane through the first two turns and entering the backstretch to rocket past Byron and move his No. 4 Busch Light Harvick Ford Mustang into the lead. Harvick would proceed to stretch his advantage by more than half a second over Byron while third-place Chastain tried to close in on Byron for the runner-up spot.
At the Lap 100 mark, Harvick was leading by more than a second over Chastain followed by Byron, who now trailed the lead by one-and-a-half seconds but continued to lead the championship battle. Behind, however, Blaney moved up to fourth place and started to close in on Byron for the championship lead while Bell and Larson occupied fifth and seventh, respectively, on the track. With Buescher running sixth, Truex, Wallace and Erik Jones were in the top 10 while Hamlin, Suarez, Briscoe, Reddick and Keselowski followed suit in the top 15.
Five laps later, Blaney drew himself into a side-by-side battle with Byron for third place on the track, but for the lead in the championship battle. After spending the next two laps battling Byron for the spot, Blaney managed to muscle his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang past Byron’s No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through Turns 3 and 4 assuming both third place on the track and the lead in the championship battle. By then, title contenders Bell and Larson trailed in sixth and seventh, respectively, while Harvick continued to lead the race over Chastain.
Shortly after, the caution flew after Bell, who was running in sixth place and had radioed braking concerns a few laps earlier, went dead straight toward the outside wall in Turns 3 and 4 after his brake rotor exploded as he scraped and heavily damaged the right side of his No. 20 DeWalt/Rheem Toyota TRD Camry. The incident all but evaporated Bell’s hopes of winning this year’s Cup Series championship as he retired from the race in 36th place, dead last.
Photo by David Myers for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“That was my first time I’ve ever exploded a rotor in my career,” Bell, who ended in fourth place in the final championship standings, said in the infield care center on NBC. “I was surprised. Just obviously a disappointing way to end, but super, super proud of this No. 20 team, all of our partners DeWalt, Rheem. To be in the Final Four, it’s something that we’re really proud of. It stinks to not have the shot at the end of it. Obviously, we were all four [title contenders] really close and we all four showed strengths at different times, so I think it’s gonna be a great championship race. Whoever’s [the championship] is his is gonna be well-deserving.”
During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Harvick pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Harvick retained the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Chastain, Byron, Buescher, Larson, Truex and Blaney.
With the race restarting under green on Lap 116, the field fanned out through the frontstretch’s dogleg as Harvick maintained the lead over Chastain and Byron. Through the first two turns and the backstretch, Buescher would move into third place and Chastain would move into the lead over Harvick while Byron was in fourth ahead of Truex, Larson, Erik Jones and Blaney. As the field navigated through the frontstretch, contact was made between teammates Briscoe and Preece as Preece slipped up the track. With the field still fanned out to four lanes through the dogleg, Chastain maintained the race lead over Harvick and Buescher while Byron, who was in fourth, retained the lead in the title battle over teammate Larson and Blaney.
Just past the Lap 125 mark, Chastain was leading by half a second over Harvick followed by third-place Buescher, who trailed by more than a second, while Byron retained the lead in the championship battle in fourth place. Behind, Truex occupied fifth place ahead of title contenders Larson and Blaney while Wallace, Erik Jones and Hamlin were scored in the top 10 ahead of Suarez, Keselowski, Carson Hocevar, Kyle Busch, Logano and Reddick.
Fifteen laps later, Chastain continued to lead by nearly eight-tenths of a second over Harvick followed by Buescher and Truex while Byron, who continued to lead the championship battle, fell back to fifth place in front of title rivals Larson and Blaney. Meanwhile, Austin Cindric, who got into the wall earlier, was on pit road and mired multiple laps down in 35th place.
At the halfway mark on Lap 156, Chastain was leading by nine-tenths of a second over Buescher followed by Harvick and Truex while Byron maintained the lead in the championship battle while running fifth place on the track ahead of Blaney and Larson. Meanwhile, Wallace, Erik Jones and Keselowski occupied the remaining spots in the top 10 on the track while Suarez, Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Hocevar, Logano, McDowell, Bowman, Ty Gibbs, Aric Almirola and Austin Dillon were running in the top 20 ahead of Reddick, Chase Elliott, Preece, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Briscoe.
Fourteen laps later, Chastain’s advantage decreased to two-tenths of a second over Buescher, who started to gain ground on the former for the top spot, while third-place Harvick trailed by three seconds. As Truex retained fourth place, Byron continued to lead the title battle and retain fifth place in front of Blaney and Larson. A lap later, Buescher muscled his No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang past Chastain’s No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the frontstretch to assume the lead for the first time. Buescher would stretch his advantage to half a second over Chastain by Lap 175 while Harvick, Truex, Byron, Blaney and Larson followed suit in the top seven.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 185, Buescher, who was eliminated from the Playoffs following the Round of 8 finale last weekend, captured his second Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Chastain and Harvick settled in second and third followed by title contender Byron while Truex, Blaney, Larson, Wallace, Keselowski and Erik Jones were scored in the top 10.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Buescher pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Chastain reassumed the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Byron, Truex, Larson, Blaney, Harvick, Keselowski and Buescher.
With 119 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Chastain and Byron occupied the front row. At the start and with the field fanning out through the frontstretch’s dogleg, Chastain maintained the lead while Byron and Truex battled for the runner-up spot. As the field navigated back to the frontstretch, Byron fended off Truex to retain the runner-up spot on the track and the lead in the championship standings over Blaney and Larson, both of whom were running fourth and fifth, while Chastin continued to lead the race. Meanwhile, Harvick slipped to sixth as he was running in front of Wallace, Keselowski, Buescher and Hamlin.
With 100 laps remaining, Chastain was leading the race by more than a second over Blaney, who overtook Byron two laps earlier to assume the lead in the championship battle. With Byron following pursuit of Blaney in third place, Truex slipped to fourth place on the track while Larson occupied fifth place ahead of Harvick, Wallace, Buescher, Keselowski and Hamlin.
Twenty laps later, Chastain retained the lead by less than three-tenths of a second over Blaney, who started to close in on Chastain for the race lead and continued to lead the championship battle, while Truex was up to third place. Meanwhile, title contender Byron trailed in fourth place on the track and by more than four seconds followed by teammate/title contender Larson while Buescher, Harvick, Wallace, Keselowski and Hamlin occupied the top 10. Chastain would stabilize his advantage to three-tenths of a second over Blaney with 75 laps remaining while Byron and Larson continued to run fourth and fifth, respectively, behind Truex.
Then with 73 laps remaining, green flag pit stops commenced as title contenders Byron and Larson pitted from the top five. The leader Chastain and Blaney would pit during the following lap along with Buescher, Harvick, Wallace, Keselowski, Bowman, Kyle Busch, Logano, Suarez, Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon, Reddick, Truex, Aric Almirola, Erik Jones, Hocevar, Michael McDowell, Chase Elliott, Justin Haley, Preece and others. Amid the green flag pit stops, Hamlin, who has yet to pit, was leading followed by Briscoe and Stenhouse while Chastain and Blaney, the first two competitors who pitted, followed suit in fourth and fifth.
Hamlin would then surrender the lead to pit his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry under green with 61 laps remaining as Briscoe assumed the lead. Two laps later, however, Chastain rocketed past Briscoe to reassume the lead followed by a hard-charging Blaney, who retained the lead in the championship battle. By then, title contenders Larson and Byron were mired back in fifth and sixth on the track while Truex moved up to third place on the track before Briscoe pitted his No. 14 Mahindra Tractor Ford Mustang under green.
With 55 laps remaining, the battle for the race lead intensified as Blaney attempted to make a move beneath Chastain entering the backstretch. With Chastain still running on the outside lane, Blaney drag-raced Chastain entering the frontstretch and led the following lap by a hair before Chastain fought back on the outside lane. Chastain then used the lapped competitor of Ryan Newman to muscle ahead through the backstretch, but Blaney fought back on the inside lane.
Then with 53 laps remaining, Blaney gave Chastain a bump in the rear bumper, which allowed Truex to join the battle entering the backstretch. Amid the battles, Blaney and Chastain continued to duel for the lead through the frontstretch and the first two turns until Blaney muscled ahead with the lead on the inside lane. Chastain, however, pulled a crossover move on Blaney through the backstretch as both dueled for the lead through the frontstretch and in front of Truex. Chastain would then reassume the lead and pull away from Blaney through the backstretch entering the backstretch as Truex made his move beneath Blaney, who got loose, to assume the runner-up spot in his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota TRD Camry. Despite losing ground of the race lead, Blaney, who fell back to third, retained the lead in the championship fight as he was ahead of title rival Larson by more than two seconds and with Byron running in fifth place with 50 laps remaining.
With 44 laps remaining, the battle for the lead between Chastain and Truex ignited as Truex made his move beneath Chastain for the lead through the frontstretch as Chastain was getting mired in lapped traffic. With both competitors dueling for the lead through the backstretch, Chastain used the outside lane to retain the lead as Blaney closed back in on the two leaders. Blaney then made his move beneath Truex entering Turns 3 and 4 to overtake the runner-up spot over Truex with 43 laps remaining before proceeding to regain ground on Chastain for the race lead.
Then with 37 laps remaining and just as Blaney attempted to take the lead from Chastain, the caution flew after Kyle Busch spun his No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Turn 4. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Chastain and Blaney pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin and Erik Jones exited pit road first and second, respectively, after both opted for two-tire pit stops while title contender Larson exited in third place and as the first competitor with four fresh tires followed by Chastain, Byron, Blaney and Truex.
Down to the final 31 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start and with the field fanning out through the frontstretch’s dogleg, Hamlin muscled ahead with the lead before Larson and Chastain attempted to pin Hamlin in a three-wide move for the lead through the first two turns. With all three leaders remaining in three-wide formation through the backstretch, Chastain used the outside lane to muscle ahead with the lead before Larson and Hamlin fought back in three-wide formation through the frontstretch.
Then as Larson tried to muscle ahead from the inside lane with 30 laps remaining, he got loose entering Turns 1 and 2, which allowed title rivals Blaney and Byron to join the battle. As Chastain and Larson dueled for the lead through the backstretch, Chastain muscled ahead to control the race lead. Larson settled in the runner-up spot as Byron, Blaney and Hamlin battled for third place. As Chastain retained the race lead by a second with 25 laps remaining, the battle for the championship ignited as Larson, who was running second, had Blaney close in on his rear bumper while Byron trailed both by a second in fourth place.
Then with 22 laps remaining, the battle for this year’s championship ignited as Blaney closed in on Larson’s rear bumper. Then as Larson got loose and nearly wrecked in the frontstretch during the following lap, Blaney moved to the outside lane and made his bid to overtake Larson through the first two turns. With both Larson and Blaney dueling against one another through the backstretch, Blaney then gassed his No. 12 Ford ahead of Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to the outside lane and to claim both the runner-up spot on the track and the lead in the championship battle with 20 laps remaining. Blaney would then move in front of Larson through the frontstretch and muscle ahead with a slight advantage through the backstretch. With Larson trying to use the outside lane to regain ground, Blaney, however, maintained his ground and remained in front of Larson during the following lap.
With less than 15 laps remaining, Chastain continued to lead the race by two seconds over Blaney, who remained a half a second ahead of Larson in his bid to win the title, while Byron, who was in fourth, trailed his two title rivals by two seconds followed by Buescher, Truex, Harvick and Hamlin. Blaney would retain the runner-up spot on the track and the lead in the championship battle by eight-tenths of a second over Larson with 10 laps remaining while Chastain retained the race lead by nearly two seconds.
Down to the final five laps of the event, Chastain stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Blaney, who continued to lead the title battle by more than a second over third-place Larson as fourth-place Byron trailed Blaney by nearly four seconds.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Chastain remained as the race leader by more than a second over Blaney, who remained as the championship leader by nearly two seconds over Larson and by four seconds over Byron. Following one final circuit around the Phoenix circuit, Chastain was able to cross the finish line in first place to claim the victory in the finale while Blaney was able to follow suit in the runner-up spot and win the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series championship.
With the championship, Blaney became the 36th different competitor to win a NASCAR Cup Series championship and the third to do so while driving for Team Penske, which achieved its fourth Cup career title. Blaney, who became the eighth different competitor to win a Cup title since the inception of the current Playoff-elimination format in 2014, also recorded the second consecutive Cup driver’s title in recent years for Ford as the Ford nameplate achieved a sweep in driver’s titles across NASCAR’s top three national touring series (Ben Rhodes won the Craftsman Truck Series title and Cole Custer won the Xfinity Series title). The championship was also the first for crew chief Jonathan Hassler and Penske’s No. 12 entry.
Overall, Blaney, who achieved his first Cup title in his eighth full-time season in NASCAR’s premier series, capped off the 2023 season with three victories (Charlotte Motor Speedway in May and Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway in October), which tallied his wins total to 10. He also earned six stage victories, eight top-five results, 18 top-10 results, 562 laps led and an average-finishing result of 14.1.
Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“It was just time to go to work [on the final restart],” Blaney said on NBC. “We did a good job of getting where we needed to be and [Larson and Byron] had two good pit stops, so just needed to go to work. [I was] Hoping our car was good enough, which it was. Just so proud of this team. What an unbelievable year. What an unbelievable Playoffs for us. To win back-to-back Cup titles for Mr. [Roger] Penske, that’s so special, and to have my family here on my first Cup title. I got emotional in the car. I’m not a very emotional guy, but so cool. Thank you, [fans], for coming. I hope it was an awesome show. Can’t wait to celebrate with my guys.”
“[I was praying] No yellow,” Blaney added. “[I] Didn’t want a caution and knew once I got to the white [flag], I felt pretty good about us just getting there and finishing it off. I just didn’t want a yellow and luckily, everyone kept it straight. We were going good. I wanna shout out also to Kyle [Larson] and William [Byron]. That was fun racing those guys all day, and [Christopher] Bell. Racing those two guys at the end there, racing clean. That’s what racing’s all about. That was a lot of fun. I think in the summer, we were struggling a little bit, but we never gave up. We just went to work and I’ve said that all week. This group goes to work and they figure out problems. That’s why they’re such an amazing group to be with the Team Penske folks because they just put their heads down and do the work and accept the challenge. It was a lot of hard work by a lot of amazing men and women over at our race shop and I can’t thank them enough for that. They deserve this [championship] just as much as the guys who travel here as much as me. They’re just a big part of it.”
Upon receiving the championship trophy on the championship stage, Blaney echoed his praise towards his crew chief, team owner Roger and his team for the hard work and perseverance towards achieving this year’s Cup title while paying homage to his family’s deep background of racing that includes his grandfather, Lou, and father, Dave.
“I think we did an amazing job on [never giving up],” Blaney said. “It was somewhat of an up and down year, but you’re gonna have those moments and through the summer we just worked really hard to get back to where we needed to be and set a deadline for the playoffs and we met that deadline. I’m just super proud of the effort by everybody at Team Penske who put in tons and tons of hours of hard work and nobody really got down. They just put their heads down and decided to really put in a lot of work and it showed up, especially these playoffs and especially the last five weeks. It’s so cool to have all of their hard work pay off, so they should be proud. Obviously, I come from a family of racers – my grandfather and dad and uncle. Dad is obviously who I grew up watching and admiring and wanted to be like, so to be able to do what he did because as a kid I just wanted to do what dad did, so to be able to race and let alone compete for wins and championships and still have my parents around and people that you look up to that are still around it makes it even more special.”
“It’s, obviously, a great place to be here today,” Roger Penske, team owner of Penske Racing, added. “The job that Blaney did racing clean with [Larson, Byron and Bell] was a pleasure to be in this race. To race my best friend, [owner] Rick Hendrick and Joe Gibbs, what a team. You can’t beat this. That’s why we do this every day. At the end of the day, [Blaney]’s a champion. That’s what counts.”
“It’s incredible,” Jonathan Hassler, Blaney’s crew chief, added. “It’s just a huge testament to the whole organization and this No. 12 team, working hard day in and day out and never being afraid to be a little bit better.”
“Yes, I believe it,” Dave Blaney, Ryan Blaney’s father and former NASCAR competitor, added. “A huge day. I don’t even know how to describe it. I thought [Ryan Blaney] was gonna win it five times and lost it five times. He just kept getting after it and did it. Proud of him and everybody on the team. He’s so talented. It’s just building confidence and if this doesn’t do it, I don’t know what will. I’ve seen it for a long time. Great kid. I’ve seen a lot of races, but this was the coolest one.”
As Blaney celebrated his first Cup Series title, Larson and Byron, both of whom finished third and fourth, respectively, on the track, were left disappointed on pit road after both fell short of winning their second and first title, respectively, while representing Hendrick Motorsports in the finale. For Larson, the 2021 champion who ended up in the runner-up spot in the final standings for the first time in his career, he concluded this season with four victories, eight stage victories, two poles, 15 top-five results, 18 top-10 results, 1,127 laps led and an average-finishing result of 14.6.
Photo by David Myers for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“[Blaney]’s car was really fast, really the last few months, and especially today,” Larson, who applauded the competitive and clean racing with Blaney and who commended the fast pit services from his pit crew, said. “Our pit crew and pit road just really kept us in the game. We weren’t the greatest on the track, but I was just hoping for pit stops because I knew the way our team executed our lights and the way our pit crew can execute a fast pit stop, I knew it was gonna be our only shot to win. They did everything in their power to give us the winning job there, so huge thank you to them. I needed to come out [as] the leader on that restart. I’m not sure if it would’ve made a difference. I was just not as good as a few guys, especially Blaney and Ross [Chastain], probably. It would’ve been difficult, but my team did a really good job all season, so I’m extremely proud of them. We had an up-and-down year and we finally put together two solid weeks in a row. We’ll come back next year and try to be stronger. A lot of fun there. Congrats to Ryan. He’s a deserving champion. Him and his team have done an amazing job. It’s been fun to kind of come up through the ranks with him and now, you see him be a champion. Congrats to Team Penske and their whole team. We’ll try and beat them next year.”
For Byron, who led 95 laps, won the first stage, and achieved a career-best third place in the final standings, he concluded the 2023 season with a career-high six victories, a season-high nine stage victories, four poles, 15 top-five results, 21 top-10 results, 1,016 laps led and an average-finishing result of 11.0.
Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“Once the track rubbered out, we got really tight,” Byron said. “Especially when we lost the lead on track, we just had a big balance shift and got tight back in second through fifth and just couldn’t gain a lot of speed through [Turns] 1 and 2 and just kind of having to really over-slow the car and get it to the bottom [lane]. That’s all we had there. Just really proud of our AXALTA team. Just a great season. It stinks to come up short, but I’d like to think we’re gonna be back in this position and we’re gonna have more shots at it. Just gotta keep working, gotta keep working on the short track program for us. It was definitely the tough part of our season, but I felt like we brought a good car this weekend and really until the track kind of changed, I thought we were in the game. All we had there. We’ve had a great season. Lots to be proud of and we’re gonna keep digging hard, so this was a great season for us.”
Amid Blaney’s championship celebration, Ross Chastain celebrated in Victory Lane for the first time at Phoenix and for the second time in the 2023 Cup Serie season after leading a race-high 157 of 312 laps. Chastain’s fourth career victory in NASCAR’s premier series and the sixth overall for Trackhouse Racing was enough for the 30-year-old native from Alva, Florida, to conclude this season in ninth place in the final standings as he became the first competitor not vying for the title to win the finale since Denny Hamlin won the 2013 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“We did something else that’s never been done before, for everybody on this Worldwide Express team,” Chastain said in Victory Lane. “This vision for Trackhouse [Racing] and what this was was goals like this and they were lofty. I couldn’t think of anything I would want to do more as to try to be like Kevin Harvick and race with him early in the race was bucket list, little kid in me, racing that 2005 GameCube game. I am beside myself that we were able to do that. That last caution, we were really tight and it saved us. [Crew chief] Phil Surgen and this group at Trackhouse, all our GM support staff, SIM staff and everybody at Trackhouse, somehow, came up with a way to make this thing turn and we drove off into the sunset.”
On the track, Chris Buescher finished in fifth place while Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Michael McDowell and Bubba Wallace completed the top 10.
Notably, Harvick finished seventh in his 826th and final career start in the Cup Series while teammate Aric Almirola finished 13th in his 460th and final full-time event as a Cup competitor. In addition, Ty Gibbs, the 2023 Cup Series Rookie of the Year, finished 21st in front of Reddick, Carson Hocevar finished 19th in his final event with Legacy Motor Club, Ty Dillon finished 28th in his final event with Spire Motorsports and Justin Haley finished 29th in his final event with Kaulig Racing. Denny Hamlin, who finished eighth, claimed fifth place in the final standings while Chase Elliott, who finished 16th, settled in 17th place in the standings over Ty Gibbs, Daniel Suarez and teammate Alex Bowman.
There were 18 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 27 laps. In addition, 24 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Ross Chastain, 157 laps led
2. Ryan Blaney, two laps led
3. Kyle Larson
4. William Byron, 95 laps led, Stage 1 winner
5. Chris Buescher, 18 laps led, Stage 2 winner
6. Martin Truex Jr., one lap led
7. Kevin Harvick, 23 laps led
8. Denny Hamlin, 14 laps led
9. Michael McDowell
10. Bubba Wallace
11. Daniel Suarez
12. Austin Dillon
13. Aric Almirola
14. Ryan Preece
15. Brad Keselowski
16. Chase Elliott
17. Alex Bowman
18. Joey Logano
19. Carson Hocevar
20. Erik Jones
21. Ty Gibbs
22. Tyler Reddick
23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
24. Chase Briscoe, two laps led
25. Kyle Busch, one lap down
26. Harrison Burton, one lap down
27. JJ Yeley, one lap down
28. Ty Dillon, two laps down
29. Justin Haley, two laps down
30. Todd Gilliland, three laps down
31. Corey LaJoie, four laps down
32. AJ Allmendinger, four laps down
33. BJ McLeod, six laps down
34. Ryan Newman, seven laps down
35. Austin Cindric, 11 laps down
36. Christopher Bell – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates championship finalists
Final standings
1. Ryan Blaney
2. Kyle Larson
3. William Byron
4. Christopher Bell
5. Denny Hamlin
6. Tyler Reddick
7. Chris Buescher
8. Brad Keselowski
9. Ross Chastain
10. Bubba Wallace
11. Martin Truex Jr.
12. Joey Logano
13. Kevin Harvick
14. Kyle Busch
15. Michael McDowell
16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
The NASCAR Cup Series teams and competitors enter an off-season period before returning to action at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the Busch Light Clash on February 4, 2024, that will air at 8 p.m. ET on FOX. This event will be followed by the 66th annual running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, which will occur on February 18, 2024, at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX and officially commence Cup Series’ 76th season of competition.
In the midst of this year’s NASCAR Cup Series championship battle that was won by Ryan Blaney, Kevin Harvick displayed a strong, competitive performance before finishing in seventh place in the final start of his illustrious NASCAR career during the season-finale NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, November 5.
The 2014 Cup Series champion from Bakersfield, California, rolled off the starting grid for the final time in his career in third place, but quickly made his presence at the front known as he navigated his No. 4 Busch Light Harvick Ford Mustang into the runner-up spot, where he closely trailed title contender William Byron after the first stage period. Then after restarting on the front row during the start of the second stage period on Lap 68, Harvick led the first time on Lap 93 after muscling his way past Byron. He would then lead the next 23 laps until he was overtaken by Ross Chastain during the start of another restart period on Lap 116.
Finishing in third place at the conclusion of the second stage period and restarting in the top 10 at the start of the final stage period with 119 laps remaining, Harvick would spend the remainder of the event running in the top 10 on the track before claiming his final checkered flag in seventh place, which marked his 14th top-10 result of the 2023 Cup Series season and his first top-10 result since finishing sixth at Texas Motor Speedway in September.
Despite concluding his final Cup season winless, Harvick tallied a total of one stage victory, six top-five results, 14 top-10 results, 157 laps led and an average-finishing result of 14.7 throughout the 36-race schedule, which were enough for him to end up in 13th place in the final standings with 2,241 points.
Amid the strong result, Harvick, who received a standing ovation and shared a photo with his family, team and every Cup Series competitor on the field prior to the event before sharing tears, laughs and a toast with his crew, teammates and friends at the event’s conclusion, took a moment to reflect on the illustrious and eventful journey he experienced throughout his 23-year career as a competitor in NASCAR’s premier series that started in the early stages of the 2001 season when he took over the ride that was piloted by the late seven-time Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt.
“It’s been an emotional roller coaster, for sure,” Harvick said on NBC. “I think as you look at this last week, this really means a lot to me just because I love driving the race car, I love being around the people more. I love our sport. It’s giving our family so much through the years to be thankful for and proud of. I can’t wait to be able to walk in that tunnel with my head up and look around and just look at all the really cool things that are NASCAR racing in every venue that we go to with great fans and people all over the place. I think for me for the last 23 years in Cup, you walk into that tunnel laser just focused on how do you make your car go faster and communicate with your team the best that you car. Sometimes you don’t see everything that’s around you. I’m fortunate to be able to kind of close this. I opened this chapter unexpectedly in 2001, and closed it in 2023 how we wanted to. That was to be competitive. The thing that means the most is having the respect of the drivers and competitors and the crew chiefs, my team, organization, all the past people that I worked for or worked with. There’s been so many great stories and things that have happened over this year, but especially this week.”
Scoring his first Cup Series career victory in his third series start at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March 2001 after edging four-time champion Jeff Gordon by 0.006 seconds, Harvick’s career blossomed as he would achieve 22 additional victories from 2001 to 2013 while driving for Richard Childress Racing. Among his early accomplishments included winning the 2001 Rookie-of-the-Year title, the 2003 Brickyard 400, five race victories in 2006, winning the 2007 Daytona 500 after edging Hall of Famer Mark Martin by 0.020 seconds, the 2007 All-Star Race, three Daytona Shootout victories in 2009, 2010 and 2013, two Coca-Cola 600 victories in 2011 and 2013 and finishing third place in the final standings in 2010, 2011 and 2013.
Then in 2014, a new chapter presented itself for Harvick, who departed Richard Childress Racing to join forces with Stewart-Haas Racing to pilot the No. 4 entry for his longtime friend Tony Stewart and owner Gene Haas while Rodney Childers served as his crew chief. The move resulted in the Californian achieving a career year in NASCAR as he would win his first Cup Series championship in a season where he notched five victories, including the season-finale event at Homestead-Miami Speedway and during the current Playoff’s elimination-style format as Harvick transferred through all three rounds to contend for the title in the finale.
Harvick would record an additional 32 victories from 2015 to 2022 as a driver for Stewart-Haas Racing’s No. 4 entry, which were enough for him to tally 60 career wins in NASCAR’s premier series as he currently sits in 10th place on NASCAR’s all-time wins list. To coincide with his Cup title in 2014, Harvick’s top achievements as an SHR competitor include winning the Southern 500 in 2014 and 2020, notching a career-high nine victories in 2020, winning the 2018 All-Star Race and adding two consecutive Brickyard 400 victories to his resume in 2019 and 2020. His final Cup victory occurred at Richmond Raceway in August 2022. Since the start of the Playoffs in 2004, Harvick made 17 appearances in the Playoffs, including this season, and five in the Championship 4 round.
Overall, Harvick concludes his 23-year career as a Cup Series competitor with a total of 60 victories, 31 poles, 251 top-five results, 444 top-10 results, 16,058 laps led and an average-finishing result of 12.8 through 826 career starts. Through 2023, Harvick has also achieved 47 Xfinity Series career victories and two championships through 349 series’ starts and 14 Craftsman Truck Series starts through 124 series’ starts.
Named one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers earlier this season, Harvick departs from full-time NASCAR competition with hopes that he will be recognized for giving it his all both on and off the track since his first laps to his final ride. He also took the moment to applaud and express his gratitude for the memories he cherished and shared with his fellow competitors and current/former team owners, crew chiefs and crew members.
“I think for me, we gave it all we had, right?” Harvick added. “Every lap, every week in some way, shape or form, we touched every aspect of this race car. I care about how everything looks, whether it’s the color of the car, the stickers. I sit in the sponsorship meetings, the marketing meetings, the team meetings, and there’s just not any piece of it that I don’t’ feel like we are a part of in some way, shape or form. We built a team here at Stewart-Haas Racing. We built a team at [Kevin Harvick Inc.]. We built a management company. We built so many things from the bottom up. I think the hard work is something that people recognize, but as you guys have seen through the week, I’m a pretty emotional person. I’ve just done a really good job of hiding that through the years, to make you think I’m super tough, but I’m really not. I love people, I care about people and it’s been a lot of fun to get to know a lot of the drivers, crew chiefs, just people in NASCAR racing and it’s just been so much fun to tell a story about the last 30 years of my career this year. I think everybody’s done a great job and I can’t thank them enough.”
With his full-time racing career in NASCAR concluded, Harvick is set to join the FOX Sports broadcast booth to call the Cup Series action alongside Mike Joy, Stewart and Bowyer. Meanwhile, Harvick’s No. 4 entry will be taken over by Josh Berry, who graduates to the Cup circuit following a two-year run in the Xfinity Series with JR Motorsports and will contend for the 2024 Cup Series’ Rookie-of-the-Year title, as Rodney Childers will continue to work as the crew chief for the team.
Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.
The NASCAR Cup Series competitors and teams enter an off-season period before returning to action at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the Busch Light Clash on February 4, 2024, with the event’s broadcast time to occur at 8 p.m. ET on FOX. This event will be followed by the 66th annual running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, which will occur on February 18, 2024, and officially commence a new season of Cup Series competition. The Daytona 500’s broadcast time is slated to occur at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
A week after coming within striking distance of securing a Championship 4 berth before being edged by Kyle Larson at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Christopher Bell earned a redemptive NASCAR Cup Series victory in the 4EVER 400 Presented by Mobil 1 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, October 22, to officially race his way into this year’s Championship 4 round.
The 28-year-old Bell from Norman, Oklahoma, led two times for 26 of 267-scheduled laps in an event where he started 13th and flirted between running towards the top 10 to running outside the top 10 throughout the event’s first two stage periods. Then after leading for the first time with 37 laps remaining, Bell withstood three late caution periods that knocked out Larson along with teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin to assume the lead for the second and final time with 15 laps remaining amid an intense battle between Playoff rivals William Byron and Ryan Blaney. From there, Bell muscled away with the top spot and claimed the checkered flag by more than a second over Blaney to notch his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season and become the second Playoff competitor alongside Kyle Larson to secure one of four vacant spots into this year’s Championship 4 round.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, October 21, Playoff contender Martin Truex Jr. secured his second Cup Series pole position of the season and the 22nd of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 167.411 mph in 32.256 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Bubba Wallace, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 167.115 mph in 32.313 seconds.
Prior to the event, Joey Logano dropped to the rear of the field in a backup car after he wrecked his primary car during Saturday’s practice session.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Truex and Wallace dueled for the lead through the first two turns as the field behind fanned out. Entering the backstretch, Wallace gained the momentum and pulled his No. 23 McDonald’s Grimace Toyota TRD Camry ahead of the pack, but Truex fought back on the inside lane through Turns 3 and 4 as he managed to lead the first lap by a hair over Wallace. Truex and Wallace would continue to duel dead even for the lead through the next two laps until Wallace used the outside lane to his advantage as he led the next two laps before clearing Truex to have both lanes to his control.
Through the first five scheduled laps, Wallace was leading by a tenth of a second over Truex. Wallace would retain the lead by three-tenths of a second over Truex by the Lap 10 mark as Brad Keselowski, William Byron and Tyler Reddick were in the top five. Then during the following lap, Truex moved his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota TRD Camry back into the lead over Wallace as Keselowski and Byron battled for third place in front of Kyle Larson.
At the Lap 20 mark, Byron emerged as the new leader over Truex followed by Keselowski, Larson and Tyler Reddick while Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon and Christopher Bell were running in the top 10. Behind, Kyle Busch trailed in 11th place ahead of Ross Chastain, Corey LaJoie, Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell while AJ Allmendinger, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, rookie Ty Gibbs and Austin Cindric occupied the top 20 in front of Kevin Harvick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Erik Jones, Aric Almirola, Ryan Preece and Playoff contender Chris Buescher. In addition, Logano was mired in 27th in between Buescher, Harrison Burton and Chase Briscoe while John Hunter Nemechek was in 34th behind Todd Gilliland.
Ten laps later, Byron continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over Keselowski followed by Larson, Truex and Reddick while Blaney, Hamlin, Wallace, Austin Dillon and Bell were running in the top 10 on the track. Meanwhile, Playoff contender Buescher was mired back in 28th.
Shortly after, the first wave of green flag pit stops commenced as Kyle Busch and Ryan Preece pitted their respective entries. Austin Dillon would pit by Lap 31 along with Chase Elliott, McDowell, Bowman and others before a bevy of names led by Keselowski, Larson, Truex, Blaney and Chastain pitted by Lap 32. By Lap 33, Byron surrendered the lead to pit his No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 under green before Reddick, who led a lap for himself, pitted his No. 45 McDonald’s Hamburglar Toyota TRD Camry during the proceeding lap along with teammate Wallace as Hamlin cycled into the lead.
By Lap 40 and with most of the field having made a pit stop under green, Hamlin, who led the previous seven laps, surrendered the lead to pit his No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota TRD Camry along with Logano as Keselowski cycled into the lead ahead of Larson, Byron, Blaney and Truex.
Ten laps later, Keselowski retained the lead by a second over Larson followed by Byron, Blaney and Truex while Reddick, Austin Dillon, Bell, Hamlin and Chastain were running in the top 10. With seven of eight Playoff contenders running in the top 10, minus Keselowski, Austin Dillon and Chastain, Buescher was the lone Playoff contender not running in the top 10 as he was mired in 26th behind Harrison Burton.
Another four laps later, Larson muscled his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead over Keselowski while racing on the inside lane. Larson would proceed to lead at the Lap 60 mark by two seconds over Keselowski’s No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang while Byron, Blaney, Truex, Reddick, Austin Dillon, bell, Hamlin and Chastain were scored in the top 10. By then, Buescher was mired back in 27th while AJ Allmendinger, Wallace, Ty Gibbs, LaJoie and Kyle Busch occupied the top 15 in front of Kevin Harvick.
By Lap 70, Larson stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Keselowski as Blaney, Byron and Truex battled in the top five ahead of Reddick, Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Bell and Ty Gibbs. Meanwhile, Buescher lost one spot in the process as he was down in 28th.
Then on Lap 76, the first caution period of the event flew after Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who was running 18th, made contact with the backstretch’s outside wall before he spun below the track and damaged the right-rear toe link of his No. 47 Boost by Kroger/Vitaminwater Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. The caution for Stenhouse’s incident was enough for the first stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 80 to conclude under caution as Larson, who secured his spot into this year’s Championship 4 round by winning last weekend’s Playoff event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, captured his eighth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Keselowski settled in second while Blaney, Byron, Truex, Hamlin, Reddick, Austin Dillon, Bell and Ty Gibbs were scored in the top 10. By then, Buescher was the lone Playoff contender to not score the first round of stage points as he was mired in 27th.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted. Following the pit stops, Larson retained the lead after exiting pit road first ahead of Keselowski, Byron, Truex, Blaney, Austin Dillon and Reddick.
The second stage period started on Lap 85 as Larson and Keselowski occupied the front row. At the start, Larson muscled ahead on the outside lane as he retained the lead over Keselowski, Byron, Ty Gibbs and Truex while Blaney and Reddick battled for sixth place alongside Chastain. As the field behind jostled for spots, Larson proceeded to lead just past the Lap 90 mark over teammate Byron by two-tenths of a second as Keselowski, Truex and Blaney trailed in the top five. Behind, Chastain, Ty Gibbs, Reddick, Austin Dillon and Hamlin were in the top 10 while Bell and Buescher were mired in 14th and 26th, respectively.
At the Lap 100 mark, Larson was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Keselowski while third-place Byron trailed by more than a second in third place. Behind, Blaney and Truex were scored in the top five ahead of Chastain, Reddick, Austin Dillon, Ty Gibbs and Hamlin while Allmendinger, LaJoie, Wallace, Logano and Bell occupied the top 15 ahead of Aric Almirola, Cindric, Erik Jones, Harvick and Chase Briscoe. Meanwhile, Suarez, Ryan Preece, Elliott, Kyle Busch and McDowell were running in the top 25 while Buescher was mired in 26th.
Thirteen laps later, a second wave of green flag pit stops commenced as Ty Gibbs pitted under green along with Briscoe and Preece. Larson would then surrender the lead to pit under green by Lap 114 along with teammate Byron, Blaney, Logano, Almirola, Bell, Buescher and Ty Dillon as Keselowski assumed the lead. Keselowski would then pit from the lead on Lap 115 followed by Truex, Reddick, Austin Dillon, Chastain, LaJoie, Erik Jones and Jusitn Haley as Hamlin moved into the lead. Hamlin would lead through Lap 125 before he pitted under green as Larson cycled back into the lead followed by Keselowski, Blaney, Byron and Truex. By then, more names that included LaJoie, Allmendinger, Erik Jones, Suarez and Wallace had pitted under green.
At the halfway mark between Laps 133 and 134, Larson was leading by more than four seconds over Keselowski followed by Blaney, Byron and Truex while Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon, Chastain and Allmendinger were scored in the top 10. Behind, Logano was up to 11th ahead of LaJoie, Briscoe, Hamlin and Almirola while Bell, Erik Jones, Wallace, Preece and Harvick were scored in the top 20 ahead of Suarez, Elliott, Cindric, Kyle Busch, McDowell and Buescher.
By Lap 150, Larson stabilized his advantage to more than two seconds over Blaney while Byron, Keselowski and Truex were running in the top five ahead of Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon, Hamlin and Chastain. Meanwhile, Bell was mired back in 18th behind Wallace while Buescher continued to run in 26th behind McDowell.
Then on Lap 162, Blaney tracked and overtook Larson for the lead. Byron would then overtake teammate Larson for the runner-up spot during the following lap as Blaney checked out with the lead by a second in his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 165, Blaney, who came into Homestead 17 points below the top-four cutline, captured his fifth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Byron settled in second followed by teammate Larson, Hamlin and Keselowski while Truex, Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon and Logano were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Bell and Buescher were scored in 22nd and 26th, respectively.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Blaney pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Blaney retained the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Byron, Keselowski, Hamlin, Larson, Logano, Austin Dillon and Reddick.
With 95 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Blaney and Byron occupied the front row. At the start, Blaney retained a brief advantage over Byron through the first two turns and the backstretch before Byron drew himself into a side-by-side challenge against Blaney for the top spot while running on the inside lane. Byron would then muscle ahead during the following lap before he engaged in another side-by-side duel against Blaney for the lead. Amid the duel, Blaney would use the inside lane to muscle ahead, slide up and clear Byron through the frontstretch with 92 laps remaining. In the process, Hamlin was in third place and trailing by eight-tenths of a second while Keselowski and Larson were in the top five.
With 85 laps remaining, Blaney was leading by half a second over Hamlin while Byron, Larson and Chastain trailed in the top five. Behind, Truex, who endured a slow pit stop during the second stage break, and Keselowski made contact as Keselowski then hit the outside wall exiting the backstretch, but the race proceeded under green. Amid the late on-track battles, Blaney retained the lead by seven-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Hamlin while Larson, Byron and Chastain remained in the top five with 75 laps remaining. With Austin Dillon, Truex, Keselowski, Reddick and Bell running in the top 10, Buescher was mired back in 27th while racing a lap down.
Then with 57 laps remaining, another wave of green flag pit stops commenced as Keselowski pitted followed by Truex, Ty Gibbs, Suarez, Ryan Newman and Chastain. Then amid the green flag pit stops, the caution flew with 55 laps remaining after Larson, who was trying to enter pit road behind the leader Blaney under green, locked up his front tires while trying to ease off of the throttle and hit the sand barrels towards the pit road entrance before he nursed his damaged No. 5 Chevrolet into his pit stall. The incident was enough for NASCAR to place the event in a red flag period as the track crews proceeded to clean up sand from the destroyed barrels towards pit road entrance.
Following the red flag period that lasted more than 12 minutes, the field led by Hamlin returned under a cautious pace. During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Hamlin pitted while Blaney, who benefitted during Larson’s incident by pitting his No. 12 Ford Mustang and remaining on the lead lap, remained on the track as he inherited the lead. Following the pit stops, Hamlin exited pit road first followed by Byron, Harvick, Allmendinger, Bell, Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch. Amid the caution period, the following names that included Chastain, Truex, Briscoe, Ty Gibbs and Elliott took the wave around back to the lead lap while Keselowski received the free pass.
With the race restarting under green with 46 laps remaining, Blaney and Hamlin dueled for the lead through the frontstretch and entering the first two turns until Hamlin motored ahead on the inside lane to assume the lead from Blaney as Bell joined the battle. Shortly after, the caution quickly returned after Keselowski, who was running in the middle of the pack and was sandwiched in between Chastain and John Hunter Nemechek entering the backstretch, sent both Nemechek and Chastain sideways and into one another, where they collected JJ Yeley in the process as Yeley spun and pounded the inside wall head on while Nemechek also spun towards the inside wall and Chastain spun sideways in the middle of the track. During the caution period, some that included Wallace, Keselowski, Truex, Briscoe, Ty Gibbs, Preece and Elliott pitted while the rest led by Hamlin remained on the track.
During the following restart with 38 laps remaining, Hamlin and Blaney dueled for the lead in front of Bell and Byron through the frontstretch and entering the first two turns. With Blaney and Hamlin continuing to duel dead even for the lead through the backstretch, Bell made a bold three-wide move on both through Turns 3 and 4 to assume the lead during the following lap. With Bell checking out with the lead, another three-wide battle ensued for the runner-up spot between Hamlin, Blaney and Byron before Byron used the outside lane to clear both through Turns 3 and 4 and retain the runner-up spot. As Blaney and Hamlin continued to battle dead even for third place, another three-wide battle ensued behind between Harvick, Austin Dillon and Logano for fifth place while Bell was leading by nearly eight-tenths of a second over Byron with 35 laps remaining.
Then three laps later, the caution flew after Playoff contender Hamlin, who was locked in a tight battle with Blaney for third place, went up the track in Turn 1 and pounded the outside wall hard as a result of a broken steering before he limped his damaged No. 11 Toyota TRD Camry to pit road and eventually retired from the event. In the process, concerns started to occur for teammate and Playoff contender Truex after light smoke was seen billowing out of the No. 19 Toyota TRD Camry, an issue that would result with Truex’s car being pushed to the garage.
During the caution period, the field led by Bell pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Byron assumed the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Blaney, Bell, Harvick, Logano, Wallace and Reddick.
The following restart with 25 laps remaining witnessed Byron and Blaney duel dead even for the lead through the first two turns and through the backstretch while Bell trailed closely behind. Byron and Blaney continued to battle dead even for the lead through the frontstretch as Bell, Logano and Wallace battled for fifth place. Then with 24 laps remaining, Byron managed to clear Blaney entering the backstretch and assume both lanes to his control while Bell challenged Blaney for the runner-up spot through the frontstretch.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Byron was leading by three-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Bell as third-place Blaney trailed by seven-tenths of a second. Behind, Wallace overtook Logano for fourth place and Reddick was in sixth as Ty Gibbs, Allmendinger, Almirola and Austin Cindric were in the top 10.
Then five laps later, Bell made his move beneath Byron as he assumed the lead by a hair through the frontstretch. Bell and Byron would duel for the top spot through the first two turns until Bell slid up the track and cleared Byron through the backstretch. As Bell assumed the lead, Blaney, who was trailing the two leaders by nearly two seconds, retained third place ahead of 23XI Racing’s Reddick and Wallace.
With 10 laps remaining, Bell continued to lead by seven-tenths of a second over Byron as Blaney, Reddick and Wallace retained their respective spots in the top five ahead of Allmendinger, Ty Gibbs, Logano, Almirola and Harvick. Bell would proceed to retain the lead by more than a second over the new runner-up competitor, Blaney, as Byron fell back to third in front of Reddick, Allmendinger and Wallace with five laps remaining.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Bell remained as the leader by more than a second over Blaney. With Blaney unable to narrow the deficit amid his late-race charge, Bell was able to cycle his No. 20 Rheem Toyota TRD Camry around Homestead smoothly for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch and claimed both the checkered flag and a berth into this year’s Championship 4 round.
With the victory, Bell notched his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season, his first since winning the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Course in April, his first at Homestead and the sixth of his career. The victory was also the eighth of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing and the 10th of the year for the Toyota nameplate.
Above all, Bell, who punched his ticket into this year’s Championship 4 round for a second consecutive season, will contend for his first Cup Series championship two weeks from now at Phoenix Raceway.
Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“I’ve got the best team behind me,” Bell said on NBC. “Honestly, I don’t know, man. That race was a whirlwind. I was ready to throw the towel in there in the second stage and I got really frustrated on the radio. [Crew chief] Adam [Stevens] kept after it. Adam, Tyler, William, the guys back at the shop are working over the adjustments. They gave me what I needed. Whenever we got some clean air, this thing was really good. I cannot say how proud I am to be here with our partners. I’ve been with Toyota since day one. Thank you everyone that supported me. This is better than a dream come true.”
Behind Bell, Blaney muscled his way into a strong runner-up finish ahead of Playoff rivals Reddick and Byron while Allmendinger, the highest non-Playoff contender, settled in fifth place. With the results, Blaney and Byron are currently scored above the top-four cutline to make this year’s Championship 4 round entering the Round of 8 finale next weekend at Martinsville Speedway while Reddick stands as the first competitor currently scored out of the cutline by 10 points. Hamlin, Truex and Buescher are also scored below the cutline following the second Round of 8 event.
“We were good on the long runs all day and that’s what we needed,” Blaney said. “I just couldn’t go for 10 laps or so and those guys got better. I just couldn’t maintain the lead or second, and by the time we kind of got going and people’s stuff were falling off, just too late. Overall, proud of the Menards, Duracell Ford Mustang team. Really, really strong piece. Just got a little bit there at the end, but proud of the effort.”
“The balance was really tricky on our McDonald’s Toyota Camry TRD,” Reddick said. “I just think the biggest thing is we didn’t fire off too good on a couple of restarts. Thankfully, the pit crew did a good job overcoming the difficulties today. Like we weren’t the best on pit road, but the last pit top, we maintained and gave us a shot at that restart. It was still a terrible restart for us, maybe lost two of three spots still, but just found the top [lane] and others weren’t up there and was able to get to third. I was so much faster than [Blaney]. It’s just as soon as he moved up, I was just stuck. It’s just the nature of these cars.”
“We were just really tight all day,” Byron said. “We did a really good job executing our race and kind of managing our long runs and being able to run the fence. We just built way too tight in the center and it’s as much wheel as I could put in the car and as much as I could to slow it down to go left. The guys did a great job of adjusting on the car all day. We had a really good execution day. We came out there with the lead thanks to my pit crew. We just need to bring a winning car next two weeks to get where we want to be, but we’re close.”
Wallace ended up sixth while Ty Gibbs, Logano, Almirola and Austin Dillon finished in the top 10 with Kevin Harvick finishing 11th in his final race at Homestead. In addition, Playoff competitor Chris Buescher capped off his long afternoon in 21st place while Truex and Hamlin ended up 29th and 30th after both were unable to finish the event.
There were 25 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 35 laps. In addition, 23 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
The Round of 8 in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to conclude next weekend at Martinsville Speedway, which will determine the Championship 4 field. The event is scheduled to commence next Sunday, October 29, at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
In career start No. 301 in NASCAR’s premier series, Ryan Blaney punched his ticket into the Playoff’s Round of 8 after edging Kevin Harvick in a photo finish to win the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, October 1.
The 29-year-old Blaney from High Point, North Carolina, led four times for eight of 188-scheduled laps in an event where he started 10th and competed towards the front amidst the draft, aggressive shuffling and tight-packed competition while needing to rebound after retiring late during last weekend’s Round of 12 opener at Texas Motor Speedway. After winning the first stage, Blaney, who restarted on the front row during the final restart with 13 laps remaining, seized an opportunity for the win as he was drafted by Riley Herbst to duel against Kevin Harvick with two laps remaining.
Then after emerging out in front at the start of the final lap, Blaney, who lost the lead to Harvick, made a crossover move from Harvick’s blocking attempt to draw even with him through the backstretch and approaching the tri-oval. With nearly the entire field wrecking through the tri-oval, Blaney then received a push from William Byron to edge Harvick at the finish line by 0.012 seconds to notch his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season, his third at Talladega and race his way into the Round of 8.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, September 30, Aric Almirola notched his second Cup pole position of the season and the sixth of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 181.656 mph in 52.715 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Joey Logano, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 181.642 mph in 52.719 seconds.
Prior to the event, Carson Hocevar dropped to the rear of the field due to an unapproved adjustment made to his No. 42 Legacy Motor Club entry.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Almirola gained a slight advantage on the inside lane through the first two turns until the outside lane led by Logano caught back up through the backstretch. With the field stacked up amid two tight-packed lanes, Almirola and Logano continued to duel dead even for the lead through Turns 3 and 4 and the tri-oval until Logano managed to lead the first lap in his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang by a hair.
Through the second to fifth lap, the field continued to run stacked amid two tight-packed lanes as Logano and Almirola continued to battle dead even for the lead, with Almirola having teammate Chase Briscoe draft him on the inside lane while Logano, who remained on the outside lane and continued to lead the proceeding laps, had drafting help from Playoff contender Kyle Larson. By then, Riley Herbst, who was competing in the No. 36 Beast Unleashed White Haze Ford Mustang for Front Row Motorsports, was battling within the top five while Playoff contenders William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney along with Alex Bowman were in the top 10.
By the sixth lap, the field fanned out to three packed lanes as Herbst jumped to the outside lane and formed a third drafting lane as he had drafting help from Hamlin, with Logano leading the middle lane and Almirola still leading the inside lane. The expansion of the lanes allowed Almirola to lead the sixth lap before Logano reassumed the top spot by the seventh lap.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps and amid the three-wide racing, Logano was leading ahead of Byron, Blaney, Larson and Austin Dillon while Almirola, Martin Truex Jr., Briscoe, Todd Gilliland and Brad Keselowski were in the top 10. By then, Herbst, Austin Cindric, Michael McDowell, Hamlin and Kevin Harvick were in the top 15 while Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Christopher Bell and Chris Buescher occupied the top 20. Meanwhile, Ross Chastain was back in 25th and Kyle Busch was mired in 32nd while all 38 starters were separated by more than a second.
Five laps later, Logano and Byron dueled for the lead as the field continued to fan out to three lanes, with Blaney, Austin Dillon, Truex and Larson jostling in the top six. A few laps later, Truex drafted his way to the front and led Lap 17 as he, Logano and Byron were the front-runners of the three-wide drafting competition.
As the field surpassed the Lap 20 mark, the front-runners continued to run three wide amid a stacked field with Logano, Byron and Truex leading the three lanes. By then, Playoff contenders Blaney, Reddick, Larson, Wallace, Hamlin and Keselowski were running within the top 20 along with Truex and Byron while Bell, Kyle Busch, Buescher and Chastain were running towards the rear of the field. In addition, all 38 starters were separated by less than two seconds.
Three laps later, Ryan Preece, who was sporting the Wonder Bread Ricky Bobby scheme on his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang, muscled his way into the lead after receiving a draft from Logano to move ahead of Truex followed by Austin Dillon, Byron and Blaney. By then, Truex slipped out of the top 10 while Hamlin, who lost the draft and dropped towards the rear of the field earlier, was trying to muscle his way back to the top 10 as he was working with his 23XI Racing drivers, Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace, within the draft on the outside lane. Truex would then blend in within the draft and work with his Toyota teammates.
A lap after the Lap 30 mark, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who started 35th, used the outside lane amid the draft to move his No. 47 Sara Lee Artesano Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead ahead of Preece. By then, the field settled back to competing amongst two tight-packed lanes as Erik Jones and Cindric moved up towards the front in front of Logano while the Dillon brothers joined the battle. By then, Byron was the highest-running Playoff contender in eighth place while his remaining 11 title rivals were mired within the top 26.
Then on Lap 39 and as Ty Dillon assumed the lead, the first cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as a bevy of Ford competitors, including Blaney, Cindric, Logano, Harvick, Almirola, Keselowski, Briscoe, Harrison Burton and Buescher pitted. The following lap, another wave of competitors, mainly Chevrolet competitors led by Justin Haley and Byron, peeled off the track to pit. During the following lap, select names led by Ty Dillon pitted while Bell assumed the lead. By Lap 42, the final group of competitors, mainly Toyota competitors led by Bell, pitted under green. Once the first cycle of green flag pit stops concluded, Stenhouse reassumed the lead before Austin Cindric assumed the top spot by Lap 43. By then, the final wave of competitors who pitted drifted back towards the rear of the field. Amid the pit stops, Erik Jones was penalized for having men over his pit box too soon.
At the Lap 50 mark, Stenhouse was still leading by a hair over Cindric as he had Kyle Busch drafting him while Cindric, Blaney and Byron were also battling towards the front and within the draft. By then, Playoff contender Larson was in seventh while Keselowski, Buescher and Chastain were in the top 15. Meanwhile, the remaining Playoff contenders included Wallace, Truex, Bell, Reddick and Hamlin were mired back within the top 31.
Then on the final lap of the first stage period, Lap 59, the event’s first caution flew when Stenhouse, who was trying to muscle his way to the front with drafting help from Kyle Busch, fell off the pace after running out of fuel through the backstretch. With Busch stuck behind Stenhouse, Ross Chastain then came surging towards them in his attempt to win the stage, but he ended up making contact with Busch as he veered sideways in Turn 3 before getting hit by Bell’s No. 20 DeWalt Toyota TRD Camry and shooting back across the outside wall. The incident was enough to conclude the first stage period under caution as Playoff contender Ryan Blaney, who came into Talladega 11 points below the top-eight cutline, notched his fourth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Byron followed suit in second while Larson, Elliott, Bowman, Cindric, Haley, Harvick, Logano and Preece were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Kyle Busch, Bell, Wallace, Reddick, Keselowski, Buescher, Truex, Hamlin and Chastain did not score the first wave of stage points. Amidst the incident, the damage to the No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was enough to terminate Playoff contender Chastain’s event early in the garage while Bell, Allmendinger and Chandler Smith pitted for repairs.
Under the stage break, the entire lead lap field led by Blaney pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Harrison Burton exited pit road first followed by Blaney, Elliott, Larson, Byron, Bowman and Logano. Amid the pit stops, a bevy of names including AJ Allmendinger, Keselowski, Wallace, Buescher, Truex, Stenhouse, the Dillon brothers, Hamlin, Daniel Suarez and Chandler Smith pitted again to top off on fuel.
The second stage period started on Lap 65 as Blaney and Elliott occupied the front row. At the start, Blaney and Elliott dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. With the field stacked up in two tight-packed lanes, Blaney and Elliott continued to duel for the lead as Elliott had teammate Larson drafting him on the outside lane while Blaney had Byron drafting him on the inside lane.
Ten laps later, Bowman, who led Lap 73 by a hair, was leading by a hair over Cindric followed by Elliott, Harvick and Almirola while Larson, Blaney, Preece, Corey LaJoie and Byron were battling within the top 10 and amid two tight-packed lanes. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch was in 11th, Reddick was in 18th and Truex was back in 21st while Bell and Keselowski were within the top 25 on the track. Meanwhile, Wallace was in 29th ahead of Buescher and Hamlin, both of whom were in 31st and 32nd.
Another 10 laps later and amid the jostling of positions within the field that fanned out to three stacked lanes, Erik Jones, who led for the first time two laps earlier, was leading ahead of McDowell, Stenhouse, Gilliland and Cindric while Bowman, Herbst, Harvick, Elliott and Reddick were in the top 10. Another lap later, McDowell received a draft from teammate Gilliland to move his No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang into the lead. McDowell and Herbst, who navigated his way back to the front, would then swap the lead through Lap 90 as all three Front Row Motorsports competitors, including Gilliland, were running first through third. By then, 23XI Racing’s Reddick and Wallace were trying to navigate their way into the top five.
At the halfway mark on Lap 94, Herbst was scored the leader followed by Reddick, McDowell, Wallace and Gilliland while Cindric, Erik Jones, Harvick, Stenhouse and Almirola were battling in the top 10 amid two long stacked lanes. By then, Playoff contenders Larson, Hamlin, Bell, Blaney, Truex, Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Buescher and Byron were mired within the top 33 as 33 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap and separated by two seconds.
Six laps later, Wallace drafted teammate Reddick into the lead as they made their way past Herbst and the Front Row Motorsports group while the field behind fanned out to three packed lanes. McDowell would fight back on the inside lane during the proceeding lap as Preece navigated his way back into the top five. Not long after, Hamlin assumed the lead on Lap 102 as Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski followed suit. By then, McDowell challenged Hamlin for the top spot on the inside lane while Wallace and Reddick fell back to sixth and seventh.
Then on Lap 105, the second wave of green flag pit stops commenced as a bevy of competitors led by Hamlin and Wallace, who locked up the front tires, pitted. Amid the pit stops, Hamlin was penalized for speeding on pit road. During the following lap, another wave of competitors, mainly Ford competitors, pitted before the final wave of competitors led by Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon pitted. Cindric would also be penalized for speeding on pit road while Keselowski cycled his way into the lead by Lap 108. With Keselowski leading through to the Lap 110 mark, Logano followed suit in second before he assumed the top spot during the following lap. Behind, Almirola made his way into second over Keselowski while Blaney, Austin Dillon, Harvick, Kyle Busch, Buescher, LaJoie and Preece were scored in the top 10.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 120, Keselowski, who navigated his way into the lead over Byron during the previous lap and came into the event eight points above the top-eight cutline, fended off the field to claim his sixth Cup stage victory of 2023. Byron settled in second followed by Logano, Austin Dillon and Elliott while Suarez, Larson, Briscoe, Ty Dillon and Reddick were scored in the top 10. Amid the battles for stage points within the lead lap group, Carson Hocevar managed to claim the free pass spot after crossing the start/finish line ahead of Hamlin to be the first competitor that was scored a lap down.
During the stage break, the field led by Keselowski returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Logano exited first while Keselowski, Larson, Suarez, Byron, Elliott, Austin Dillon and Blaney followed suit. Amid the pit stops, Ty Gibbs was penalized for removing his gas can out of his pit box, which then dropped in the middle of pit road, ignited and erupted into a huge fire. With Gibbs serving his penalty, a number of competitors that included Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, Harvick, Almirola, Briscoe, Buescher, Wallace, McDowell, Preece, Gilliland, Herbst, Allmendinger and LaJoie returned to pit road to top off on fuel.
With 63 laps remaining, the final stage started as Logano and Larson occupied the front row. At the start, Logano and Larson dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. Amid two tight-packed lanes, Logano muscled ahead on the outside lane followed by Keselowski while Larson remained on the inside lane as he had Daniel Suarez and Byron drafting him. Logano would retain the lead with 60 laps remaining while Playoff contenders Larson, Keselowski, Byron, Kyle Busch, Reddick, Blaney and Truex were running in the top 10. Meanwhile, Buescher and Wallace were in 17th and 19th while Bell and Hamlin were mired back in 29th and 33rd.
With 50 laps remaining and as the field slowly fanning out to three packed lanes, Logano was leading ahead of Keselowski and Elliott while Kyle Busch and Larson were mired in the top five. By then, Reddick, Suarez, Truex, Byron and Blaney were in the top 10 while Wallace was in 11th. By then, Hamlin, who was still scored a lap down, was blending in within the lead lap pack and leading the outside lane with drafting help from Wallace while Logano continued to lead ahead of Keselowski, Elliott and Kyle Busch.
A few laps later, Buescher, who moved up to the outside lane, received a huge push from Hamlin amid a stacked three-wide battle to move toward the front while Logano retained the lead. With Hamlin moving down in front of Logano through the middle lane, Buescher would launch his bid for the lead against Logano while Keselowski, Almirola, Wallace and Larson moved up and battled toward the front. Amid the continuous shuffling and drafts within the three stacked lanes, Wallace would then make his way into the runner-up spot with 40 laps remaining behind the leader Logano before Byron assumed the lead during the proceeding lap followed by Blaney. This would drop Logano and Wallace to third and fifth while Bowman moved up to fourth as Keselowski occupied sixth.
Then with 34 laps remaining, Wallace made his way into the lead as he overtook Byron through the tri-oval before fending off Buescher. Wallace would spend the next two laps leading in his No. 23 Leidos Toyota TRD Camry until Byron reassumed the top spot in his No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 with 31 laps remaining. Byron’s move occurred as the field fanned out to nearly four lanes as Almirola, Blaney and Bowman followed suit. Soon after, Wallace, who was being drafted by Hamlin, slipped out of the top 10 as Byron, Blaney, Bowman, Larson and Stenhouse occupied the top five amid three stacked lanes.
With 27 laps remaining, the caution flew for a multi-car wreck on the frontstretch after Hocevar, who was leading the outside lane amid a three-wide battle, got sideways off the front nose of Keselowski as Hocevar spun and clipped Ty Gibbs, who collected Austin Dillon in the process, as Dillon clipped Keselowski and sent the No. 6 Solomon Plumbing Ford Mustang for a spin, with Keselowski’s car briefly coming off the ground, towards the inside wall before Dillon made hard impact against the outside wall head-on along with Gibbs as Harrison Burton, Briscoe and Allmendinger also wrecked. At the moment of caution, Harvick had assumed the lead while Almirola, Herbst, Byron, Wallace, Blaney, Bowman, Larson, Suarez and Stenhouse were scored in the top 10. The incident would be enough to place the event in a red flag period for nearly 10 minutes as the on-track safety crew proceeded to repair the track’s damage across the walls and the carnage.
Once the red flag lifted and the field proceeded under a cautious pace, the lead lap field led by Harvick pitted for service. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategies, but mainly for fuel, Logano exited first followed by LaJoie, Almirola, Harvick, Bowman, Blaney and Larson. Meanwhile, Hamlin received the free pass and cycled back on the lead lap.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, where Almirola and Bowman occupied the front row, the race restarted under green. At the start, Almirola and Bowman dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch as the field stacked up within two tight-packed lanes. Both Almirola and Bowman continued to duel for the lead through the tri-oval as Almirola had teammate Harvick drafting him on the outside lane while Bowman had drafting help from Blaney.
Three laps later and as the field started to fan out to three lanes, the caution returned due to debris reported on the backstretch. By then, Bowman was the leader followed by Blaney, Almirola, Herbst and Harvick while Elliott, Larson, Logano, Byron and LaJoie were in the top 10.
During the following restart with 13 laps remaining, Bowman muscled ahead of Blaney to retain the lead as the inside lane gained the advantage through the first two turns and the backstretch. With the outside lane trying to regain the advantage through the tri-oval, Bowman retained the lead as Harvick ignited his charge to the lead. Harvick would then be drafted into the lead with 11 laps remaining followed by Blaney as Elliott, Herbst and Larson were battling within the top six. As the field fanned out to three lanes with the competitors jostling and shuffling within the pack and the draft, Harvick retained the lead with 10 laps remaining before the Hendrick Motorsports competitors led by Bowman and followed by Elliott assumed the top spot during the following lap.
Down to the final five laps of the event, Elliott was leading ahead of teammates Larson, Byron and Suarez while the outside lane led by Harvick tried to gain the run towards the front. In the midst of the battles towards the front, the field fanned out to three lanes as the competitors started to shuffle and draft their way to the front. Shortly after, Bowman was shuffled out of the lead draft as he started to lose ground of the front-runners while Harvick assumed the lead.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Blaney and Harvick, both of whom spent the previous three laps locked dead even for the lead amongst two packed lanes, were in front of the field as Blaney led the previous lap by a hair. Through the frontstretch, Harvick would receive a push from Byron to muscle ahead as he then moved his No. 4 Busch Light Camo Ford Mustang up the track to block Blaney. Blaney, however, made a crossover move to dive his No. 12 Menards/Pennzoil Ford Mustang beneath Harvick through the backstretch before he gained a slight advantage entering the tri-oval. Harvick then had Herbst drafting him as he started to gain ground on Blaney with the three-wide stacked field approaching the finish line. Then with nearly everyone behind the front-runners wrecking as Herbst got turned across Elliott and Larson, Blaney, who remained ahead of Byron, managed to edge Harvick, who had no drafting help, by 0.012 seconds to claim the victory.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
With the victory, Blaney achieved his ninth NASCAR Cup Series career victory, his third at Talladega Superspeedway, his third in the Cup Series Playoffs, his second of the season and his first since winning the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May. The third-generation racer also recorded the third victory of the season for Team Penske and the seventh for the Ford nameplate.
The victory automatically guarantees Blaney and the No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang team a spot into the Round of 8 along with William Byron as Blaney, who transferred into the Round of 8 for the fifth time in his career, continues his pursuit for his first Cup Series championship.
“Yeah, I don’t really know [how we won],” Blaney, who celebrated on the frontstretch with the fans, said on NBC. “Yeah, pretty wild [the] last restart, but let alone, last couple laps, kind of lose the momentum, getting it back. Just getting cleared to the bottom to get to the front row and drag-race it out with Kevin [Harvick]. Really proud of the whole No. 12 group. It’s so cool to win three times here at Talladega. That’s super cool. I have to give a big thanks to Riley Herbst. He did a really good job there the last couple restarts. He doesn’t have a lot of Cup starts, but he did a great job at pushing me, so thanks to him. This is so cool. I’ve won it by more than I have the last couple years, but that one might’ve been about four feet. The others [Talladega wins] were about two, but you just don’t know. You just got to drag-race to the line, hope you get help. William [Byron] gave me a pretty good shove on the bottom [lane]. He’s kind of forced to. I wasn’t sure [that I won] till [spotter] Josh [Williams] said something. Josh did a fantastic job on the roof like always. This is such a special place to win at, so I cannot wait to go to Victory Lane.”
While Blaney celebrated with his team in Victory Lane, Harvick was left disappointed, but still smiling, over his runner-up result in his 46th and final career start at Talladega and on a day where he led 11 laps and notched his seventh top-five result of the season. Despite having his Playoff hopes evaporated following the Round of 16, Harvick continues his pursuit for his first victory of the season as he is down to his final five Cup career starts before retiring from full-time competition.
“I just tried to block the lanes and then, I was kind of late blocking [Blaney] there,” Harvick said. “He got to the outside of us, but it actually worked out OK because [Byron] was a great pusher and then, it got shuffled again and I had Riley [Herbst] behind me. I thought I was in a really good spot headed down the back straightaway with everything that was happening because I knew if I could get off the tri-oval with Riley right on my bumper, I was still gonna be OK and then, he got spun in the middle of the tri-oval. Great day. Great way to end at Talladega. Always want to win. It is what it is. Last superspeedway race and went out with everything rolling, so that’s a good thing.”
Following the event, however, Harvick was disqualified from his runner-up result due to the windshield fasteners from his car not being properly secured. As a result, Byron, who led 12 laps and is already guaranteed a spot in the Playoff’s Round of 8 after winning last weekend’s event at Texas Motor Speedway, was promoted into the runner-up spot followed by Denny Hamlin, who rallied from being mired a lap down to finish third in his No. 11 Mavis Tires & Brakes Toyota TRD Camry. Corey LaJoie avoided the carnage to finish fourth in his No. 7 Gainbridge Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and notch his second top-five result of the season while Cindric ended up fifth.
Haley, Elliott, Ryan Preece, Riley Herbst and Daniel Suarez finished in the top 10 on the track. Notably, Playoff contenders Bell, Larson, Reddick, Truex, Buescher, Wallace and Kyle Busch ended up 14th, 15th, 16th, 18th, 19th, 23rd and 25th, respectively.
There were 70 lead changes for 24 different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 17 laps. In addition, 29 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Ryan Blaney, eight laps led, Stage 1 winner
2. William Byron, 12 laps led
3. Denny Hamlin, three laps led
4. Corey LaJoie
5. Austin Cindric, 15 laps led
6. Justin Haley, one lap led
7. Chase Elliott, eight laps led
8. Ryan Preece, eight laps led
9. Riley Herbst, 10 laps led
10. Daniel Suarez
11. Chandler Smith
12. Todd Gilliland
13. Chase Briscoe
14. Christopher Bell, two laps led
15. Kyle Larson, one lap led
16. Tyler Reddick, two laps led
17. Aric Almirola, seven laps led
18. Martin Truex Jr.
19. Chris Buescher, three laps led
20. AJ Allmendinger
21. Michael McDowell, five laps led
22. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 14 laps led
23. Bubba Wallace, three laps led
24. Joey Logano, 48 laps led
25. Kyle Busch, two laps led
26. Erik Jones, four laps led
27. Ty Dillon, two laps led
28. Alex Bowman, 13 laps led
29. BJ McLeod, one lap down
30. Brennan Poole, two laps down
31. Harrison Burton – OUT, Suspension
32. Brad Keselowski – OUT, Accident, five laps led, Stage 2 winner
33. Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident, one lap led
34. Ty Gibbs – OUT, Accident
35. Carson Hocevar – OUT, Accident
36. JJ Yeley – OUT, Fuel pump
37. Ross Chastain – OUT, Accident
38. Kevin Harvick – Disqualified, 11 laps led
*Bold indicates Playoff contenders
Playoff standings
1. William Byron – Advanced
2. Ryan Blaney – Advanced
3. Denny Hamlin +50
4. Christopher Bell +22
5. Chris Buescher +19
6. Martin Truex Jr. +17
7. Kyle Larson +15
8. Brad Keselowski +2
9. Tyler Reddick -2
10. Bubba Wallace -9
11. Ross Chastain -10
12. Kyle Busch -26
The Round of 12 in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to conclude next weekend at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course in Concord, North Carolina, where the second of three eliminations will occur and the Round of 8 field will be determined. The event is scheduled to commence next Sunday, October 8, at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
Not even the chorus of boos from the crowd prior to and after the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, September 16, could damper Denny Hamlin’s mood and sense of enthusiasm and optimism to contend for this year’s NASCAR Cup Series championship upon winning for the third time in the 2023 season.
The three-time Daytona 500 champion from Chesterfield, Virginia, led three times for 142 of 500-scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row and rallied from speeding on pit road under caution on Lap 70. The resulting penalty sent him to the rear of the field but he methodically drove his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota TRD Camry back to the front.
Managing a top-five result during the second stage period, Hamlin, who led for the first time with under 150 laps remaining amid a tight battle with teammate Ty Gibbs, regained the lead for good with 134 laps remaining. From there, he spent the remainder of the event navigating his way through lapped traffic and fending off Kyle Larson to score his third Cup Series victory of the 2023 season and become one of 12 Playoff competitors to advance into the Round of 12.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, September 15, Playoff contender Christopher Bell notched his third consecutive Cup pole position in recent weeks and the fifth of this season after posting a pole-winning lap at 126.997 mph in 15.109 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Denny Hamlin, who clocked in the second-best qualifying lap at 126.930 mph in 15.117 seconds.
When the green flag waved and the race started amid a delay spanning more than half an hour due to light, persistent precipitation, Bell rocketed his No. 20 Reser’s Fine Foods Toyota TRD Camry ahead of the pack from the outside lane to lead through the first two turns as Michael McDowell followed suit and moved his No. 34 Love’s Ford Mustang into the runner-up spot. Meanwhile, Hamlin, who did not gain a strong start from the inside lane, fell back to third in front of William Byron and Ty Gibbs as Bell proceeded to lead the first lap.
Through the second to fifth lap, Bell kept his pole-winning car out in front of the pack while Hamlin managed to overtake McDowell in Turn 3 to reclaim the runner-up spot. Behind, Byron retained fourth ahead of Ty Gibbs, who fended off Brad Keselowski, as Martin Truex Jr., Corey LaJoie and Bubba Wallace followed suit. With Chase Elliott, who was initially running behind Wallace, slowly losing spots and dropping out of the top 10 after getting his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 stuck on the outside lane, Bell stabilized his lead to two-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Bell was leading by three-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin, McDowell, Byron and Ty Gibbs while Truex, Keselowski, LaJoie, Wallace and Tyler Reddick were in the top 10. Behind, Ryan Blaney was in 11th ahead of Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece while Elliott, Justin Haley, Kevin Harvick, Ross Chastain and Chris Buescher occupied the top 20. By then, Playoff contenders Joey Logano and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were mired in 22nd and 23rd while Kyle Larson was in 31st behind Ty Dillon.
Fifteen laps later, Bell, who was starting to approach lapped traffic, retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin while McDowell trailed in third place by nearly two seconds despite having Byron close in. Behind, Ty Gibbs retained fifth while Truex, Keselowski, LaJoie, Wallace and Reddick continued to run in the top 10.
Another 10 laps later, Bell, who continued to deal with lapped traffic as he had lapped Daniel Suarez and Harrison Burton, also continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin while McDowell retained third place as he trailed the two Joe Gibbs Racing teammates by more than a second. With Playoff contenders Byron, Truex, Keselowski, Wallace, Reddick, Blaney and Kyle Busch running in the top 13, the remaining Playoff contenders that included Harvick, Chastain, Buescher, Logano, Stenhouse and Larson were mired outside the top 15 and running within the top 30.
At the Lap 50 mark, Bell, who lapped Austin Cindric a few laps earlier, stabilized his advantage over teammate Hamlin while McDowell, Byron and Ty Gibbs continued to trail in the top five. By then, Truex moved his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota TRD Camry into sixth place while Keselowski, LaJoie, Wallace, Reddick, Blaney, Bowman, Kyle Busch, Briscoe and Ryan Preece followed suit in the top 15.
Eighteen laps later, the first caution of the event flew when AJ Allmendinger, who was just lapped by the leaders, ran his No. 16 Barger Precast Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 up the track in turn 3 and smacked the outside wall entering the frontstretch before he was hit by Cindric’s No. 2 Menards/Monster Energy Ford Mustang. By then, Bell was still leading ahead of teammate Hamlin while Hamlin, McDowell, Byron, Ty Gibbs, Truex, Keselowski, LaJoie, Wallace and Reddick were in the top 10.
During the first caution period, a majority of the field led by Bell pitted for service while the rest led by LaJoie and including Wallace, Reddick, Chastain, Logano and Todd Gilliland remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Chase Briscoe was assessed a commitment line violation. In addition, Playoff contender Hamlin and Cindric were penalized for speeding on pit road, Playoff contender Larson was penalized for running over equipment and Austin Dillon was penalized for a safety violation.
When the race restarted on Lap 76, LaJoie and Wallace dueled for the lead until LaJoie managed to muscle his No. 7 NEGU Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ahead through the backstretch and clear Wallace to assume both lanes to his control with the lead during the following lap. With LaJoie leading Wallace’s No. 23 Columbia Toyota TRD Camry, Chastain was in third ahead of Reddick while Bell muscled his way back into fifth as the field behind fanned out and jostled for positions amid those who pitted and those who remained on the track. With Bell battling Reddick for fourth place and trying to navigate his way back to the front, LaJoie stabilized his advantage to nearly half a second over Wallace by Lap 85.
At the Lap 100 mark, LaJoie continued to lead by four-tenths of a second over Wallace while Bell, who moved up to third, trailed by seven-tenths of a second as he started to challenge Wallace for the runner-up spot. By then, Chastain and Reddick were in the top five while McDowell, Byron, Ty Gibbs, Logano and Keselowski were in the top 10 on the track. Behind, Truex was in 11th ahead of Blaney while Kyle Busch and Buescher settled in the top 15. Meanwhile, Hamlin and Larson, following their pit road penalties, were mired back in 23rd and 24th, Stenhouse was down in 26th and Harvick, who restarted 16th, plummeted his No. 4 GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang to 28th.
Five laps later, the event’s second caution period flew due to the return of rain. By then, Bell overtook Wallace for the runner-up spot and nearly overtook LaJoie for the lead while Chastain, Reddick and McDowell followed suit in the top six. By then, Larson, Hamlin, Stenhouse and Harvick were mired back in 23rd, 24th, 27th and 28th, respectively. During the caution period, some led by McDowell and including Ty Gibbs, Blaney, Bowman, Buescher, Hamlin, Stenhouse and Harvick pitted while the rest led by LaJoie remained on the track.
With the event restarting on Lap 113, LaJoie muscled ahead to retain the lead ahead of Bell, Wallace and Reddick as the field fanned out through the backstretch. With LaJoie leading, Bell started to reignited his challenge for the lead by Lap 115 while Wallace maintained third ahead of a side-by-side battle between Byron and Reddick. Then on Lap 120, Bell reassumed the lead after navigating his way around LaJoie through the backstretch for the top spot.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 125, Bell, who came into the event 13 points above the top-12 cutline to advance to the Playoff’s Round of 12, claimed his third Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. LaJoie settled in second followed by Wallace, Byron and Reddick while Chastain, Keselowski, Larson, Truex and Ty Gibbs were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Kyle Busch, Buescher, McDowell, Blaney, Hamlin, Stenhouse, Logano and Harvick were mired outside the top 10 and did not score the first wave of stage points. In addition, 33 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap.
Under the stage break, some led by LaJoie and including Wallace, Reddick, Chastain, Keselowski, Truex, Kyle Busch and Logano pitted while the rest including Bell remained on the track. Not long after, the field led by Bell was directed to pit road and the event was placed in a red flag period due to the return of precipitation. Nearly 15 minutes later, the field re-fired the engines and returned to the oval under a cautious pace.
The second stage started on Lap 140 as Bell and Larson occupied the front row. At the start, Bell muscled ahead from the outside lane to retain the lead as Byron and Ty Gibbs moved up to second and third followed by McDowell while Larson fell back to fifth. As Bell retained the lead, Ty Gibbs muscled his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry into the runner-up spot from the outside lane. McDowell would then challenge Byron for third place nearing the Lap 145 mark as Larson trailed behind in fifth.
By Lap 155, Bell was leading by over teammate Ty Gibbs while Byron, McDowell and Larson followed suit in the top five. Behind, Elliott, Buescher, Bowman, Hamlin and Stenhouse were in the top 10 ahead of Preece, Blaney, Aric Almirola, Todd Gilliland and Carson Hocevar while Erik Jones, LaJoie, Austin Dillon, Harrison Burton and Wallace occupied the top 20. Bell would stabilize his lead to half a second over teammate Ty Gibbs while Larson, who continued to navigate his No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 towards the outside wall to gain the momentum and extra speed towards the straightaways, was up to fourth as he started to challenge Byron for third place.
Just past the Lap 175 mark, Bell, who lapped Logano five laps earlier, was leading by two-tenths of a second over Larson followed by Ty Gibbs, Byron and McDowell while Buescher, Elliott, Hamlin, Bowman and Stenhouse rounded out the top 10. By then, Blaney, Wallace and Kyle Busch were mired in the top 20 while Reddick, Keselowski, Truex, Chastain, Harvick and Logano were all mired below the top 20 and within the top 32 on the track. Amid lapped traffic, Bell would proceed to lap Harvick during the following lap before Larson rocketed to the lead on Lap 179.
By Lap 190, Larson was leading by half a second over Bell while third-place Ty Gibbs trailed by more than a second. Behind, McDowell and Byron retained top-five spots ahead of Buescher, Byron, Hamlin, Elliott, Bowman and Hocevar while Stenhouse, Preece, LaJoie, Erik Jones and Blaney occupied the top 15.
At the Lap 200 mark, the battle for the lead between Bell and Larson reignited as Bell, who reassumed the lead a lap earlier, was leading Larson while Ty Gibbs, McDowell and Buescher followed suit in the top five. With Hamlin and Byron in sixth and seventh, Stenhouse and Blaney were in the top 15 while Playoff contenders Kyle Busch, Reddick, Wallace, Keselowski, Truex, Chastain, Logano and Harvick were mired within the top 32, with Chastain, Logano and Harvick were scored a lap down.
Fifteen laps later, Bell extended his advantage to two seconds over Larson while Ty Gibbs, McDowell and Buescher continued to run in the top five. By then, Hocevar, who was having a stellar run in his fourth event driving the No. 42 entry for Legacy Motor Club, moved up to seventh behind Hamlin while Byron, Elliott and Bowman battled in the top 10.
Another 15 laps later, Bell continued to stretch his advantage as he was now leading by more than three seconds over Larson followed by Ty Gibbs, McDowell and Buescher while Hamlin, Hocevar, Byron, Elliott and Bowman were in the top 10 ahead of Preece, Stenhouse, LaJoie, Erik Jones and Blaney. By then, Playoff contenders Reddick, Wallace, Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Truex, Chastain, Logano and Harvick were mired in 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 28th, 31st and 32nd, respectively.
Just past the Lap 240 mark, Bell retained the lead by more than a second over Larson while Ty Gibbs, Hamlin and McDowell remained in the top five as the leaders started to approach lapped traffic and a bevy of Playoff contenders, including Kyle Busch and Truex.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 250, Bell captured his fourth Cup stage victory of 2023 and second of the night. Ty Gibbs navigated his way around Larson to claim the runner-up spot while Hamlin, Hocevar, McDowell, Buescher, Byron, Preece and Elliott were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Stenhouse, Blaney, Wallace, Keselowski, Reddick, Truex, Kyle Busch, Chastain, Logano and Harvick did not score the second wave of stage points while Chastain, Logano and Harvick were mired a lap down. By then, 23 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap, including 23rd-place runner Kyle Busch, while Hamlin and Byron clinched their spots for the Playoff’s Round of 12 based on points.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Bell pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Ty Gibbs emerged as the new leader after exiting pit road first followed by teammate Hamlin, Larson, teammate Bell, Buescher, Hocevar, McDowell and Preece.
With 240 laps remaining, the final stage started as teammates Ty Gibbs and Hamlin occupied the front row. At the start, Gibbs rocketed with the lead over Hamlin while Larson and Buescher battled for third place in front of Bell and McDowell. Then two laps later, the caution quickly returned when LaJoie, who was running 12th and having a strong run towards the front, got loose entering the backstretch and bounced off Erik Jones before spinning down the track, clipping the inside wall and sliding back up the track as he clipped Logano with Ryan Newman, Ty Dillon and Justin Haley all being collected in a multi-car wreck. The damage to the left rear of Logano’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang was enough to terminate Logano’s event from further contention and potentially his title hopes of this season pending the outcomes of Truex, Wallace and Harvick.
During the proceeding restart with 229 laps remaining, teammates Ty Gibbs and Hamlin dueled for the lead until Gibbs muscled ahead through Turns 3 and 4 as he retained the lead. Behind, Larson was in third followed by Buescher while Bell navigated his way into fifth as McDowell and Hocevar battled for sixth amid a series of battles ensuing within the pack.
With less than 210 laps remaining, Ty Gibbs retained the lead by six-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin followed by Larson, Buescher and teammate Bell while Hocevar, McDowell, Preece, Bowman and Erik Jones while Elliott, Byron, Stenhouse, Wallace and Almirola trailed in the top 15 ahead of Keselowski, Austin Dillon, Reddick, Todd Gilliland and Truex. By then, Harvick, who was currently scored three points below the cutline behind Truex and Wallace, was mired in 28th after scraping the outside wall earlier.
Down to the final 200 laps of the event, Ty Gibbs continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin as Larson, Buescher and Bell remained in the top five. Behind, Wallace, who drew himself back into contention to make the cutline amid Logano’s retirement, was in 14th behind Byron and Stenhouse. In addition, Truex, who was also battling for the final transfer spot to the cutline, was mired in 20th in front of Kyle Busch while Harvick, who was four points below the cutline, was trapped in 29th as he continued to deal with handling issues to his Ford.
Five laps later, Blaney, who was in 24th place on the track and 23 points above the cutline despite making earlier contact with the wall, was lapped by the leader Ty Gibbs as Hamlin tried to close in on his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate for the lead.
With 175 laps remaining, Ty Gibbs extended his advantage to more than a second over teammate Hamlin as Larson, Buescher, Bell, Hocevar, McDowell, Bowman, Preece and Byron were running in the top 10. Meanwhile, Wallace, who nearly made contact with Keselowski a few laps earlier, was in 13th, Truex was in 19th in front of Kyle Busch, Blaney was back in 23rd, Chastain was mired in 25th and Harvick was in 28th.
Twenty-five laps later, Ty Gibbs, who lapped Playoff contender Kyle Busch more than 10 laps earlier, continued to lead by four-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin while Larson, Buescher, Bell, Hocevar, McDowell, Bowman, Preece and Byron remained in the top 10. By then, Keselowski, Stenhouse and Wallace were in the top 14, Reddick was in 17th, Truex was in 19th ahead of Kyle Busch, Blaney was back in 23rd, Chastain was in 25th and Harvick lost a spot to 29th.
Another four laps later, the battle for the lead intensified between Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs and Hamlin as Hamlin used the inside lane to muscle ahead and lead a lap for himself before Gibbs fought back on the outside lane and reassumed the top spot. With Gibbs trying to pull away, Larson started to close in on both for the lead while Truex was trying to remain ahead of the leaders to remain on the lead lap. Then with 141 laps remaining, Hamlin, who transitioned to the outside lane, navigated his way around Ty Gibbs to assume the lead.
Then with 139 laps remaining, Truex, who was running 19th and just lapped by teammate Hamlin, got sideways entering the frontstretch and made contact with the right-rear quarter panel of his car towards the wall, though he managed to continue straight without spinning his car. Despite Truex being scored the first competitor a lap down at the moment of caution, he was not awarded the free pass due to instigating the caution for the spin.
During the caution period, the leaders led by Hamlin pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin retained the lead after exiting first ahead of Larson, Buescher, Bell, Ty Gibbs, McDowell, Hocevar and Byron.
With 131 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Hamlin and Larson dueled for the lead for a lap until Hamlin used the outside lane to rocket ahead of Larson during the following lap. Hamlin, however, slipped up the track, which allowed Larson to nearly draw even with Hamlin and battle him for the lead as the field behind jostled for late positions. With 127 laps remaining, Hamlin managed to clear Larson with the lead as Bell navigated his way up to third ahead of Buescher and Ty Gibbs. With Hamlin leading by seven-tenths of a second over Larson with 120 laps remaining, McDowell was in sixth as he was currently scored 17 points below the cutline and faced a “must-win” situation to advance into the Round of 12. Meanwhile, Wallace was in 14th behind teammate Reddick, Truex was in 19th a lap down, and Harvick was in 29th, three laps down.
Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Hamlin continued to lead by more than a second over Larson followed by Bell, Buescher and Ty Gibbs while McDowell, Elliott, Byron, Hocevar and Stenhouse were scored in the top 10 ahead of Keselowski. Behind, Wallace retained 13th ahead of teammate Reddick, Truex remained as the first competitor a lap down in 19th in front of Kyle Busch, Blaney and Chastain while Harvick continued to run three laps down in 29th, which currently places him and Logano below the cutline behind Wallace and Truex.
Twenty-five laps later, Hamlin stabilized his advantage to nearly two seconds over Larson followed by Bell, Buescher and Ty Gibbs while McDowell, Elliott, Byron, Hocevar and Keselowski were in the top 10. By then, Hamlin lapped 18th-place Aric Almirola a few laps earlier as Almirola was ahead of Truex in a battle for the free pass position while Wallace remained in 13th in between Preece and Bowman. In addition, Harvick continued to run 29th while now scored four laps down.
With less than 60 laps remaining, Hamlin, who was trying to lap 16th-place runner Todd Gilliland, stabilized his advantage to six-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Larson while Bell, Buescher and McDowell remained in the top five. Despite Larson gaining ground in the proceeding laps while continuing to rim-ride towards the outside wall, Hamlin, who managed to lap Gilliland, increased his lead to more than a second over Larson with 50 laps remaining.
With 35 laps remaining, Hamlin stretched his advantage to more than two seconds over Larson. By then, Wallace was a lap down despite retaining 14th place on the track while Truex retained 19th ahead of Kyle Busch, Blaney, Suarez and Chastain. Both Wallace and Truex, though, continued to emerge ahead of both Harvick and Logano above the current Playoff cutline as Hamlin continued to lead with 25 laps remaining.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Hamlin retained the lead by more than two seconds over Larson while Bell, Buescher and McDowell followed pursuit in the top five. As Ty Gibbs, Elliott, Keselowski, Byron and Hocevar were scored in the top 10 on the track, Wallace and Truex remained in 14th and 19th on the track while Harvick also remained in 29th. Amid the late battles for on-track spots and potential transfer spots to the Round of 12, Hamlin remained out in front by less than two seconds over Larson.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Hamlin kept his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry out in front by less than two seconds over Larson’s No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 while third-place Bell trailed by more than four seconds. Hamlin, who would proceed to lap teammate Truex for a second time, would also proceed to lead by less than two seconds with five laps remaining.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hamlin remained as the leader by more than two seconds over Larson. Despite being marred by more lapped traffic and trying to catch 10th-place Stenhouse, Hamlin was able to smoothly cycle his way around the 0.533-mile oval for a final time and cross the finish line first to claim the checkered flag and win by more than two seconds over Larson.
With the victory, Hamlin notched his 51st career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series, which moved him into sole possession in 13th place on the all-time wins list. The Bristol victory under the lights marked his third at the track, his third of the season and his first since winning at Pocono Raceway in July. It also marked the seventh of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing and the ninth of the season for Toyota.
Having clinched his spot for the Round of 12 earlier in the night, Hamlin will continue his quest to contend for his first elusive NASCAR Cup Series championship in his 18th season as a full-time competitor.
Photo by Andrew Boyd for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“Everybody likes a winner, right?” Hamlin, who took a swipe at the chorus of boos from the crowd, said on USA Network. “[I] Can’t thank this whole FedEx team enough. They really kicked ass this whole first round. Just amazing how good our team has been. Just so happy about the way we’re running. Can’t wait to keep going. It’s our year. I just feel like we’ve got it all put together. We got the speed every single type of racetrack. Nothing to stop us at this point. Hey, I beat your favorite driver! All of them!”
Kyle Larson settled in the runner-up spot followed by Bell and Buescher, all of whom transferred into the Playoff’s Round of 12 while rookie Ty Gibbs ended up in fifth place after leading 102 laps. McDowell, Elliott, Keselowski, Byron and Stenhouse completed the top 10 on the track, all of whom finished on the lead lap.
Meanwhile, Bubba Wallace and Martin Truex Jr., both of whom entered Bristol below the cutline, were left smiling on pit road after both managed to secure the final two transfer spots into the Round of 12 by finishing 14th and 19th, respectively, amid a grueling event.
“God, I love that [expletive] right there, counting us out,” Wallace, who proceeds forward in his quest to win his first Cup title and secured both 23XI Racing cars into the Round of 12 along with Tyler Reddick, said. “Like [tennis star] Coco Gauff said, all [the critics] are doing is adding fuel to the fire. I love it. I love where I’m at with this team. I’m at a career year. Just got to keep it going. I’m mentally exhausted. I’m wore out. Gave it our all there. Battled hard and executed. That’s what you gotta do. We know next week’s a reset and we just got to go out, have some fun and work our asses off. Thank you to the ones that believe in me. Keep it going and onto next week.”
Photo by Chad Wells for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“All in all, it was just a fighting night,” Truex, who will continue to battle for his second Cup title, added. “We had to fight through it and do the best we could. It wasn’t pretty, but it was enough. Now we reset and we can go, hopefully, not have two terrible weeks in a row like we did this round in the next couple and be in good shape.”
Photo by Chad Wells for SpeedwayMedia.com.
With Wallace and Truex advancing into the Round of 12 along with Byron, Hamlin, Larson, Buescher, Kyle Busch, Bell, Reddick, Chastain, Keselowski and Blaney, Logano, who ended up 34th, was officially eliminated from title contention as he will not defend his series’ title nor contend for a third Cup title this season. Kevin Harvick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Michael McDowell also joined Logano as the first four wave of competitors to be eliminated from Playoff contention for the 2023 season.
“We’ve been like that all year,” Harvick, who ended up 29th, five laps down, and will not contend for his second championship in his 23rd and final full-time season in the Cup Series, said. “We’ve been hit or miss and tonight, we just missed by a mile. I’ve had some good days and bad days, but that’s definitely the worst [run at Bristol] I’ve had with fenders on [the car]. I didn’t really have many expectations with this up and down as the year has been, so it is what it is. That’s probably about what we deserved.”
Photo by Chad Wells for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“Tonight, it wasn’t enough,” McDowell added. “We were in a “must-win” situation. Still really proud of everybody at Front Row Motorsports. Not quite enough to run with those top two or three guys, but pretty good. Those first two [Playoff] races just killed us. It just put us so far behind, but this is a learning experience. It’s a young group. We didn’t do what we wanted to do here in these Playoffs, but I think we showed speed. We showed that we could do it, so we’ll learn from this. We’ll get ready for next year.”
There were 10 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 53 laps.
Results.
1. Denny Hamlin, 142 laps led
2. Kyle Larson, 20 laps led
3. Christopher Bell, 187 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner
4. Chris Buescher, one lap led
5. Ty Gibbs, 102 laps led
6. Michael McDowell
7. Chase Elliott
8. Brad Keselowski
9. William Byron
10. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
11. Carson Hocevar, one lap down
12. Ryan Preece, one lap down
13. Alex Bowman, one lap down
14. Bubba Wallace, one lap down
15. Tyler Reddick, one lap down
16. Todd Gilliland, one lap down
17. Austin Dillon, one lap down
18. Aric Almirola, one lap down
19. Martin Truex Jr., two laps down
20. Kyle Busch, two laps down
21. Daniel Suarez, two laps down
22. Ryan Blaney, two laps down
23. Ross Chastain, two laps down
24. Erik Jones, three laps down
25. Corey LaJoie, three laps down
26. JJ Yeley, five laps down
27. Chase Briscoe, five laps down
28. Harrison Burton, five laps down
29. Kevin Harvick, five laps down
30. AJ Allmendinger, nine laps down
31. BJ McLeod, 10 laps down
32. Austin Cindric, 12 laps down
33. Ty Dillon – OUT, Accident
34. Joey Logano – OUT, Accident
35. Justin Haley – OUT, Accident
36. Ryan Newman – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates Playoff contenders
Playoff standings
1. William Byron – Advanced
2. Martin Truex Jr. – Advanced
3. Denny Hamlin – Advanced
4. Kyle Larson – Advanced
5. Chris Buescher – Advanced
6. Kyle Busch – Advanced
7. Christopher Bell – Advanced
8. Tyler Reddick – Advanced
9. Ross Chastain – Advanced
10. Brad Keselowski – Advanced
11. Ryan Blaney – Advanced
12. Bubba Wallace – Advanced
13. Joey Logano – Eliminated
14. Kevin Harvick – Eliminated
15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – Eliminated
16. Michael McDowell – Eliminated
The Round of 12 in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to commence next Sunday, September 24, at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. The event’s broadcast is slated to occur at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.
A week after being left disappointed with a runner-up finish in the Playoff opener at Darlington Raceway, Tyler Reddick capitalized on a late caution period and an overtime shootout to emerge out in top and race his way into the second round of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs by winning the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, September 10.
The two-time Xfinity Series champion from Corning, California, led the final two of 268 over-scheduled laps in an event where he started fifth, scored stage points during both stage break periods and ran a consistent event while keeping pace with the leaders. Initially set to finish in the runner-up spot behind team owner and Playoff contender Denny Hamlin, an opportunity presented itself for Reddick and the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota team when the caution flew with seven laps remaining after Playoff contender Chris Buescher blew a right-rear tire.
Amid mixed strategy among the leaders, Reddick, who opted for a four-tire pit stop, exited pit road sixth and lineup alongside Hamlin on the third row for an overtime shootout. During overtime, Reddick managed to quickly carve his way up to third before he pulled a bold three-wide pass on both Erik Jones and Joey Logano through the frontstretch to assume the lead as he also started the final lap of the event. With the clean air and the fresh tires, Reddick was able to fend off Jones and a hard-charging Hamlin to claim his second checkered flag of the 2023 Cup season and become the second Playoff contender alongside Kyle Larson to transfer from the Round of 16 to 12 by winning.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, September 9, Playoff contender Christopher Bell claimed his fourth Cup pole position of the 2023 season and second in recent weeks after posting a pole-winning lap at 180.276 mph in 29.954 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Kyle Larson, winner of last weekend’s Playoff opener at Darlington Raceway who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 179.826 mph in 30.029 seconds.
Prior to the event, Kyle Busch dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 as a result of damaging his car against the Turn 3 outside wall after blowing a tire during Saturday’s practice session. Rookie Ty Gibbs also dropped to the rear of the field in a backup car after he wrecked his primary car during practice.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Bell took off with the top spot on the inside lane as he rocketed away from the field that was fanning out through the first two turns and through the backstretch. With the field continuing to jostle for early positions, Bell proceeded to lead the first lap in his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota TRD Camry. Behind, Kyle Larson fended off Martin Truex Jr. to retain the runner-up spot entering the second lap as Truex was being attacked by Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, William Byron and Michael McDowell for more.
Then on the third lap, Truex, who was continuing to backslide and had fallen out of the top 10 on the track, got loose while running 11th and pounded the outside wall in Turn 3 after losing a tire. The incident and the damage to his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota TRD Camry were enough to terminate Truex’s run three laps into the event.
“Just really unfortunate, very unlucky,” Truex said at the infield care center on USA Network. “[The car] took off really tight. [I] Knew something was up and blew a right rear [tire]. Not really sure what happened. Obviously, it blew in the worst place possible. I hate it for my guys. We had an awesome race car. We were gonna have a really good day. Just not real sure what we need to do to get some luck right now.”
During the first caution period, select names that included Ryan Preece, Harrison Burton, Ty Dillon, Kyle Busch and JJ Yeley pitted while the rest led by Bell remained on the track.
When the race restarted under green on the ninth lap, Bell and Larson dueled for the lead through the frontstretch until Larson managed to rocket ahead from the outside lane and snatch the lead from Bell. With the field behind jostling for positions, Larson started to pull away from Bell with the lead while Chastain and Elliott battled for third in front of Byron, Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick.
By the 12th lap, Wallace muscled his No. 23 Columbia Sportswear Toyota TRD Camry up to fourth followed by Byron and Reddick while Elliott, who nearly scrubbed the outside wall entering the frontstretch a few laps earlier, was being pressured by Austin Dillon, Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski for seventh place. In the midst of the battles, Larson retained the lead in his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the Lap 15 mark.
Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Larson was leading by more than a second over Bell followed by Wallace, Chastain and Byron while Reddick, Elliott, Blaney, Denny Hamlin and Austin Dillon were in the top 10. Behind, Erik Jones was in 11th ahead of Keselowski, Chris Buescher, Joey Logano and Michael McDowell while AJ Allmendinger, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Alex Bowman, Kevin Harvick and Justin Haley occupied the top 20 in front of Austin Cindric, Kyle Busch, Chase Briscoe, Daniel Suarez and Carson Hocevar.
Five laps later, Larson continued to lead by more than a second over Wallace, who overtook Bell for the runner-up spot two laps earlier, while Byron was up to fourth after he overtook Chastain’s No. 1 Kubota Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for the spot three laps earlier. Behind, Reddick occupied sixth place in front of Elliott, Hamlin and Blaney, thus placing eight Playoff competitors in the top 10 on the track, while Elliott and Erik Jones were the two highest-running non-Playoff competitors in seventh and 10th.
Another 10 laps later, Larson extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Wallace while Bell, Byron and Chastain remained in the top five in front of Reddick, Hamlin, Elliott, Erik Jones and Blaney.
Then on Lap 36, the first wave of green flag pit stops slowly commenced as Playoff contender Joey Logano pitted his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang followed by Corey LaJoie, Keselowski, McDowell, Daniel Suarez, Hamlin, Elliott, Austin Dillon, Chris Buescher, Erik Jones, Allmendinger, Alex Bowman, Harvick, Chase Briscoe, Ty Gibbs, Hocevar, Bell, Byron, Chastain, Blaney, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Justin Haley and Austin Cindric. By Lap 39, Larson surrendered the lead to pit along with Wallace, Kyle Busch and Sheldon Creed as Aric Almirola, who has yet to pit, cycled into the lead followed by teammate Ryan Preece and Harrison Burton.
By Lap 42, Larson cycled back into the lead after Almirola and Preece pitted. Wallace also returned to the runner-up spot by Lap 43 as Harrison Burton pitted. Then by Lap 45, Byron, Bell and Reddick cycled into the top five with nearly the entire field having made a pit stop under green.
At the Lap 50 mark, Larson was leading by more than a second over Wallace followed by Byron, Bell and Reddick while Chastain, Hamlin, Elliott, Erik Jones and Ty Dillon were scored in the top 10, thus placing eight of 12 Playoff contenders in the top 10 on the track. Behind, Austin Dillon was in 11th ahead of Playoff contenders Blaney, Buescher and Keselowski while JJ Yeley was in 15th ahead of Allmendinger, Kyle Busch, Logano, Bowman and Harvick. By then, Stenhouse and McDowell were mired back in 21st and 23rd.
Ten laps later, Larson stabilized his advantage to one-and-a-half seconds over Wallace while Byron, Reddick and Bell followed suit in the top five. By then, Erik Jones was up to seventh after he overtook Chastain while Blaney returned to the top 10 as he was running 10th behind Elliott. In addition, teammates Buescher and Keselowski were still mired in the top 15 and Kyle Busch cracked the top 15 while Logano, Harvick, Stenhouse and McDowell were mired within the top 20.
Then on Lap 62, the second caution flag flew when Byron, who was running fourth in front of Bell, got loose and spun his No. 24 Raptor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 below the backstretch, though he managed to proceed without damaging his car. The incident occurred a lap after Austin Dillon, who was battling Buescher in 11th, got loose while and smacked the outside wall, damaging the right side of his No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Larson returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Wallace emerged as the new leader after he managed to beat Larson off of pit road first while Bell, Reddick, Hamlin, Chastin and Elliott followed suit. In the midst of the pit stops Haley was penalized for speeding on pit road. In addition, Suarez was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation. Prior to the restart, Playoff contender Buescher would pit for a second time due to a left-front wheel being loose on his No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang.
With 11 laps remaining in the first stage period, the race restarted under green. At the start, Wallace and Larson dueled for the lead through the frontstretch until Larson managed to muscle ahead and reassume the lead from the inside lane. With Larson back in the lead, Bell battled Wallace for the runner-up spot in front of Chastain and Reddick as the field fanned out to three lanes. Wallace would manage to reassume the runner-up spot from Bell during the proceeding lap as he tried to track Larson for the lead.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 80, Larson captured his fourth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Wallace followed suit in the runner-up spot along with third-place Bell while Chastain, Blaney, Reddick, Hamlin, Keselowski, Elliott and Kevin Harvick, all of whom were in the Playoffs, were scored in the top 10. By then, 32 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while Kyle Busch, Byron, McDowell, Logano, Buescher and Stenhouse were the remaining Playoff competitors on the track who did not accumulate the first wave of stage points.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Larson returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Larson retained the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Wallace, Chastain, Elliott, Reddick, Hamlin, Keselowski and Bell, who lost five spots on pit road.
The second stage started on Lap 87 as Larson and Wallace occupied the front row. At the start, Larson received a strong push from teammate Chase Elliott on the inside lane to retain the lead and muscle away from the field as Elliott battled Wallace for the runner-up spot. With the field behind jostling for positions, Larson retained the lead in front of teammate Elliott and Wallace while Chastain tried to join the battle in fourth place. With Reddick running fifth, Hamlin and Keselowski battled for sixth place in front of Bell, Harvick, McDowell and Logano as Larson proceeded to lead the Lap 90 mark.
At the Lap 100 mark, Larson was leading by more than a second over Wallace followed by Elliott, Reddick and Chastain while Hamlin, Keselowski, Bell, Harvick and Logano were running in the top 10. Behind, Blaney was mired back in 11th ahead of Kyle Busch, Allmendinger, Buescher and Erik Jones while Alex Bowman, Byron, McDowell, Suarez and Cindric occupied the top 20 in front of Aric Almirola, Justin Haley, Hocevar, Ty Gibbs, Briscoe, Stenhouse, LaJoie, Ryan Preece, Harrison Burton and Cole Custer.
Seven laps later, the caution flew when Wallace, who was running second, lost a right-rear tire and scrubbed the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2 as he limped his damaged No. 23 Toyota to pit road with a flat right-rear tire and a broken right-rear toe link. While Wallace’s pit crew managed to repair the car to keep Wallace in contention, he lost three laps in the process and would continue to lose more laps as he pitted for more repairs.
During the caution period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Larson pitted for service while JJ Yeley and Ty Dillon remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Larson exited first followed by teammate Elliott, Keselowski, Reddick, Chastain, Hamlin, Harvick and Bell. Amid the pit stops, Ty Gibbs was sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road. Once Yeley and Ty Dillon pitted shortly after, Larson cycled back into the lead.
When the race restarted under green on Lap 113, teammates Elliott and Larson dueled for the lead as the field fanned out to three and four lanes through the frontstretch. As Larson and Elliott continued to duel for the lead for nearly a lap, Reddick pulled a bold three-wide move on both Hendrick Motorsports competitors through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1 to assume the lead. Then just as Elliott claimed the lead from Reddick through the backstretch, the caution quickly returned when Cindric, who had cracked the top 20, received a bump from Michael McDowell and spun his No. 2 Menards Ford Mustang towards the apron through Turns 1 and 2.
During the proceeding restart on Lap 119, Elliott rocketed away from the field on the inside lane as he retained the lead ahead of teammate Larson and Reddick while the field again fanned out entering the backstretch. With Elliott leading the proceeding lap, Keselowski was up to fourth followed by Harvick, who would lose the top-five spot to Chastain by Lap 121 as Blaney battled Harvick for sixth. By then, Hamlin, Bell and Logano were mired back in the top 10 while Byron was in 16th and trying to fight his way back towards the front.
Just past the Lap 125 mark, Elliott was leading by two-tenths of a second over teammate Larson followed by Keselowski and Reddick, both of whom were trying to close in on the two Hendric leaders, while Harvick was in fifth. By then, Briscoe was off the pace after he lost power, starting in Turn 3, in his No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang as he was nearly hit by an oncoming Corey LaJoie. With Briscoe continuing to fall off the pace through the backstretch and below the apron, the caution flew on Lap 127. During the caution period, some led by Keselowski pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.
With the race restarting under green on Lap 132, Larson and Elliott dueled for the lead through the frontstretch as the field fanned out amid the competitors who pitted versus those who did not. With Elliott rocketing away with the lead, Blaney carved his way up to second followed by Buescher while Larson, who got loose while battling Chastain entering the backstretch since the restart, was overtaken by Harvick, Bell and Keselowski for spots, thus dropping him to seventh in front of Kyle Busch. Larson would continue to lose spots and fall out of the top 10 on the track while on old tires as the event reached its halfway mark. By then, Elliott, who was running on old tires, retained the lead in front of Blaney as Harvick battled and overtook Buescher for third place.
Two laps later, Harvick, racing on fresh tires, moved his No. 4 SunnyD Ford Mustang into the runner-up spot as he overtook Blaney before setting his sights on Elliott for the lead. With Harvick, Keselowski and Blaney trailing Elliott from second to fourth within a second by Lap 140, Larson had fallen back to 16th while Chastain plummeted to 27th behind McDowell.
At the Lap 150 mark, Elliott retained the lead by nine-tenths of a second over Keselowski, who overtook Harvick for the runner-up spot while also on fresh tires, while Hamlin and Blaney trailed in the top five. By then, Reddick was back in sixth ahead of Erik Jones, Logano, Buescher and Bell while Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, Suarez, Almirola, Hocevar and Byron trailed in the top 16. In addition, Larson was back in 20th behind teammate Bowman while Chastain was mired in 25th behind McDowell. In addition, Stenhouse was in 30th while Wallace, who was six laps behind the leaders, was in 34th.
Ten laps later, Elliott continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Keselowski, who was continuing to gain ground in his No. 6 BuildSumbarines.com Ford Mustang through every turn and straightaway. Meanwhile, Hamlin cycled his No. 11 Yahoo! Toyota TRD Camry into third place over Harvick and Reddick while Erik Jones was in sixth ahead of Team Penske’s Blaney and Logano.
Then with three laps remaining in the second stage period, Keselowski muscled his way into the lead over Elliott as Hamlin started to gain ground and join the battle for the lead. Despite nearly getting held up by the lapped competitor of Austin Dillon during the following lap, Keselowski retained the lead over Elliott as Hamlin kept both close within his sights.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 165, Keselowski, who came into the event 18 points above the cutline, claimed his fifth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Hamlin, who overtook Elliott for the runner-up spot during the proceeding lap, settled in second followed by Elliott while Harvick, Reddick, Erik Jones, Blaney, Logano, Buescher and Bell were scored in the top 10. By then, 30 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap. With eight of 16 Playoff competitors scoring stage points, the following names that included Kyle Busch, Byron, Larson, McDowell, Chastain, Stenhouse and Wallace were the remaining Playoff contenders running on the track who did not achieve the second round of stage points.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Keselowski pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Keselowski retained the lead after exiting pit road first while Hamlin, Harvick, Erik Jones, Reddick, Blaney, Buescher and Elliott, who lost five spots during his pit stop, followed suit. Amid the pit stops, Chastain was penalized due to his pit crew jumping over the pit wall too soon.
With 96 laps remaining, the final stage started as Keselowski and Hamlin occupied the front row. At the start, Keselowski and Hamlin dueled for the lead through the first two turns and through the backstretch while Harvick and Erik Jones trailed behind along with a hard-charging Reddick. With Hamlin leading the proceeding lap by a hair, Keselowski managed to reassume the lead from Hamlin and clear the field from the inside lane during the next lap while Reddick and Erik Jones battled for third in front of Harvick and Blaney.
The caution would return with 94 laps remaining when Hocevar slid up the track and made contact with Harrison Burton toward the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2 before Burton hit the wall again in Turn 3. During the caution period, some of the drivers, including Larson, McDowell and Byron pitted while the rest led by Keselowski remained on the track.
With the race restarting with 88 laps remaining, Keselowski managed to muscle away from the inside lane to retain the lead ahead of Hamlin while Erik Jones followed suit in third. Jones and Hamlin then battled for the runner-up spot for nearly a lap in front of Harvick, Reddick, Elliott and Blaney while Keselowski rocketed away with the lead by three-tenths of a second.
Then with 81 laps remaining, the battle for the lead ignited as Hamlin made his move beneath Keselowski through the frontstretch. Hamlin then managed to clear Keselowski and slide up the track to inherit the lead. Behind, Reddick, Hamlin’s driver at 23XI Racing, overtook Keselowski for the runner-up spot as he ignited his charge on Hamlin for the lead.
With 70 laps remaining, Hamlin stabilized his advantage to two-tenths of a second over Reddick while Keselowski, Erik Jones and Elliott were in the top five. Behind, Harvick, Blaney, Bell and Buescher followed suit from sixth to ninth while Larson, racing on fresh tires, cracked the top 10 as he was in 10th ahead of Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, Logano, Suarez, Bowman and Byron.
Ten laps later, Hamlin continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over Reddick while Keselowski, Erik Jones and Elliott were in the top five. By then, Larson, who barely scrubbed the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2, was in ninth behind Bell while Kyle Busch and Buescher battled for 10th place. With Harvick, Blaney and Bell running sixth through eighth, Logano was in 13th behind Ty Gibbs, Byron was mired in 16th, Chastain was in 18th, Stenhouse was back in 22nd and McDowell was in 25th behind Briscoe.
Another six laps later, another cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Blaney and Erik Jones pitted their respective entries. Keselowski would pit during the proceeding lap along with Harvick, Kyle Busch, Chastain, Ryan Preece, LaJoie, Hocevar, Reddick, Elliott, Larson, Ty Gibbs, Buescher, Almirola, Briscoe, Stenhouse and Yeley. Hamlin would then surrender the lead to pit with 52 laps remaining along with Bowman and Justin Haley as Bell cycled into the lead. Bell would then pit under green with 45 laps remaining along with Byron as Daniel Suarez, who has yet to pit, cycled into the lead ahead of McDowell, Todd Gilliland and Hamlin.
Then with 36 laps remaining, Hamlin cycled back into the lead after Suarez pitted his No. 99 Freeway.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. By then, Reddick trailed in the runner-up spot by more than a second while Keselowski, Erik Jones and Elliott were scored in the top five ahead of McDowell, Blaney, Larson, Harvick and Kyle Busch.
Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Hamlin stabilized his advantage to one-and-a-half seconds over Reddick while Keselowski, Erik Jones and Elliott remained in the top five. Larson, Kyle Busch, Blaney, Harvick and Ty Gibbs followed suit in the top 10 as Hamlin retained the lead with 20 and 15 laps remaining.
With 10 laps remaining, Hamlin extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Reddick while third-place Elliott trailed by more than nine seconds in his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
Then with seven laps remaining, the caution flew when Buescher, who was running 12th, blew a right-rear tire through the frontstretch as he fell off the pace while the tire disintegrated on his No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang. During the caution period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Hamlin pitted for service while Suarez remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Erik Jones exited first after opting for two fresh tires for his No. 43 Allegiant Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 along with Kyle Busch and Logano while Hamlin exited pit road fourth and the first on four fresh tires ahead of Larson, Reddick, Elliott and Keselowski. Amid the pit stops, teammates Larson and Elliott made contact while both were exiting pit road, which prompted Elliott to bump Larson to express his displeasure over the contact.
With the event restarting in overtime, where Suarez and Erik Jones occupied the front row in front of Kyle Busch and Logano, Logano wasted no time diving his car beneath Suarez and both along with Erik Jones fanned out to three lanes through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1. Logano and Jones then made their way to the front followed by Reddick, Larson, Elliott and Hamlin while Suarez was falling back. Through the backstretch and Turns 3 and 4, Logano and Jones continued to duel for the lead as Reddick closed in on fresh tires.
Then entering the frontstretch, Reddick dropped the hammer and crossed his No. 45 MoneyLion Toyota TRD Camry from the top to the bottom lane beneath Logano and Erik Jones. With the momentum and the fresh tires, Reddick overtook both through the frontstretch and gained the lead as the white flag waved and the final lap occurred. With Reddick leading, Hamlin then gained a run on both Logano and Jones as he tried to use the outside lane to close in on Reddick. Entering the backstretch, however, Hamlin was blocked by Jones, which allowed Reddick to continue to lead by a decent margin. Hamlin then tried to use the outside lane again to step on the gas and mount a final corner charge for the win. Despite overtaking Jones while scrubbing the wall, Hamin’s momentum was not enough as Reddick was able to cycle back to the frontstretch and claim the checkered flag by three-tenths of a second to win.
With the victory, Reddick scored his fifth career win in NASCAR’s premier series, his second of the season, his first at Kansas and his first since winning at Circuit of the Americas in March. By becoming the second race winner in the Round of 16, Reddick advanced into the Playoff’s Round of 12 for the first time in his career as he continues his quest to win the first Cup Series title for himself, crew chief Billy Scott and the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota team.
Ironically, Reddick’s victory marked the third time 23XI Racing’s No. 45 entry won at Kansas after the No. 45 car swept both Cup Kansas events a year ago with Kurt Busch and Bubba Wallace. Overall, Reddick also recorded the fifth career victory for 23XI Racing.
“Just an outstanding job by this whole 23XI team,” Reddick said on USA Network. “We had really good pace, but just couldn’t get ahead of Denny [Hamlin] there. Chaos ensued, people stayed out, some took two tires and the bottom lane opened up. Pretty crazy. Four fresh tires, sent it in there and slide up. We’ve had really fast cars with this MoneyLion scheme and it’s really great to get it back to Victory Lane. We came here in the spring. I broke the streak and I didn’t get the No. 45 [car] back in Victory Lane, so I came back here motivated to get it where it belongs.”
Hamlin, who led 63 laps and was initially in the position of sweeping both Kansas Cup events, ended up in the runner-up spot. Amid his disappointment, Hamlin scaled back to the overtime restart, where he restarted alongside Reddick on the third row and opted to lay back to potentially have Larson draft him instead of keeping pace with the front-runners, a decision that may have cost him time to drive back to the front and win.
“[Larson] was just laying back so much, I was trying to back up to him,” Hamlin said. “I should’ve just focused forward. [I] Gave [Reddick] an opportunity to get up there in front of us. Just sleeping on the restart, looking in the rearview [mirror] instead of looking in the front. Hats off to the Yahoo! Camry TRD team. Another really, really fast car. Just didn’t need that caution at the end.”
Erik Jones, who was initially in the position of winning for Legacy Motor Club, ended up in third place while Larson and Logano finished in the top five. Elliott, Kyle Busch, Bell, Keselowski and Alex Bowman completed the top 10 on the track.
Notably, Harvick, Blaney, Chastain, Byron, Stenhouse, McDowell, Buescher and Wallace were the remaining Playoff contenders on the track to finish outside the top 10.
There were 19 lead changes for 10 different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 45 laps. In addition, 24 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Tyler Reddick, two laps led
2. Denny Hamlin, 63 laps led
3. Erik Jones
4. Kyle Larson, 99 laps led, Stage 1 winner
5. Joey Logano
6. Chase Elliott, 47 laps led
7. Kyle Busch
8. Christopher Bell, 15 laps led
9. Brad Keselowski, 23 laps led, Stage 2 winner
10. Alex Bowman
11. Kevin Harvick
12. Ryan Blaney
13. Ross Chastain
14. Ty Gibbs
15. William Byron
16. Daniel Suarez, 12 laps led
17. Aric Almirola, three laps led
18. Ryan Preece
19. Chase Briscoe
20. Carson Hocevar
21. Justin Haley
22. Corey LaJoie
23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
24. Cole Custer
25. Todd Gilliland, one lap down
26. Michael McDowell, one lap down
27. Chris Buescher, one lap down
28. Ty Dillon, one lap down
29. Sheldon Creed, two laps down
30. AJ Allmendinger, two laps down
31. Austin Cindric, two laps down
32. Bubba Wallace, four laps down, three laps led
33. Austin Dillon, nine laps down
34. JJ Yeley – OUT, Dvp, one lap led
35. Harrison Burton – OUT, Dvp
36. Martin Truex Jr. – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates Playoff contenders
Playoff standings
1. Kyle Larson – Advanced
2. Tyler Reddick – Advanced
3. Denny Hamlin +49
4. William Byron +41
5. Brad Keselowski +33
6. Ryan Blaney +25
7. Kyle Busch +24
8. Ross Chastain +18
9. Chris Buescher +13
10. Christopher Bell +13
11. Joey Logano +12
12. Kevin Harvick +7
13. Martin Truex Jr. -7
14. Bubba Wallace -19
15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -22
16. Michael McDowell -40
The Round of 16 in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to conclude next weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race, where the first of three eliminations will occur. The event is scheduled to commence on Saturday, September 16, at 7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.
With nearly half the field vying for the 16th and final spot to make the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, the Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing duo of Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski captured the final spotlight amid an overtime shootout as Keselowski drafted teammate Buescher to an overtime victory in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, August 26.
The 2015 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Buescher from Prosper, Texas, led the final two of 163 over-scheduled laps in an event where he started 11th and kept his car intact throughout the event that was mired with competitive racing, 22 lead changes and 17 different competitors taking turns to lead at least a lap amid the draft, even including a 12-car pileup on Lap 94 that wiped out a handful of Playoff hopefuls. Then after surging his way towards the front prior to a harrowing rollover accident involving Ryan Preece with five laps remaining that sent the event into overtime, Buescher received the draft needed from teammate Keselowski to overtake Kevin Harvick and fend off the field through the final two laps to claim his unprecedented third NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season.
By virtue of Buescher, who was already locked into the Playoffs based on winning twice prior to Daytona, winning the regular-season finale at Daytona, Bubba Wallace benefited by rounding out the 2023 Cup Series Playoff field after finishing in 12th place while several top names, among which included Chase Elliott, Daniel Suarez, rookie Ty Gibbs, Alex Bowman and Aric Almirola, did not make the Playoffs.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, August 25, Chase Briscoe notched his first Cup pole position of the season and the second of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 181.822 mph in 49.499 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Aric Almirola, who clocked in the second-best qualifying lap at 181.693 mph in 49.534 seconds.
Prior to the event, Ryan Preece was the only competitor who dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his entry.
When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Briscoe, who started on the outside lane, quickly jumped ahead before he transitioned his No. 14 Magical Vacation Planner Ford Mustang to the inside lane in front of teammate Almirola’s No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang exiting the frontstretch and through the first two turns. As the stacked field navigated through the backstretch, Briscoe muscled ahead with drafting help from teammate Almirola, but Bubba Wallace quickly gained ground from the outside lane as he dueled with Almirola for the runner-up spot. As the field returned to the frontstretch, Briscoe led the first lap as Wallace challenged Briscoe for the lead with drafting help from Riley Herbst, who was piloting the No. 36 Monster Energy Zero Sugar Ford Mustang for Front Row Motorsports.
Through the second lap, Briscoe and Wallace continued to duel for the lead in front of two stacked lanes of competitors, with Briscoe gaining a slight advantage with drafting help from teammate Almirola while Wallace had Herbst still drafting his No. 23 Luke Combs/Columbia Toyota TRD Camry. Through the backstretch and Turns 3 and 4, the inside lane led by Briscoe prevailed as Briscoe started to surge ahead followed by Almirola and Harrison Burton. Then through the frontstretch, rookie Ty Gibbs became the first competitor to lead the outside lane as he moved his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry in front of Wallace as Briscoe proceeded to lead the third lap.
Through the first five scheduled laps and as the field started to fan out and jostle early for positions amid the draft, Briscoe was leading ahead of teammate Almirola, Burton, Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher while Martin Truex Jr., Christopher Bell, AJ Allmendinger, Ty Gibbs and Bubba Wallace were in the top 10. By then, all 39 starters were separated within three seconds.
At the Lap 10 mark, Briscoe retained the lead by 0.075 seconds over teammate Almirola while Burton, Larson and Buescher followed suit in the top five. By then, Truex was serving as the lead competitor on the outside lane as he dueled with Allmendinger for sixth place before Denny Hamlin moved up the outside lane and in front of teammate Truex in his bid for the front. Amid the field still engaged in two tight-packed lanes, Briscoe continued to lead the race.
Five laps later, Briscoe was still leading ahead of teammate Almirola, Burton, Larson and Buescher while Allmendinger, Austin Dillon, Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Truex were in the top 10. By then, Bell, Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, Ty Gibbs, Ryan Blaney, Wallace, Herbst, Tyler Reddick, Kevin Harvick and Ross Chastain were battling within the top 20. Meanwhile, Joey Logano was in 21st ahead of Michael McDowell, Preece, Austin Cindric, Alex Bowman and Daniel Suarez, William Byron was back in 29th and Brad Keselowski drifted back to 38th behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr. as part of a conservative play.
At the Lap 25 mark and with the field continuing to run within two tight-packed lanes, Hamlin, who used the outside lane to move his No. 11 FedEx Cares Toyota TRD Camry into the lead from Briscoe two laps earlier, was leading ahead of teammate Truex while his other two Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Bell and Ty Gibbs followed suit along with his 23XI Racing competitor Wallace. By then, Briscoe fell back to sixth while Herbst, Harvick, Almirola and Logano were scored in the top 10. In addition, Harrison Burton was back in 11th followed by Cindric, Larson, Suarez and Allmendinger while Elliott, who was dealing with radio issues, was in 16th ahead of Austin Dillon, Buescher, Kyle Busch and McDowell.
Just past the Lap 30 mark, Hamlin retained the lead ahead of his three Joe Gibbs Racing teammates while Herbst started to ignite a charge as the lead competitor on the outside lane as he also dueled with Wallace for fifth while receiving drafting help from Ford teammates Harvick, Logano and Cindric. Herbst would then boost his way up to the runner-up spot by Lap 32 before Hamlin moved up the track through the backstretch to block Herbst. This allowed Truex to muscle a challenge on the inside lane during the proceeding lap as the Toyota competitors became separated within two tight-packed lanes.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 35, Truex, who received a big push from teammate Bell to muscle past teammate Hamlin through the backstretch as the field fanned out, captured his sixth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Teammate Bell settled in second followed by Harvick, Ty Gibbs, Logano, Wallace and Cindric while Hamlin fell back to eighth in front of Briscoe and Suarez. By then, all but one of 39 starters were scored on the lead lap as the event featured two lead changes for three different leaders.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Truex pitted for their first service of the night. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategies, Austin Hill exited first after opting for no fresh tires, though he missed his pit stall, followed by Logano, the first competitor with four fresh tires, as Truex, Bell, Wallace, Harvick, Suarez, Hamlin and Briscoe followed suit. Amid the pit stops, Justin Haley was penalized for equipment interference. In addition, Kyle Busch was penalized for a crew member jumping over the pit wall too soon. Once Hill pitted again, Logano cycled into the race lead.
The second stage started on Lap 40 as Logano and Truex occupied the front row. At the start, Truex and Logano dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Logano muscled ahead in his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang entering the backstretch with drafting help from Harvick and Suarez. Truex would continue to lead the outside lane in front of teammate Bell while Logano retained the lead for the following lap on the inside lane.
By Lap 45 and as the field started to fan out to three tight-packed lanes, Logano was pushed ahead of the stacked field followed by Harvick and Suarez while Truex tried to regain ground from the outside lane with continuous help from teammate Bell as Wallace tried to follow suit. Soon after, Elliott surged towards the front in his No. 9 LLumar Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 as part of a third drafting lane running toward the outside wall. Elliott would then be drafted into a duel against Logano for the lead through the first two turns as he had Allmendinger, Kyle Busch and Stenhouse assisting him. Then as Elliott had appeared to break ahead of the pack, Allmendinger made his move to the front and led Lap 47 as he dueled against Elliott for the lead. Allmendinger would then break away from the pack along with Kyle Busch while Elliott dueled against Stenhouse for third place.
At the Lap 50 mark, Elliott led a lap for himself followed by Logano as Allmendinger, who led the previous three laps, was back in third. By then, Kyle Busch and Harvick were in the top five followed by Haley, Ty Gibbs, Stenhouse, Chastain and Almirola while Truex, Austin Hill, Bell, Buescher and Chandler Smith occupied the top 15. By then, all 39 starters were running on the lead lap and separated by two-and-a-half seconds.
Two laps later, a three-wide battle for the lead ensued as Logano was stuck in the middle lane, Elliott charged on the inside lane and Allmendinger muscled ahead on the outside lane with drafting help from Kyle Busch. As the field was also stacked in three tight-packed lanes, Allmendinger retained the lead from the outside lane while Ty Gibbs tried to launch a charge on the inside lane. By then, Elliott lost his momentum after nearly wrecking with Stenhouse through the frontstretch prior to Lap 54 while Logano also drifted back within the top 10 as he continued to run in the middle lane.
Then on Lap 55, Ross Chastain made his presence known at the front as he led the middle lane and surged his No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to a narrow lead before dueling against Ty Gibbs and Allmendinger. By then, Chastain had drafting help from Logano while Hamlin drifted back to 37th after bailing on the three-wide pack towards the front.
Just past the Lap 60 mark and with the field settling in two tight-packed lanes, Chastain, who took the lead from Allmendinger a few laps prior, was leading by a narrow margin over Logano while Truex, Bell, Preece, Allmendinger, Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, Haley and Harvick were battling in the top 10. With the field still settling in two packed lanes, Chastain would continue to lead by the Lap 65 mark.
By Lap 70 and with most of the field migrating to the outside lane, Chastain was leading ahead of Logano, Preece, Elliott and Harvick while Larson, Blaney, Bell, Stenhouse and Truex were running in the top 10. By then, Almirola was in 11th ahead of Ty Gibbs, Buescher, Burton and Keselowski while Josh Berry, Cindric, Bowman, Reddick and Byron were battling up in the top 20. Behind, Briscoe was back in 21st, Austin Dillon was in 26th ahead of Suarez, Erik Jones and Kyle Busch, Allmendinger was shuffled back in 31st, Wallace settled in 34th and Hamlin continued to run in 37th.
Five laps later, Ryan Blaney made his move beneath Chastain exiting the backstretch as he surged to the lead in his No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang with drafting help from teammate Logano and Harvick. Chastain would settle in fourth place and duel with Harvick for third while Stenhouse, Preece, Almirola, Elliott, Buescher and Larson battled within the top 10. Keselowski, who ran towards the rear of the field earlier in the event, would also carve his way to run just outside the top 10. Not long after and as the intensity of the two tight-packed racing increased, Stenhouse would surge his No. 47 Boost by Kroger Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to the front and lead the halfway mark on Lap 80 as Blaney and Chastain, both of whom Stenhouse was battling with, followed suit.
A lap later, green flag pit stops ensued as Stenhouse led Chastain, Bell, Berry, Ty Gibbs, Truex, Reddick, Erik Jones, Wallace, Hamlin and BJ McLeod to pit road for service, mainly for fuel. Another wave of competitors led by Blaney, Logano, Harvick, Brennan Poole, JJ Yeley, Austin Hill, Allmendinger, Haley and Chandler Smith pitted during the proceeding lap as Almirola cycled into the lead. Amid the pit stops, Hamlin was penalized for a crew member jumping over the pit wall too soon as he was forced to return to pit road and serve a pass-through penalty. Herbst would also be penalized for meeting the same fate as Hamlin while Poole was penalized for speeding on pit road.
By Lap 84, a big group of competitors led by Almirola pitted under green as Harrison Burton cycled into the lead followed by Keselowski and Michael McDowell. Burton and McDowell would pit two laps later before they were able to blend back on the track and retain the top-two spots ahead of the charging pack. With the pack quickly catching up to Burton and McDowell through the backstretch, Keselowski then tried to make a move to Burton’s outside for the lead, but the field fanned out to nearly four lanes through the frontstretch as Kyle Busch ignited his charge to the lead. Suarez followed suit along with Alex Bowman and Austin Dillon as Kyle Busch aggressively carved his No. 8 Cheddar’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead by Lap 87.
With five laps remaining in the second stage, Kyle Busch was leading ahead of Suarez, Bowman, Austin Dillon and Keselowski while Burton was getting shuffled out of the top five amid two tight-packed lanes. As the laps dwindled, the field fanned out to three lanes as Busch continued to lead.
Then on the final lap of the second stage, Lap 94, trouble ensued when Ty Gibbs, who was trying to surge to the front, slipped sideways off the front nose of teammate Bell and clipped the leader Blaney as both were sent hard against the outside wall, collecting Bell, Reddick, Stenhouse and Bowman in the process as Allmendinger, Hamlin, Herbst, Cindric, Austin Dillon, Harvick, Larson, Poole, Buescher and Burton were also involved. The wreck, which proved costly to Gibbs as his hopes of making the Playoffs came to an end, was enough to place the event in a red flag period for nine-and-a-half minutes. By then, Keselowski escaped the carnage to capture the stage victory, which was his fourth of the 2023 Cup season, while Kyle Busch, Suarez, Bowman, Byron, Reddick, Elliott, Austin Dillon, Chastain and Logano were scored in the top 10. In addition, Truex, who dodged the incident, was crowned the 2023 Cup Series Regular Season champion.
Under the stage break and once the red flag period was lifted, a majority of the lead lap field led by Keselowski pitted for service while Stewart-Haas Racing’s Briscoe and Almirola remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Kyle Busch exited first while Elliott, Suarez, Chastain, Keselowski, Byron and Logano followed suit.
With 56 laps remaining, the final stage started as Briscoe and Kyle Busch occupied the front row. At the start, Briscoe emerged with the lead and surged ahead with drafting help from teammate Almirola while Busch dueled with Erik Jones for third place. As Busch regained ground through the backstretch, he then challenged Briscoe for the lead as he had Bowman and Suarez pushing him. Despite Briscoe managing to lead the proceeding laps, he kept being engaged in a side-by-side duel against Busch for the lead as Almirola, Erik Jones and Bowman were in the top five. Meanwhile, Wallace, who was on the brakes to avoid the multi-car wreck at the end of the second stage, was up to seventh as he tried to crack the top five along with Keselowski and Suarez.
With 50 laps remaining, Briscoe continued to lead as he had both lanes under his control followed by teammate Almirola, Erik Jones, Keselowski, Wallace and Logano while Kyle Busch tried to charge back to the front on the outside lane. Wallace would then move up in front of Busch and lead the outside lane during the following lap as he dueled against Logano for fifth while Josh Berry joined the battle.
Five laps later and with the field slowly starting to fan out to three lanes, Briscoe retained the lead ahead of a long single file line on the inside lane as teammate Almirola, Erik Jones, Keselowski and Logano were in the top five. By then, Wallace fell back to 13th as Berry, Chandler Smith, McDowell, Bell and Corey LaJoie charged in the top 10 in front of Kyle Busch while Elliott and Suarez were mired back in the top 20.
Another five laps later and with most of the field migrating to the outside lane, Briscoe was leading ahead of teammates Almirola and Preece while Buescher and Harvick were in the top five. By then, Keselowski, Elliott, Ty Dillon, Chandler Smith and Truex were in the top 10 while Wallace, who briefly moved back into the top five, fell back to 14th after being shuffled out of the draft before he blended back into the draft towards the outside wall. With nearly the entire field continuing to run in a long single-file line toward the outside wall, Briscoe also continued to lead ahead of teammates Almirola and Preece with 35 laps remaining.
With 30 laps remaining, Briscoe retained the top spot by 0.083 seconds over teammate Almirola followed by Preece, Buescher and Harvick while Keselowski, Elliott, Ty Dillon, Chandler Smith and Truex continued to run in the top 10. With Erik Jones, Kyle Busch and Logano mired in 11th, 12th and 13th, respectively, Wallace retained 14th in front of McDowell while Bell, Austin Hill, LaJoie, Byron and Bowman were running in the top 20.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Briscoe continued to lead a long line of competitors towards the outside wall, with teammates Almirola and Preece along with Buescher and Harvick following suit. By then, the top-six spots continued to be occupied by Ford competitors as Keselowski was in sixth, Elliott served as the lead Chevrolet competitor in seventh and Wallace was the leading Toyota competitor as he returned to the top 10.
A lap later, Preece attempted to make a charge to the front on the inside lane, but he got shuffled out of the draft and drifted back as Chandler Smith served as the lead competitor on the inside lane while Briscoe retained the lead on the outside lane.
With 16 laps remaining, a wave of competitors led by Chandler Smith, including Wallace, pitted under green, mainly for fuel, as Briscoe continued to lead the rest of the field. Briscoe would then lead another wave of competitors to pit road for service under green with 14 laps remaining. Once the wave of competitors led by Briscoe completed their service, Harvick, who pitted during the first wave, cycled as the leader ahead of Elliott, Almirola, Buescher, Keselowski, Bowman and Briscoe while the wave of competitors who pitted earlier led by Kyle Busch, who was running 12th in front of Wallace, was slowly gaining ground.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Harvick was leading ahead of Elliott, Almirola, Buescher and Keselowski while Bowman, Briscoe, Byron, Logano and Ty Dillon trailed behind. Meanwhile, Wallace was in 13th behind McDowell and Kyle Busch while Erik Jones and Truex occupied the top 15.
Two laps later, Almirola launched a charge on the outside lane, but Harvick moved up the track to block his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate. Harvick would then surge ahead with the top spot followed by Almirola and Buescher as Elliott tried to fight back on the inside lane as he had teammate Larson drafting him. Elliott then tried to launch another charge on the inside lane with seven laps remaining, but Harvick surged ahead on the outside lane as he, Almirola and Buescher briefly broke away from the pack. Teammates Buescher and Keselowski then overtook Almirola through the backstretch to move up to second and third as they settled behind Harvick with five laps remaining.
Shortly after, the caution flew when Preece, who was running in the middle of the pack through the backstretch, got hit by Erik Jones as he veered sideways and collected teammate Briscoe in the process. Amid the collision, Preece’s No. 41 RaceChoice.com Ford Mustang then went airborne and barrel-rolled multiple times in the air and towards the backstretch’s infield before the battered car came to a violent rest on all four wheels. Despite the wild ride that ended his hopes of making this year’s Playoffs, Preece emerged uninjured as he was placed on a stretcher and medically escorted to the infield care center before being transported to a local hospital for further evaluation. Preece’s wild wreck was also enough to send the event into overtime.
Following an extensive caution period, the race restarted in overtime as Harvick and Buescher occupied the front row in front of Elliott and Keselowski. At the start, Buescher and Harvick dueled for the lead entering Turns 1 and 2 until Buescher gained the upper hand as his teammate and co-owner Keselowski drafted his No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang into the lead entering the backstretch. Buescher then maintained the lead followed by Keselowski’s No. 6 King’s Hawaiian Ford Mustang as Almirola tried to move up to third place while battling alongside teammate Harvick and in front of Logano.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Buescher, who transitioned from the inside to the outside lane to retain the momentum and keep Keselowski behind him, remained as the leader as Harvick launched a charge with drafting help from Elliott. The two Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing competitors would slightly surge ahead entering the backstretch and remain on the outside lane with more momentum that included pushes from Almirola and Logano keeping them ahead of Harvick and Elliott. With Buescher and Keselowski starting to pull away from the pack through Turns 3 and 4, Harvick got shuffled out of the draft as Almirola and Elliott fanned out in their final hopes of making the Playoffs. Despite gaining momentum with drafting help, their runs were not enough to catch the Roush competitors as Buescher surged ahead and beat Keselowski to the finish line to capture his third checkered flag of the 2023 Cup season by 0.098 seconds over Keselowski.
With the victory, Buescher became the fourth different competitor to achieve at least three victories throughout the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season as he also notched the fifth career win of his premier series resume and first at Daytona. With a total of 2,021 points, Buescher, who has made the Playoffs for the second time in his career and first since 2016, will line up in fourth place in this year’s Playoff grid and will embark on a 10-week Playoff stretch to battle for this year’s championship, beginning next weekend at Darlington Raceway.
“[I owe Brad Keselowski] A little more than [the push],” Buescher said on NBC. “That was amazing. So proud to get Fifth Third Bank into Victory Lane here at Daytona. I knew we were coming here with fast [Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing] Ford Mustangs and got there at the end and showed when it counted. That’s as much Brad’s win as ours right there. That was the right help. Aggressive, sticking with us, too, all the way to the line. I was waiting for him to do something there coming to the finish. I figured we’d be side-by-side, but looked like he got stalled out a little behind. Just so thankful to Brad for all those pushes there at the right time. [This season]’s hard to explain. It’s awesome, though. To be sitting here again [as a winner] so quickly. What a heck of a start into the Playoffs right now. It’s been a long time coming, a lot of work. So amazing for us.”
While Buescher celebrated on the frontstretch, Bubba Wallace celebrated with his pit crew, family, friends, teammate Tyler Reddick and team owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin on pit road after securing the 16th and final spot to make the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs by finishing 12th on the track and being 47 points ahead of Daniel Suarez, who ended up 20th. As a result, Wallace, who is in his third season driving for 23XI Racing and was able to lock both 23XI Racing cars in the Playoffs alongside teammate Tyler Reddick, has qualified for the Cup Playoffs for the first time in his career and in a season highlighted with four top-five results, six top-10 results, 14 top-15 results and five 12th-place finishes, a career-high 159 laps led and an average-finishing result of 16.8 throughout the 26-race regular-season stretch. He will line up in 16th place in the Playoff standings with 2,000 points as he will contend for his first series title.
“That was the most stressed, but also the most locked in that I’ve ever been, knowing that this place is mostly out of your control,” Wallace said. “I just try to focus on doing the things that I could do. Missing that wreck [at the end of Stage 2] was massive. [I] Appreciate [spotter] Freddie [Kraft]. He’s one of the best up on the roof that gets us through a lot and that’s what helps our resume here at the speedway stuff. Proud to be locked into the Playoffs. This is special for our team. 23XI [Racing], third year in, getting both cars in the Playoffs. We’ve gone through a lot of trials and tribulations, but just so proud of the effort that we put in. No matter how much we set ourselves back, we know that we have a kickass group and we can bounce back from anything.”
Meanwhile, Elliott was left disappointed after surging his way to finish fourth on the track, but could not gain the momentum needed to make the Playoffs as this season will mark the first time where he will not contend as a Playoff competitor. Amid a difficult regular-season stretch where he was absent for a total of seven events, six due to an injury from a snowboarding accident earlier this season, Elliott remained optimistic as he set his sights on gaining momentum for the 2024 season.
“I really liked where we were before the caution [with five laps remaining],” Elliott said. “Honestly after the [overtime] restart there, we had the bottom lane that we wanted. I knew [Keselowski] was gonna go with [Buescher]. I thought [Harvick] was gonna take the bottom [lane] and he did, and we really had all the help that we could ask for behind…It’s a bummer, for sure. [I] Hate the season’s worked out like it has, but the good news is the car got in the owner’s points. That’s a big deal. Credit to [crew chief] Alan [Gustafson] and everybody for continuing to work and scratch and claw while I was out to keep our team alive and to give ourselves a chance, so that’s a big deal. Probably much bigger than a lot of people realize to our team. Looking forward to these next 10 [races] and try to make a little noise on that side of things and just try to get ready and prepare for next year. I appreciate everybody’s support. The season hasn’t been what I would want by any means, but certainly gonna be some lessons taken from it and I think we’ll be better for it on the other end.”
Almirola came home in third place behind Buescher and Keselowski as he too missed the 2023 Playoffs while Elliott and Logano finished in the top five on the track. Bowman, who also missed the Playoffs, settled in sixth while Kyle Busch, Byron, Harvick and Corey LaJoie finished in the top 10.
William Byron, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Chris Buescher, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Ross Chastain, Brad Keselowski, Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Michael McDowell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kevin Harvick and Bubba Wallace have made the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Daniel Suarez, rookie Ty Gibbs, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, AJ Allmendinger, Austin Cindric, Aric Almirola, Justin Haley, Corey LaJoie, Ryan Preece, Todd Gilliland, Erik Jones, Austin Dillon, Harrison Burton, Chase Briscoe and Ty Dillon are the remaining full-time competitors who did not make the Playoffs.
There were 22 lead changes for 17 different leaders. The race featured three cautions for 18 laps. In addition, 25 of 39 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Chris Buescher, two laps led
2. Brad Keselowski, six laps led, Stage 2 winner
3. Aric Almirola, three laps led
4. Chase Elliott, two laps led
5. Joey Logano, nine laps led
6. Alex Bowman
7. Kyle Busch, five laps led
8. William Byron, one lap led
9. Kevin Harvick, 14 laps led
10. Corey LaJoie
11. Ty Dillon
12. Bubba Wallace
13. Michael McDowell
14. Austin Hill
15. Chandler Smith
16. Christopher Bell
17. Ross Chastain, 19 laps led
18. Erik Jones
19. JJ Yeley
20. Daniel Suarez, one lap led
21. Justin Haley
22. Josh Berry
23. BJ McLeod
24. Martin Truex Jr., four laps led, Stage 1 winner
25. Tyler Reddick
26. Denny Hamlin, one lap down, 12 laps led
27. Kyle Larson, two laps down
28. Harrison Burton, three laps down, five laps led
29. AJ Allmendinger, three laps down, eight laps led
30. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Accident, 67 laps led
31. Ryan Preece – OUT, Accident
32. Todd Gilliland – OUT, Overheating
33. Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident
34. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Accident, one lap led
35. Ty Gibbs – OUT, Accident
36. Ryan Blaney – OUT, Accident, four laps led
37. Austin Cindric – OUT, Accident
38. Riley Herbst – OUT, Accident
39. Brennan Poole – OUT, Accident
The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to commence next Sunday, September 3, during Labor Day weekend at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina for the Cook Out Southern 500. The event’s broadcast is scheduled to occur at 6 p.m. ET on USA Network.
After finishing no higher than 14th during his previous five scheduled starts, William Byron responded with an emphatic and potential championship-performance statement after scoring a dominant victory in the Go Bowling at The Glen on Sunday, August 20.
The 25-year-old Byron from Charlotte, North Carolina, led three times for a race-high 66 of 90-scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row alongside pole-sitter Denny Hamlin and spent the first stage period running in the top five. Then during the first wave of green flag pit stops that ensued entering the second stage period, a strategic call by crew chief Ryan “Rudy” Fugle and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team to have Byron pit a lap after the front-runners enabled Byron to cycle ahead of them.
He proceeded to lead starting on Lap 24 and claimed the second stage victory. Then following another well-executed call to pit with 35 laps remaining just as teammate Chase Elliott drew a caution for running out of fuel on the course, Byron cycled back to the lead with 33 laps remaining and retained the top spot during a 30-lap shootout to the finish, setting sail to his unprecedented fifth checkered flag of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, August 19, Denny Hamlin notched his fourth Cup pole of the 2023 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 125.298 mph in 70.392 seconds. Joining him on the front row was William Byron, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 124.961 mph in 70.582 seconds.
Prior to the event, Aric Almirola, Cole Custer, Justin Haley, Brad Keselowski and Corey LaJoie dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective entries.
When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Hamlin rocketed ahead with an early advantage while the field fanned out entering the first turn. As the field continued to duke for early positions through the Esses and the first four turns, Hamlin retained the lead ahead of a hard-charging McDowell. Through the Inner Loop Bus Stop Corner before entering the Carousel, the Outer Loop and the final set of turns, Hamlin managed to fend off McDowell and a pack of competitors jostling for spots to lead the first lap.
Through the second lap, McDowell attempted to make a move beneath Hamlin for the lead entering Turn 1. In spite of Hamlin briefly going off the track through Turn 1, Hamlin managed to retain the lead through the Esses ahead of McDowell while William Byron trailed behind in third in front of rookie Ty Gibbs and AJ Allmendinger. Hamlin would also manage to navigate his way smoothly through the Carousel and the Esses with the top spot, but McDowell continued to close as he awaited his opportunity to take the lead.
Two laps later, McDowell, winner of last weekend’s Cup event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, made his move beneath Hamlin’s No. 11 Mavis Tires & Brakes Toyota TRD Camry and drew himself into a brief duel with Hamlin before he muscled his No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang ahead with the top spot entering Turn 2. Byron then followed suit and assumed the runner-up spot through Turns 2 to 4 in his No. 24 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 while Hamlin settled in third in front of teammate Ty Gibbs. With Hamlin settling in between Byron and Gibbs, McDowell proceeded to lead, starting on the fourth lap.
During the fourth lap, early trouble struck for Daniel Suarez, who was running 10th before he got loose while hitting the curbs exiting the Bus Stop Corner and spun as he barely hit the inside wall, but he was able to proceed without drawing a caution. Meanwhile, McDowell retained the lead through the fifth lap mark over a hard-charging Byron.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, McDowell was leading by four-tenths of a second over Byron followed by Hamlin, Ty Gibbs and Allmendinger while Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace and Kyle Busch were in the top 10. Behind, Joey Logano was in 11th ahead of Austin Dillon, Chase Elliott, Austin Cindric and Chris Buescher while Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr., Ross Chastain, Chase Briscoe and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. occupied the top 20. Meanwhile, Ryan Blaney was mired in 21st ahead of Mike Rockenfeller, Ryan Preece, Corey LaJoie and Daniel Suarez while Todd Gilliland, Ty Dillon, Andy Lally, Erik Jones and Kevin Harvick were back in the top 30. Amid the running order, Brad Keselowski was in 33rd in between Justin Haley and Aric Almirola while Harrison Burton was mired in 36th, a lap down in last place, after an earlier chain reaction resulted with Lally bumping and spinning Burton’s No. 21 DEX Imaging Ford Mustang in the Carousel Corner without drawing a caution.
Five laps later, McDowell continued to lead by half a second over Byron while third-place Hamlin trailed by more than a second. In the process, Ty Gibbs and Allmendinger remained in the top five ahead of Larson while Bell, Wallace and Kyle Busch overtook Reddick to move up to seventh through ninth, respectively. In addition, Elliott retained 13th ahead of Buescher and teammate Bowman, Truex was mired back in 23rd and Harvick was in 28th in front of Keselowski.
Another two laps later, green flag pit stops ensued as Truex pitted his No. 19 Siemens Toyota TRD Camry along with Blaney and Elliott. Logano, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Aric Almirola, Cindric and Bowman would also pit during the ensuing laps as McDowell continued to lead.
At the conclusion of the first stage period on Lap 20, McDowell, who first assumed the lead on the fourth lap, captured his second Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Byron settled in second followed by Hamlin, Ty Gibbs and Allmendinger while Larson, Bell, Wallace, Kyle Busch and Reddick were scored in the top 10. By then, more names that included Austin Dillon, Reddick, Preece and Corey LaJoie pitted under green.
With the event proceeding under green just past the Lap 20 mark to start the second stage, McDowell led Hamlin, Ty Gibbs, Larson, Bell, Wallace, Kyle Busch and a host of competitors during the following lap to pit road for service under green while Byron assumed the lead followed by Allmendinger. Amid the pit stops, McDowell, who managed to exit pit road ahead of Hamlin, was assessed a penalty for driving through too many pit boxes prior to entering his pit box for service. Byron would then pit under green on Lap 22 as Allmendinger assumed the lead. Once Allmendinger pitted by Lap 23 after leading two laps, Byron, who earlier managed to blend back on the track from pit road ahead of Hamlin, assumed the lead followed by Hamlin, Ty Gibbs, Allmendinger, Larson and Keselowski, who has yet to pit. As Byron proceeded to lead just past the Lap 25 mark, McDowell was mired back in 17th behind Truex. In addition, Bell, Elliott, Wallace and Kyle Busch were scored in the top 10.
At the Lap 30 mark, Byron maintained the lead by seven-tenths of a second over Hamlin followed by Ty Gibbs, Allmendinger and Larson while Bell, Elliott, Kyle Busch, Wallace and Reddick were running in the top 10. By then, Keselowski pitted his No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang under green while Austin Dillon, Logano, Briscoe, McDowell and Truex were scored in the top 15. With Keselowski losing spots as he blended back onto the racetrack amid his pit stop, Harvick was in 28th behind teammate Almirola, Suarez was in 26th and Bowman was mired in 17th in between Blaney and Buescher.
By Lap 35, Byron extended his advantage to eight-tenths of a second over Hamlin while Ty Gibbs, Larson and Allmendinger remained in the top five. In addition, Bell, Elliott, Kyle Busch, Wallace and Reddick retained their respective spots in the top 10 while McDowell was mired in 12th in between Austin Dillon and Logano.
At the conclusion of the second stage on Lap 40, Byron captured his eighth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Hamlin settled in second while Ty Gibbs, Larson, Allmendinger, Bell, Elliott, Kyle Busch, Wallace and Austin Dillon were scored in the top 10.
With the event commencing under a continuous green flag period with 50 laps remaining, Byron was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Hamlin. Byron would proceed to extend his advantage to more than a second over Hamlin as the event reached its halfway mark with 45 laps remaining. Behind, Ty Gibbs, Larson and Allmendinger remained in the top five while Bell, Kyle Busch, Elliott, Wallace and Ausitn Dillon continued to run in the top 10 with McDowell moving up to 11th ahead of Reddick, Logano, Truex and Blaney.
With 40 laps remaining, Byron continued to extend his advantage as he was leading by more than three seconds over Hamlin while Larson overtook Ty Gibbs to move into third place. With Allmendinger retaining fifth ahead of Bell and Kyle Busch, McDowell returned to the top 10 as he moved up to ninth in between Elliott and Wallace while Truex was scored in 12th in between Austin Dillon and Blaney.
Three laps later, another cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Ty Gibbs pitted his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry while running in the top five. McDowell would also pit along with Blaney, Suarez, Larson, Logano, Reddick, Preece, Stenhouse, Almirola, Cindric and Buescher as Byron continued to lead by more than five seconds over Hamlin.
Then two laps later, the caution flew when Elliott ran out of fuel through the Esses as his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 coasted entering the Inner Loop before coming to a full stop off the course near the Bus Stop Corner. By then, Byron, Hamlin, Allmendinger and Bell had pitted prior to the caution being displayed. In addition, Larson, who had just pitted prior to the caution, was penalized for speeding while exiting pit road and was sent to the rear of the field for the ensuing restart.
During the caution period, some led by Kyle Busch, including those who had not yet made a pit stop, pitted while the rest led by Byron remained on the track. By then, Elliott, who was assisted by a wrecker to return to pit road, lost a lap to the leaders as he was mired in 34th.
When the race restarted under green with 30 laps remaining, where Byron and Hamlin occupied the front row, Byron and Hamlin dueled for the lead through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1 as the field fanned out. Entering the Esses, Byron managed to clear Hamlin to retain the lead ahead of Bell and Allmendinger while Truex was up to fifth in front of teammate Ty Gibbs. In addition, Blaney was up to seventh ahead of Buescher while McDowell was in ninth ahead of Logano. As the field navigated its way through the Bus Stop Corner, the Carousel and the final sets of turns while jostling for late positions, Byron managed to place a reasonable gap between himself and Hamlin as he retained the lead for the following lap.
Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Byron was leading by six-tenths of a second over Hamlin followed by Bell while Allmendinger and Ty Gibbs, both of whom are needing a victory to make the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs, were running fourth and fifth. Behind, Truex, the regular-season leader, was sixth while Buescher, McDowell, Reddick and Blaney were running in the top 10 ahead of Logano, Todd Gilliland, Stenhouse, Wallace and Keselowski. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch was back in 17th, Harvick was back in 23rd in front of Larson and Bowman was mired in 26th behind Suarez.
Five laps later, Byron extended his advantage to one-and-a-half seconds over Hamlin while Bell, Allmendinger and Ty Gibbs remained in the top five on the track. Behind, Truex, Buescher, McDowell, Reddick and Blaney also remained in the top 10. By then, Wallace retained 14th ahead of Keselowski and Cindric, Kyle Busch was still mired in 17th, Larson was back in 21st behind Austin Dillon, Harvick was down in 24th ahead of Suarez and Bowman was in 26th. In addition, Elliott was mired in 33rd and not scored on the lead lap along with Harrison Burton, Chase Briscoe and Ty Dillon.
With 15 laps remaining, Byron stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Hamlin while Bell, Allmendinger and Ty Gibbs remained in the top five. By then, the event remained under green flag conditions despite Almirola spinning entering the frontstretch. Not long after, McDowell, who was running eighth, pitted under green after the power in his No. 34 Ford shut off, which resulted with him coasting through the circuit before limping his car to his pit stall as his pit crew went underneath the hood of McDowell’s car to diagnose the issue. The issue would eventually be terminal for McDowell as he capped off his roller coaster event in 36th place, dead last.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Byron extended his advantage to two seconds over Hamlin while Bell, Allmendinger and Ty Gibs continued to run in the top 10. With McDowell out of contention, Truex was in sixth followed by Buescher, Reddick, Blaney and Logano while Gilliland, Stenhouse, Wallace, Keselowski and Kyle Busch were in the top 15.
With five laps remaining, Byron stabilized his advantage to nearly three seconds over Hamlin as Bell, Allmendinger and Ty Gibbs remained in the top five.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Byron remained as the leader by more than three seconds over Hamlin. With Hamlin unable to gain ground, Byron was able to cycle his No. 24 Chevrolet smoothly around Watkins Glen’s series of turns for a final time before re-emerging through the frontstretch in clean air and to capture his fifth checkered flag of the 2023 Cup season.
With the victory and the regained momentum, Byron notched his ninth career win in NASCAR’s premier series, his career-high fifth of the season and his first on a road course venue. The victory at Watkins Glen was the 102nd overall for Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 24 entry, with HMS notching its 298th Cup career win overall, as Byron claimed his first victory since winning the rain-shortened event at Atlanta Motor Speedway in early July.
“[The win] feels really good,” Byron said on USA Network. “Just a huge credit to the race team behind me. I wanna thank [road ringer] Max Papis. This first road course win. We’ve worked years and years for this. Thanks to all the guys on the team. It’s a great win. I don’t know what it means in all that. I don’t read into that, but I think it shows that when we’re at our best, we can perform like this. We seem to go through that summer slump in July and August. For some reason, we just can’t quite put the races together. I think it’s the racetracks itself. [I] Just came this weekend with a good mindset. [I] Focused it on trying to get ready for the postseason. We’ve had fast cars. We just haven’t executed races, but today, it was flawless. Road courses have been tough, so it’s fun to get a win. Really good strategy by [the crew].”
Hamlin, the pole-sitter who led the first three laps, settled in the runner-up spot for the third time this season after trailing Byron to the finish line by more than two seconds while teammate Bell finished third.
“I’m happy with my day,” Hamlin said. “It takes me a while to get going and with [Michael] McDowell there at the beginning, he’s ready and he’s on kill, and I’m kind of working my way into it. I just hate that I lost the lead because I just looked at [Byron]’s back bumper the rest of the day. It was a fun race.”
Allmendinger and Ty Gibbs finished fourth and fifth, respectively, as both enter next weekend’s regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway 72 and 32 points, respectively, below the top-16 cutline in their final hopes of making the Playoffs. Truex, the regular-season leader in the standings, came home in sixth place and leaves Watkins Glen with a 39-point lead in the standings while Buescher, Reddick, Blaney and Logano finished in the top 10.
Notably, Wallace finished 12th and he leaves Watkins Glen grasping onto the 16th and final vacant spot to the Playoffs by 32 points. Kyle Busch finished 14th followed by Keselowski, Cindric ended up 16th, Mike Rockenfeller ended up 19th in his second Cup start behind Ross Chastain, Harvick settled in 21st in front of Suarez and Bowman and Elliott capped off his run in 32nd, a lap down. In addition, Larson and Austin Dillon ended up 26th and 31st, respectively, after Larson collided into Dillon entering the final turn and sent both spinning.
There were six lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured a single caution period for four laps. In addition, 31 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
With one regular-season event remaining of this year’s Cup Series schedule, Martin Truex Jr. continues to lead the regular-season standings by 39 points over teammate Denny Hamlin and 76 over William Byron.
William Byron, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, Michael McDowell 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. With Byron winning at The Glen, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski have clinched spots for the Playoffs based on points while Bubba Wallace occupies the 16th and final vacant spot to the Playoffs by 32 points over rookie Ty Gibbs. Daniel Suarez trails the top-16 cutline by 43 points, AJ Allmendinger trails by 72, Alex Bowman trails by 96, Chase Elliott trails by 101, Austin Cindric trails by 114, Justin Haley trails by 162, Ryan Preece trails by 167 and Aric Almirola trails by 177.
Results.
1. William Byron, 66 laps led, Stage 2 winner
2. Denny Hamlin, three laps led
3. Christopher Bell
4. AJ Allmendinger, two laps led
5. Ty Gibbs
6. Martin Truex Jr.
7. Chris Buescher
8. Tyler Reddick
9. Ryan Blaney
10. Joey Logano
11. Todd Gilliland
12. Bubba Wallace
13. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
14. Kyle Busch, two laps led
15. Brad Keselowski
16. Austin Cindric
17. Ryan Preece
18. Ross Chastain
19. Mike Rockenfeller
20. Corey LaJoie
21. Kevin Harvick
22. Daniel Suarez
23. Alex Bowman
24. Justin Haley
25. Andy Lally
26. Kyle Larson
27. Josh Bilicki
28. Cole Custer
29. Erik Jones
30. Aric Almirola
31. Austin Dillon
32. Chase Elliott, one lap down
33. Harrison Burton, one lap down
34. Ty Dillon, one lap down
35. Chase Briscoe, seven laps down
36. Michael McDowell – OUT, Electrical, 17 laps led, Stage 1 winner
Next on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway for the Coke Zero Sugar 400, which will determine the 16-driver field of this year’s Cup Series Playoffs. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, August 26, at 7 p.m. ET on NBC.
While William Byron celebrated an emphatic victory following a dominant performance in the Go Bowling at The Glen on Sunday, August 20, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski were left feeling victorious after both former NASCAR Cup Series champions officially secured spots for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs based on points.
The event at Watkins Glen started off on a rough note for Keselowski, the 2012 Cup Series champion who was one of five competitors to start at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments. Following the first of 90-scheduled laps, the Michigan native was mired in the next-to-last position in 35th place and had only managed to carve his way up to 33rd place just past the Lap 10 mark.
Then during the first cycle of green flag pit stops in between the conclusion of the first stage period and the start of the second stage period, Keselowski and crew chief Matt McCall rolled the dice by remaining on the track while most of the field pitted. This allowed Keselowski to move up as high as seventh place in the leaderboard before he pitted his No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang under green on Lap 30. He would then be mired back within the top 30 through the second stage period and pit during the event’s only caution period with nearly 30 laps remaining despite climbing up to 13th.
Restarting 18th during the final restart with 30 laps remaining, Keselowski would take the checkered flag in 15th place, which marked his 12th top-15 result of the season. With Byron, who came into the event as a four-time race winner of this season, winning at The Glen, Keselowski, who did not score any stage points at The Glen, but ended up 107 points ahead of Bubba Wallace, who holds the 16th and final vacant spot to the Playoffs, in the regular-season standings, was able to clinch his spot for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs.
Keselowski’s accomplishment means that the 2023 season will mark his 11th season making the Cup Series Playoffs, his first since 2021 and his first as a driver/co-owner of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing. He missed the 2022 Playoffs during his first season as a driver/co-owner after notching only a single top-five finish, six top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 19.2 throughout the 36-race schedule. This season, he has achieved five top-five results, 10 top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 14.3 through 25 scheduled events.
In addition, Keselowski is still pursuing his first victory as a driver/co-owner in the Cup Series, with his latest victory occurring at Talladega Superspeedway in April 2021 while driving for Team Penske.
“We had a pretty strong month or so,” Keselowski said on USA Network. “We had a really good car today with our BuiltSubs Ford Mustang. Just ran solid. Basically, started last and got to 15th. If we could’ve caught a break on the yellows and all that, I think we could’ve ran top 10 today. My teammate Chris Buescher and both [Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing cars], we’re finding speed here before the Playoffs start. Overall, a really good day for us. What’s great for us going into Daytona is we can go in there and just have fun. It’s great to have that off of our shoulders. We’re gonna race really hard, but with nothing to lose. That makes us really dangerous.”
Like Keselowski, Sunday’s event at The Glen started off on a rough note for Kevin Harvick, who rolled off the starting grid in 33rd place and without his championship-winning crew chief Rodney Childers, who returned to North Carolina due to a personal matter. With Stewart-Haas Racing engineer Stephen Doran calling the shots atop the No. 4 Ford Mustang pit box, Harvick, the 2014 Cup Series champion, spent the early stages of the event mired outside the top 30. He would crack his way into the top 15 at the conclusion of the first stage period and during the first cycle of green flag pit stops before he pitted just past the Lap 22 mark.
Mired back towards the top-30 mark upon his pit service, Harvick was scored 24th at the halfway mark and just past the second stage’s conclusion with the 2014 Cup Series champion not scoring any stage points. Running in 14th place during the event’s only caution period with 35 laps remaining after Chase Elliott ran out of fuel on the course, Harvick joined a handful of competitors to pit under caution and restarted in the middle of the pack with 30 laps remaining.
When the checkered flag flew, Harvick nursed his No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang in 21st place, which marked his second consecutive finish outside the top 20. By being 103 points above Bubba Wallace, who holds the 16th and final vacant spot in the Playoffs, in the regular-season standings, Harvick was also able to accomplish a similar feat to Keselowski’s by clinching his spot for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs based on points.
With his accomplishment, Harvick, who is currently embarking in his 23rd and final full-time season in NASCAR’s premier series, will make his 17th career appearance as a Cup Series Playoff contender as he battles for his final opportunity to win his second Cup title and first since 2014. This season, he has achieved six top-five results, 11 top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 14.0 through 25 scheduled events.
Having achieved 60 career victories in the Cup Series, Harvick is still pursuing his first of the season and first since winning at Richmond Raceway last August.
Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“We’ll go down to [Daytona International Speedway] and push as hard as we can, and be ready for Darlington [Raceway],” Harvick said. “We’ve been terrible on the road courses the last two weeks. The last month before that, we did good. We had cars that were capable to run in the top five, so as long as it’s an oval [track], we’ll be fine.”
With secured berths to the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs set for both, Keselowski and Harvick shift their attention to the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway for the Coke Zero Sugar 400, which will officially determine the full 16-driver field of this year’s Cup Series Playoffs. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, August 26, at 7 p.m. ET on NBC.
