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  • Ryan Blaney caps off dominant run with inaugural Cup Series victory at Iowa

    Ryan Blaney caps off dominant run with inaugural Cup Series victory at Iowa

    The reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney made Iowa Speedway his “Field of Dreams” for the day after he muscled through to a dominant win in the inaugural Iowa Corn 350 on Sunday, June 16.

    The 30-year-old Blaney from High Point, North Carolina, led four times for a career-high 201 of 350-scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row alongside pole-sitter Kyle Larson and led for the first time on the second lap following an early lap skirmish with Larson.

    With mixed strategies and tire wear ensuing throughout the event, Blaney, who spent the majority of the event running towards the front and won the first stage period, cycled back into the lead following a two-tire pit stop call during a late caution period with 92 laps remaining. Once he muscled away from the field during the event’s final restart period with 84 laps remaining, he proceeded to weave his way through lapped traffic and fend off a late charge from William Byron and his four fresh tires to triumph for the first time in the 2024 Cup Series season and place both himself and his No. 12 Team Penske Ford team into Playoff contention.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, June 15, Kyle Larson notched his fourth Cup pole position of the 2024 season and the 20th of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 136.458 mph in 23.084 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Ryan Blaney, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 136.311 mph in 23.109 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Christopher Bell and Austin Cindric dropped to the rear of the field in backup cars after both wrecked their primary cars during Friday’s practice session.

    When the green flag waved and the event commenced, the field fanned out through the frontstretch as Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. As they continued to duel for the lead through Turns 3 and 4, Larson managed to edge Blaney to lead the first lap. Blaney, however, would assume the lead from Larson during the following lap amid contact with Larson through Turns 3 and 4 and proceeded to lead during the next two laps while the field behind continued to fan out and jostle for early spots.

    On the third lap, the event’s first caution period flew after rookie Carson Hocevar got into the rear of teammate/rookie Zane Smith, which got Smith loose and resulted in him getting into teammate Corey LaJoie as LaJoie and his No. 7 Gainbridge/Iowa Hawkeyes Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry spun into the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2. During the event’s first caution period, some drivers, including LaJoie, Erik Jones, Michael McDowell and Kaz Grala pitted while the rest, led by Blaney, remained on the track.

    When the event restarted under green on the ninth lap, Larson managed to muscle ahead of Blaney and reassume the lead. With Larson ahead of the field with the lead by the Lap 10 mark, Chase Briscoe overtook Blaney for the runner-up spot as teammate Josh Berry and Tyler Reddick battled in the top five ahead of Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, William Byron and Daniel Suarez.

    Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Larson extended his advantage, leading by more than a second over Blaney, while Briscoe, Reddick and Kyle Busch trailed in the top five. Behind, Josh Berry occupied sixth place ahead of Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez, William Byron and Justin Haley while Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace and Harrison Burton were racing in the top 15 ahead of AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Preece, Ty Gibbs, Chris Buescher and Alex Bowman. Meanwhile, Noah Gragson was mired in 21st ahead of Denny Hamlin, Austin Cindric, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Corey LaJoie while Todd Gilliland, Martin Truex Jr., Carson Hocevar, Zane Smith and Christopher Bell were in the top 30 on the track.

    Ten laps later, Larson stretched his advantage, leading by more than three seconds over Blaney while third-place Briscoe trailed by nine seconds. As Reddick and Berry occupied the top-five spots on the track, Suarez, Byron, Busch, Haley and Logano trailed in the top 10 while Truex, Wallace and Hamlin drifted back to 25th, 27th and 33rd, respectively. In addition, Keselowski, who started in the top five, was mired in 14th behind Ty Gibbs while Cindric and Bell, were up to 23rd and 24th, respectively, after starting at the rear of the field in backup cars,

    Another 10 laps later, Larson stabilized his advantage to three seconds over Blaney while Briscoe, Berry and Byron trailed in the top five by 10 seconds. By then, Hamlin, who was mired in 34th place, was lapped by the leaders while Chris Buescher, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Truex, Michael McDowell, Cindric, Allmendinger, Wallace and Austin Dillon were mired outside the top 20 on the track.

    At the Lap 50 mark, Larson was mired in lapped traffic and had his advantage shrink to one-and-a-half seconds over runner-up Blaney while third-place Berry and fourth-place Byron trailed by nine seconds. With Briscoe trailing by 10 seconds in fifth place, LaJoie, who was involved in an early spin, was up to 19th place on four fresh tires while Austin Dillon, John Hunter Nemechek and Stenhouse, all of whom were running within the top 30, were lapped by Larson.

    A lap later, the event’s second caution period flew when AJ Allmendinger, who was racing in the mid-pack region, ran his No. 16 Action Industries Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry straight into the outside wall in between Turns 1 and 2 after he blew a right-front tire. It marked his second wreck of the weekend at Iowa Speedway after he wrecked out of Saturday’s Xfinity Series event due to a blown right-front tire.

    During the event’s second caution period, nearly all of the lead lap field led by Larson pitted for fresh tires and fuel while Daniel Suarez and Brad Keselowski remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Larson exited pit road first and was followed by Blaney, Byron, Berry, LaJoie, Elliott, Kyle Busch, Chastain, Wallace and Logano, respectively. Amid the pit stops, Justin Haley was penalized for equipment interference.

    The start of the next restart period on Lap 58 featured Larson navigating his way past both Suarez and Keselowski for nearly a lap as he led the proceeding lap. With Larson continuing to lead by the Lap 60 mark, Blaney assumed the runner-up spot while Suarez was trying to fend off Berry, Byron, LaJoie, Keselowski, Logano, Busch and a bevy of competitors for third place. Blaney would then assume the lead from Larson on Lap 61 while Suarez retained third place ahead of Berry, Byron and LaJoie. Despite Ty Gibbs scraping the outside wall entering the backstretch, the event remained under green flag conditions.

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 70, Blaney, who was battling a potential cool suit issue amid the warm temperatures, fended off a late challenge from Larson to capture his second Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Suarez settled in third place while Byron, Berry, Logano, LaJoie, Keselowski, Elliott and Busch were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Suarez and including Keselowski and LaJoie, pitted while the rest led by Blaney remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Daniel Hemric was penalized for speeding on pit road.

    The second stage period started on Lap 77 as Blaney and Larson occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out as Larson rocketed ahead of Blaney to reassume the lead. With Larson leading, teammates Byron and Elliott battled for third place along with Logano while Busch was in sixth place ahead of Bowman, Chastain, Briscoe and McDowell. Meanwhile, Bell was up to 11th place while Berry was back in 12th.

    Then on Lap 80, the caution returned after John Hunter Nemechek and Noah Gragson, both of whom were fighting outside the top 20 on the track, made contact entering Turn 4. Nemechek sent Gragson spinning sideways but Gragson managed to quickly straighten his No. 10 Bass Pro Shops Winchester Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry without hitting the wall and continue. During the caution period, Larson, who radioed tire concerns, surrendered the lead to pit for fresh tires for his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry as Blaney returned atop the leaderboard.

    With the event restarting under green on Lap 86, Blaney and Byron dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Blaney managed to clear Byron and muscle ahead through the backstretch. As Elliott got sideways entering the backstretch, Logano charged to the runner-up spot and began to intimidate teammate Blaney for the lead while Byron, Busch, Chastain and Bowman trailed in the top six. With a multitude of competitors jostling for spots within the mid-pack region, Blaney retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over teammate Logano just past the Lap 90 mark while Byron and Busch tried to close in.

    At the Lap 100 mark, Blaney was leading by a tenth of a second over teammate Logano followed by Byron, Berry and Elliott as Busch, Chastain, McDowell, Bowman and Suarez occupied the top 10. Behind, Briscoe was in 11th ahead of a hard-charging Larson while Wallace, Reddick and Ty Gibbs were battling in the top 15 ahead of Bell, LaJoie, Keselowski, Cindric and Hocevar. Meanwhile, Gragson was trapped in 23rd place behind Preece and Austin Dillon while Truex, Stenhouse, Haley, Gilliland, Nemechek, Hamlin and Buescher were mired in the top 30.

    Fifteen laps later, Blaney stretched his advantage to lead by a second over teammate Logano while Byron, Elliott and Berry trailed by within two seconds in the top five. By then, Larson, who was aggressively weaving and carving his way through the field, had returned to the top-10 mark as he was running in eighth place ahead of teammate Bowman and Suarez while Busch and Chastain occupied sixth and seventh, respectively. Meanwhile, Bell, Wallace, Briscoe, Gibbs and Keselowski trailed in the top 15 while McDowell, who was running in the top 10, was pinned two laps down in 35th place after he pitted his No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang Dark Horse to replace a flat right-front tire.

    Another 10 laps later, Blaney stabilized his advantage to more than a second over teammate Logano just before Byron overtook Logano for the runner-up spot, with Elliott and Chastain trailing by within three seconds in the top five on the track. Blaney led by one-and-a-half seconds over Byron just past the Lap 130 mark and by a second at the Lap 140 mark. By then, Busch, who was running in the top 10, had pitted his No. 8 zone/Kwik Trip Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry under green on Lap 135.

    By Lap 150, Blaney continued to lead by more than a second over Elliott as Byron, Logano and Larson followed suit in the top five. By then, Hamlin was mired a lap down for a second time in 27th place while Bell was up to sixth place as he had Berry, Chastain, Bowman and Wallace following suit.

    Ten laps later, LaJoie and Austin Dillon made contact while battling within the top-20 mark that sent Dillon up the track towards Turns 3 and 4 but he kept his No. 3 Get Bioethanol Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry running straight as he then ran into the rear of LaJoie to express his displeasure over the contact. Amid the contact, Blaney retained the lead by seven-tenths of a second over Elliott while Byron, Larson and Bell trailed in the top five by nearly five seconds.

    Then as Byron pitted his No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry under green from third place on Lap 165, trouble struck for Chastain as he went up the track through Turns 1 and 2 with a flat right-front tire to his No. 1 Busch Light For the Farmers Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry. Chastain, though, managed to limp his car to his pit stall without drawing a caution as LaJoie, Briscoe, Truex and Berry also pitted during the proceeding laps. Not long after, Truex was penalized for speeding on pit road.

    By Lap 172 and with more green flag pit stops ensuing amid tire wear concerns within the field, Blaney surrendered the lead to pit his No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry under green. Elliott, who led the proceeding lap, pitted his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry during the following lap along with teammate Bowman, Gibbs, Grala and Austin Dillon before Larson pitted as Erik Jones limped his No. 43 Family Dollar Toyota Camry XSE entry to pit road with a flat tire.

    As the event surpassed its halfway mark on Lap 175, more names including Logano, Gragson, Nemechek and Reddick would pit while Bell, who last pitted on Lap 54, cycled into the lead. Bell would then pit his No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE entry on Lap 180 before Suarez and Haley pitted during the next scheduled lap. This moved Keselowski into the lead.

    Then on Lap 181, the caution flew after Hemric made contact with the outside wall in Turn 2. During the caution period, select names led by Keselowski and including Wallace, Hocevar, Gilliland, Buescher, Hamlin, Suarez, Haley and Hemric pitted while the rest led by Stenhouse, who pinned many competitors a lap down by remaining on the track during the previous green flag run, remained on the track.

    As the event restarted under green on Lap 188, Stenhouse and Byron battled for the lead for nearly a lap until they nearly wrecked entering Turn 4, which allowed Larson to zip by both and return to the lead. With Larson leading, Berry moved his No. 4 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry up to second place followed by Wallace and Elliott while Stenhouse was trying to fend off fifth place from a multitude of competitors. Larson would proceed to lead just past the Lap 190 mark while he was being intimidated by Berry.

    By Lap 200, Larson extended his advantage to one-and-a-half seconds over Berry, who had Elliott pressuring him for the runner-up spot, while Blaney and Wallace occupied the top five. Meanwhile, Hamlin, who was lapped twice, was up to sixth place followed by Buescher, Gilliland, Keselowski and Stenhouse while Byron was back in 12th place behind Haley. In addition, Busch was in 14th while battling Hocevar, Bell was in 17th behind Suarez and Bell, Logano was in 18th while trying to overtake Bell and Chastain, the first competitor a lap down, was mired in 19th. In addition, Reddick was in 24th and Briscoe was mired in 29th in front of Truex.

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 210, Larson captured his eighth Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Berry fended off Elliott to retain second place ahead of Blaney and Wallace while Hamlin, Buescher, Gilliland, Keselowski and Haley were scored in the top 10. By then, 18 of 36 starters were scored a lap down while 19th-place Chastain was the recipient of the free pass for being the first competitor scored a lap down during the caution period.

    During the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Larson pitted while Buescher and Gilliland remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Keselowski exited pit road first after he only opted for a two-tire pit stop while Larson, Berry, Elliott, Suarez, Wallace, Hamlin, Blaney, Byron and Haley followed suit.

    With 132 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as teammates Buescher and Keselowski occupied the front row. At the start and with the field fanning out, Buescher maintained the lead ahead of Gilliland and Berry while Keselowski slipped to fourth. Then entering the frontstretch, the caution quickly returned after Larson, who was pinned in the middle of a three-wide battle with Keselowski and Suarez, got sideways after Suarez hit Larson, which resulted in Larson getting loose and coming across the path of Hamlin’s No. 11 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry XSE.

    Both wrecked against the outside wall, with Larson spinning across the frontstretch while the rest of the field scattered to avoid hitting Larson. The incident would cost Larson multiple laps as his pit crew went to work to repair the damage in his pit stall. With Larson then being assessed an additional two-lap penalty for having too many crew members over the pit wall, he would take his No. 5 Chevrolet to the garage for repairs but was granted permission to return to the track following his repairs due to meeting the minimum speed under the Damaged Vehicle Policy.

    With the next restart period occurring with 123 laps remaining, Buescher and Berry dueled for the lead for a full lap as Berry, who was racing up the outside lane, led the proceeding lap before Buescher, who had Berry slide in front of him during the previous lap, slid in front of Berry in retaliation to reassume the lead during the next lap. Berry, however, kept intimidating Buescher for the lead while Busch, Gilliland, Keselowski and Byron trailed closely in the top six with 120 laps remaining. Berry would then muscle away from Buescher during the proceeding five laps while Byron carved his way up to third place as he was being trailed by Keselowski, Elliott, Blaney, Gilliland, Busch, Suarez and others.

    Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Berry was leading by two seconds over a side-by-side battle between Blaney and Byron while Elliott and Buescher trailed in the top five ahead of Keselowski, Suarez, Logano, Haley and Busch. Meanwhile, Bowman occupied 11th place ahead of Chastain, Gilliland, Stenhouse and Bell while Wallace, Hocevar and McDowell occupied the remaining 18 competitors scored on the lead lap as Hamlin, who was in 19th, was lapped for a third time.

    Nine laps later, the caution returned after Buescher, who was running in fifth, scrubbed his No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang Dark Horse against the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2 after he lost a tire. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Berry returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Blaney exited pit road first after he opted for a two-tire pit stop along with teammate Logano and Stenhouse while Berry, the first competitor who opted for four fresh tires, followed suit in fourth ahead of Elliott, Byron, Suarez, Busch, Haley and Bowman.

    The start of the next restart period with 84 laps remaining featured Blaney battling and having enough momentum to clear teammate Logano to lead the next lap while Stenhouse, Byron and Berry followed suit in the top five. As the field behind jostled for late positions, Busch, who was racing in the top 10, scrubbed the backstretch’s outside wall and he would pit under green with 80 laps remaining, which dropped him out of the lead lap category. Shortly after, Busch’s chances of making the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs took another hit after he took his car to the garage and retired due to another mechanical issue to his No. 8 Chevrolet. Amid Busch’s issues, Blaney retained the lead while Stenhouse and Byron overtook Logano to move into second and third, respectively.

    With 60 laps remaining, Blaney continued to lead by eight-tenths of a second over Byron while Elliott, Stenhouse and Logano trailed in the top five. Blaney would stabilize his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Byron with 50 laps remaining while Elliott, Stenhouse and Logano continued to race in the top five.

    With 35 laps remaining, Blaney retained the lead by nine-tenths of a second over Byron while third-place Elliott trailed by a second-and-a-half. As Stenhouse and Logano continued to race in the top five, Bell trailed in sixth place by seven seconds while Berry, Suarez, Chastain and Bowman were in the top 10, with Haley situated in 11th place ahead of Keselowski, McDowell, Gilliland and Truex.

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Blaney, who nearly had his steady advantage extinguished while mired in lapped traffic, most notably Ty Gibbs, extended his advantage back to nine-tenths of a second over Byron while Elliott, Byron’s teammate, trailed by a second as he started to close in on Byron for the runner-up spot. Behind, Bell moved up to fourth place ahead of Stenhouse and Logano while McDowell, who was racing in the top 15, pitted under green a few laps earlier to address a flat tire for the second time within the event. Gibbs and John Hunter Nemechek would also pit under green as Blaney maintained the lead by a second over Byron’s No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet with 15 laps remaining.

    Under the final 10 laps of the event, Blaney, who was mired in more lapped traffic despite proceeding to lap Wallace and Gragson, maintained his lead by seven-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Byron as Elliott continued to trail by a second in third place. Blaney, who would close in and lap Truex, would then have his advantage shrink to six-tenths of a second as Byron continued to close in on Blaney with five laps remaining.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Blaney remained as the leader by seven-tenths of a second over Byron. With Byron unable to close the deficit even narrower, Blaney was able to cycle his No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford smoothly around the Iowa circuit for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch and claimed his first elusive checkered flag of the 2024 Cup Series season.

    With the victory, Blaney, who nearly won at World Wide Technology Raceway until he ran out of fuel while leading on the final lap two races ago, notched his 11th Cup Series career win and his first since winning at Martinsville Speedway in late October 2023. By becoming the 10th competitor overall to record a victory through the first 17 events of the 2024 Cup season, Blaney has guaranteed himself a spot into the 2024 Playoffs as he will commence his pursuit to defend his series’ title.

    As an added bonus, Blaney, who racked up the second victory of the season for Team Penske and the third ever for the Ford Mustang Dark Horse stock car, is the first competitor to achieve a victory across NASCAR’s top three national touring series. He claimed his first Craftsman Truck Series career win at Iowa in September 2012 and would win an Xfinity event at the 7/8-mile short track in August 2015.

    Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “Man, what a cool way to win here,” Blaney, who had 80 family members rooting for him in the grandstands, said on USA Network. “This place, it means a lot to me. It means a lot to my mom. We had a lot of people here tonight cheering us on. They wheeled us to that [win]. Overall, [I] really appreciate the whole No. 12 boys. Our car was really fast all night. We got a little bit better through the night with two [fresh] tires. It was a good call there. I didn’t know how well [the car] was going to hold on. I started to struggle a little bit at the end, but had to definitely hang on. So proud of the effort. It makes up a little bit from a couple weeks ago. I’m looking forward to seeing [the family members]. It’s always good to have family. I’ve been super lucky to have family that supported me through my career. It’s great that they’re still supporting me just as much as they did day one. It’s a cool weekend. Really cool to win the first Cup race here. I can’t wait we come back with many more years.”

    Byron, who recorded his first Xfinity Series victory at Iowa in June 2017, settled in second place for his sixth top-five result of the season while teammate Elliott, who notched his first ARCA Menards Series East victory at Iowa in 2012, ended up in third place for his seventh top-five result of 2024.

    “[Me and Blaney] were pretty even,” Byron said. “He was on two tires, so I think I had just a little bit fresher tires and was able to work the bottom [lane] through lapped traffic okay. [I] Felt like I was making marginal gains through [Turns] 1 and 2, but my tires were getting hot down there and I would just start sliding the rears around a little bit on entry. Really good effort by our team. We definitely need to put together some consistent runs and this is a good start. We’d love to be winning tonight, but Ryan [Blaney] and those guys were good, so congrats to them.”  

    “[The event] was a lot of surprises that [I] wasn’t really sure what to expect with the tire,” Elliott said. “The racetrack changed a lot, I thought, throughout the day. The lanes changed a lot. We were able to move around. I thought it was actually a much better race than I was anticipating being with the repave. I thought all of that was really good. Ultimately, really proud of our NAPA team and just continuing to put together solid days. Just need a little bit more to set the pace and be up there leading laps like I feel like we can. It’s nice to be in the fight and have a shot there in the closing laps.”

    Christopher Bell rallied from starting at the rear of the field in a backup car to finish fourth followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. as Joey Logano, rookie Josh Berry, Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez and Brad Keselowski finished in the top 10.

    There were 17 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 49 laps. In addition, 14 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Following the 17th event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Chase Elliott leads the regular-season standings by eight points over teammate Kyle Larson, 38 over Denny Hamlin, 54 over William Byron, 61 over Martin Truex Jr., 64 over Tyler Reddick and 90 over Ryan Blaney.

    Results.

    1. Ryan Blaney, 201 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    2. William Byron

    3. Chase Elliott, one lap led

    4. Christopher Bell, seven laps led

    5. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., four laps led

    6. Joey Logano

    7. Josh Berry, 32 laps led

    8. Alex Bowman

    9. Daniel Suarez, four laps led

    10. Brad Keselowski, five laps led

    11. Ross Chastain

    12. Todd Gilliland

    13. Justin Haley

    14. Carson Hocevar

    15. Martin Truex Jr., one lap down

    16. Noah Gragson, one lap down

    17. Bubba Wallace, one lap down

    18. Chris Buescher, one lap down, 16 laps led

    19. Austin Dillon, one lap down

    20. Harrison Burton, one lap down

    21. Corey LaJoie, one lap down

    22. Tyler Reddick, one lap down

    23. Michael McDowell, one lap down

    24. Denny Hamlin, two laps down

    25. Ty Gibbs, two laps down

    26. John Hunter Nemechek, two laps down

    27. Ryan Preece, two laps down

    28. Chase Briscoe, two laps down

    29. Daniel Hemric, two laps down

    30. Austin Cindric, three laps down

    31. Zane Smith, three laps down

    32. Erik Jones, three laps down

    33. Kaz Grala, five laps down

    34. Kyle Larson, 36 laps down, 80 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    35. Kyle Busch – OUT, Water Pump

    36. AJ Allmendinger – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ annual visit to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire, for the USA Today 301. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, June 23, and at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • Cindric benefits from Blaney’s last-lap misfortune for a wild Cup victory at Gateway

    Cindric benefits from Blaney’s last-lap misfortune for a wild Cup victory at Gateway

    In a season mired with only a single top-five result and nine results outside the top 20 through 14 races, Austin Cindric achieved good fortunes under the Gateway Arch, racing his way into Playoff contention after taking advantage of teammate Ryan Blaney running out of fuel on the final lap to win the third annual running of the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway on Sunday, June 2.

    The 2022 Daytona 500 champion from Mooresville, North Carolina, led three times for 53 of 240 scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row alongside pole-sitter Michael McDowell and raced competitively towards the front. As the event quickly became a race of execution in pit strategy within the field, Cindric, who accumulated a bevy of stage points during the event’s two stage periods and led for the first time on Lap 97, made his final pit service with 63 laps remaining under green flag conditions, one lap after teammate Ryan Blaney pitted. Cindric then spent the remainder of the event navigating his way around the Gateway course and methodically climbing the leaderboard as more front-runners pitted. Amid his drive back to the front, he was also trying to keep pace with Blaney, who would prevail in a late battle of his own against Christopher Bell.

    Then after being initially poised for a runner-up result behind Blaney with two laps remaining, Cindric struck gold after Blaney ran out of fuel and quickly fell off the pace through the frontstretch. Having the lead to his advantage for a final lap, Cindric was able to have enough fuel and horsepower within his No. 2 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry to cycle back to the frontstretch and claim his second NASCAR Cup Series career victory in his 94th series start along with his first win in two years.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, June 1, Michael McDowell achieved his third Cup pole position of this season and of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 138.598 mph in 32.468 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Austin Cindric, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 138.134 mph in 32.577 seconds.

    When the green flag waved and the event commenced, McDowell jumped his No. 34 Siteman Cancer Center Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead from the outside lane and he led the field through the first two turns and through the backstretch. With Christopher Bell navigating his way into the runner-up spot and the field behind fanning out to multiple lanes, McDowell proceeded to lead the first lap from Bell. Behind, Ryan Blaney was up to third place while teammate Austin Cindric dropped to fourth place as he was racing in front of Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace and Brad Keselowski.

    The following lap, Wallace, who was battling Keselowski for seventh place, bumped into the side of Keselowski as Keselowski got loose and briefly went up the track through Turns 1 and 2, but he managed to keep his car running straight despite dropping out of the top 10 on the track. Then prior to the third lap, the event’s first caution period flew after John Hunter Nemechek and Cody Ware both spun in Turn 2.

    During the next restart period on the seventh lap, McDowell and Bell dueled for the lead through the first two turns until McDowell just managed to clear Bell’s No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry XSE through the backstretch. As the field behind fanned out to multiple lanes for a second time, McDowell retained the lead by a narrow margin over Bell as Team Penske’s Blaney and Cindric battled for third place in front of Toyota drivers Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs and Wallace. William Byron and Keselowski would trail in the top 10 along with Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Kyle Larson while McDowell led the Lap 10 mark by three-tenths of a second over Bell.

    Through the first 15 scheduled laps, McDowell was leading by half a second over Bell followed by Blaney, Cindric and Hamlin while Reddick, Gibbs, Byron, Wallace and Logano were scored in the top 10. Behind, Larson occupied 11th place ahead of Keselowski, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch while rookie Josh Berry, Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr., rookie Carson Hocevar and Austin Dillon trailed in the top 20.

    Shortly after, the event’s second caution period flew after Cody Ware was involved in a second two-car spin in Turn 2, with his latest one including Kaulig Racing’s Derek Kraus. During the caution period, select names led by Keselowski and including Busch, Truex, Austin Dillon and Josh Berry pitted while the rest led by McDowell remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who pitted, was penalized for speeding while Keselowski pitted for a second time to address a loose wheel to his No. 6 Solomon Plumbing Ford Mustang Dark Horse.

    As the event restarted under green on Lap 22, McDowell and Bell battled dead even for the lead through the first two turns until McDowell managed to muscle ahead from Bell from the outside lane. McDowell proceeded to lead the proceeding lap from Bell as he had both lanes in his control while Blaney was trying to fend off Cindric, Hamlin and a hard-charging Byron for third place. Behind, Wallace and Logano battled fiercely for ninth place in front of Alex Bowman, where Wallace blocked Logano through the frontstretch before Logano prevailed and overtook Wallace from the inside lane through the first two turns. Amid the early battles, McDowell retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Bell by the Lap 25 mark.

    Through the first 30 scheduled laps, McDowell continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over Bell followed by Blaney, Cindric and Hamlin as Byron, Gibbs, Reddick, Logano and Chase Elliott trailed in the top 10. Wallace, Larson, Bowman, Erik Jones and Ross Chastain trailed in the top 15 while Ryan Preece, Todd Gilliland, Carson Hocevar, Justin Haley and John Hunter Nemechek followed suit in the top 20. Meanwhile, a bevy of top names including Kyle Busch, Truex, Berry, Chase Briscoe, Noah Gragson, Austin Dillon, Chris Buescher, Keselowski and Daniel Suarez trailed the lead outside the top 20 on the track.

    Just past the Lap 35 mark, the top three competitors on the track were separated by less than half a second as runner-up Bell and third-place Blaney slowly began to close in on McDowell for the lead. At the same time, however, Blaney would start to challenge Bell for the runner-up spot while fourth-place Cindric trailed by two seconds. Bell would then make two different attempts to overtake the leader McDowell from the inside lane through the Lap 40 mark, which he prevailed after running McDowell up the track through Turns 1 and 2. As McDowell tried to fight back from the outside lane, Bell maintained both his racing line on the inside lane and the lead during the proceeding lap.

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 45, Bell, winner of last weekend’s rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, captured his fifth Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. McDowell held off Blaney to retain second followed by Cindric and Hamlin while Byron, Gibbs, Reddick, Logano and Elliott were scored in the top 10 on the track. By then, all but one of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap.

    Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Bell pitted while the rest led by Todd Gilliland, including those who pitted during the second caution period, among which included Kyle Busch, Berry, Austin Dillon and Stenhouse, remained on the track. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategies, Ryan Preece exited pit road first with two fresh tires ahead of Truex while Bell, the first competitor with four fresh tires, followed suit along with McDowell, Cindric, Chase Briscoe, Blaney, Hamlin, Gibbs and Keselowski.

    The second stage period started on Lap 54 as Gilliland and Busch occupied the front row. At the start, Gilliland and Busch briefly dueled for the lead until Busch rocketed his No. 8 Rebel Bourbon Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead through the first two turns. As the field fanned out to multiple lanes and jostled for spots through the backstretch, Busch led Gilliland and teammate Austin Dillon back to the frontstretch. Behind, Berry occupied fourth place while Stenhouse was in fifth ahead of Bell, Preece, Truex, Cindric and Elliott.

    Just past the Lap 56 mark, Gilliland dropped from second to seventh on the track. This enabled Dillon to move his No. 3 DOW/Rivers are Life Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the runner-up spot behind teammate Busch while Berry, Stenhouse, Bell and Truex followed suit. Preece would then move into eighth place while Briscoe and Cindric battled fiercely for 10th place. With a multitude of battles ensuing around the circuit and between those with fresh tires versus those with none, Busch maintained the lead by eight-tenths of a second over teammate Dillon by Lap 60.

    At the Lap 70 mark, Bell, who was charging his way to the front on four fresh tires, overtook Busch to move back into the lead. Behind, Dillon trailed in third place by a second and a half while Truex and Berry followed suit in the top five as they trailed the lead by three seconds.

    Ten laps later, Bell was leading by more than a second over Busch followed by Dillon, Truex and Berry while Elliott, Stenhouse, Cindric, Blaney and Preece were racing in the top 10 ahead of Hamlin, Larson, Wallace, Briscoe and Gibbs. Meanwhile, McDowell, who restarted 10th at the start of the second stage period, was down in 16th ahead of Logano, Keselowski, Gilliland and Bowman as Byron, Chastain, Reddick, Haley and Buescher trailed outside the top 20.

    Another 10 laps later, Bell extended his advantage to more than three seconds over Busch as Dillon, Truex and Berry continued to run in the top five. Elliott, Stenhouse, Cindric and Blaney also continued to race from sixth to ninth, respectively, while Hamlin occupied 10th place in front of Larson, Wallace, Preece, Gibbs and Briscoe.

    Then during the next lap, select names including Richard Childress Racing’s Busch and Dillon pitted under green along with Gilliland. Berry, who was running fourth, pitted his No. 4 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse under green during the proceeding lap along with Stenhouse, Haley and Derek Kraus while Bell continued to lead. Soon after, a cycle of green flag pit stops slowly commenced on Lap 94 as Larson pitted his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 from the top 10 and only for two fresh tires. The leader Bell, along with Hamlin, Chastain, Reddick, Elliott, Erik Jones and Nemechek would pit during the proceeding laps as Berry was penalized for speeding on pit road.

    By Lap 100, Austin Cindric was one of many who had yet to pit and was leading by nearly a second over teammate Blaney as Wallace, Preece and Gibbs followed suit in the top five. Gibbs would then pit under green along with Wallace, Byron, McDowell, Preece, Daniel Suarez, Buescher and Bowman over the next five laps while Cindric continued to lead.

    Then on Lap 109, Truex, who pitted earlier under green, pitted his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE for a second time after he lost his left-rear tire. Amid Truex’s issues, the event remained under green flag conditions as Truex lost two laps in the process. The caution, however, flew on Lap 111 after Berry lost a left front tire and slid dead straight into the outside wall in Turn 4 as his event came to an end. By then, 17 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while a multitude of names led by the leader Cindric, many of whom were anticipating a caution, have yet to pit as part of their strategic move. During the caution period, a majority of the lead lap field by Cindric, including those who have to pit, pitted while the rest, led by Bell and including Elliott and Larson, remained on the track.

    When the event restarted under green on Lap 119, Bell and Elliott dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Bell rocketed ahead from the outside lane through the backstretch. Bell would maintain the top spot and lead the halfway mark on Lap 120 while Busch was trying to close in on Elliott for the runner-up spot. In addition, Cindric battled Larson for fourth place in front of Blaney as the rest of the field behind jostled for spots.

    By Lap 130, Bell stretched his advantage to more than two seconds over Cindric, who was battling Elliott for the spot. Behind, Blaney occupied fourth place in front of a side-by-side battle between Busch and Logano while Keselowski, Larson, Briscoe and Hocevar were in the top 10 ahead of Dillon, Harrison Burton, Hamlin, Daniel Hemric, Gibbs, Zane Smith, Noah Gragson, Corey LaJoie, Byron and Reddick.

    Then on the final lap of the second stage period, the caution flew after Larson, who was battling fiercely with Busch amid close-quarters racing and contact through the frontstretch for seventh place, got loose and slid up the track into Busch, with Busch sliding and hitting the outside wall hard while Larson continued to slide sideways towards the outside wall. The incident between Busch and Larson, which ended Busch’s strong run in the garage and spoiled his bid to win for two consecutive years at Gateway, concluded the second stage period on Lap 140 as Bell captured his sixth Cup stage victory of the 2024 season as he also swept both stages of the day. Cindric settled in second ahead of Blaney, Elliott and Keselowski while Logano, Briscoe, Hocevar, Dillon and Hamlin were scored in the top 10.

    During the stage break, mixed strategies ensued within the field as some led by Bell pitted while the rest led by Cindric, including his Team Penske teammates Blaney and Logano, remained on the track.

    With 92 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as teammates Cindric and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, the field quickly fanned out through the frontstretch as Briscoe attempted to make a three-wide move on both Cindric and Blaney for the lead through the first two turns. Cindric, however, muscled his No. 2 Freightliner Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead from the outside lane through the backstretch while Blaney and Logano muscled back ahead of Briscoe into the top three. Hocevar then battled Logano for third place while more jostling of spots ensued within the middle of the pack during the following lap. Amid the battles and as Bell was trying to navigate his way back towards the front, Cindric retained the lead with 90 laps remaining.

    Down to the final 80 laps of the event, Cindric was leading by six-tenths of a second over teammate Blaney while teammate Logano trailed in third place by two seconds. Behind, Hocevar retained fourth place ahead of Hamlin and a hard-charging Bell as Briscoe, Dillon, Chastain and Keselowski trailed in the top 10 ahead of Reddick, Hemric, Haley, Zane Smith and Elliott. Meanwhile, Stenhouse occupied 16th place ahead of Byron, Buescher, Burton and Gragson while Gilliland, Preece, Larson, Wallace and Gibbs occupied the top 25 in front of Erik Jones, Bowman, Suarez, McDowell and Nemechek.

    Fifteen laps later, Cindric maintained the lead by six-tenths of a second over teammate Blaney while teammate Logano continued to trail in third place by five seconds. As Hocevar surrendered fourth place to pit under green, Bell cycled his way up to fourth place, where he trailed the lead by six seconds, while teammate Hamlin moved up to fifth place.

    Another lap later, however, pit strategies amongst the front-runners started to occur as Blaney pitted his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse from the runner-up spot before the leader Cindric, Hamlin and Zane Smith pitted another lap later. Logano would then pit his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse along with Dillon, Briscoe and Byron with 63 laps remaining as Bell returned atop the leaderboard. With Stewart-Haas Racing’s Preece and Gragson pitting not long after, Bell was leading Keselowski by more than four seconds as Reddick, Haley and Chastain followed suit in the top five with 60 laps remaining.

    With less than 50 laps remaining, Bell, who has yet to pit, continued to lead by more than five seconds over Keselowski as Reddick, Haley and Chastain continued to race in the top five. Meanwhile, Blaney and Cindric, both of whom managed to pit and remain on the lead lap ahead of Bell, were mired back in 18th and 20th, respectively. Bell would then pit from the lead with 47 laps remaining along with Reddick and Chastain as Keselowski cycled into the lead. With Haley, LaJoie and Stenhouse pitting not long after, Keselowski, who has yet to pit, continued to lead by more than nine seconds over Elliott as Larson, Gibbs, Gilliland, Wallace, McDowell, Bowman, Erik Jones and Nemechek trailed in the top 10 with 40 laps remaining. By then, Blaney, Cindric and Bell, all of whom had enough fuel to complete the event’s scheduled distance, had cycled their way just outside the top-10 mark.

    Down to the final 30 laps of the event, Keselowski retained the lead by 11 seconds over Larson before he pitted a lap later. By then, Elliott had pitted his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 while Larson cycled into the lead. Then as Gibbs also pitted a few laps later, Blaney cycled his way up into the runner-up spot while Bell, Wallace and Cindric followed suit. As Blaney and Bell battled for the runner-up spot and potentially for the victory, Larson, who has yet to pit, retained the lead by 13 seconds with 25 laps remaining.

    Then with 24 laps remaining, Larson surrendered the lead to pit, which moved Blaney into the lead by a mere margin over Bell as Bell continued to pressure Blaney for the position. Behind the two leaders, Cindric was up to third place while Wallace and McDowell were in the top five. Amid Bell’s continuous challenges through the turns and from the inside lane, Blaney managed to prevail through the straightaways from the outside lane as he led with 20 laps remaining.

    Bell then led the following lap after he moved in front of Blaney through the straightaway, but Blaney responded with a crossover move on Bell through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1. Bell then pulled a crossover move of his own underneath Blaney, who barely slipped up the track, through the backstretch, but Blaney moved in front of Bell to block him and remain ahead of him as he returned to the lead with 18 laps remaining. Bell then slowly began to fall off the pace through the backstretch as he reported an engine issue to his car, which allowed Cindric to catch up and overtake him for the runner-up spot with 16 laps remaining while Blaney pulled away with the lead.

    With 10 laps remaining, Blaney retained the lead by two seconds over teammate Cindric. Behind, Hamlin navigated his way up to third place while Bell, who was trying to nurse his car to the finish, settled in fourth while Keselowski trailed in fifth place by eight seconds. Keselowski and Reddick would catch and overtake Bell for positions while Blaney stabilized his advantage of less than two seconds over teammate Cindric, who was trying to navigate his way through lapped traffic, with five laps remaining.

    Then as Blaney was about to cycle his way back to the frontstretch to start the final lap of the event, he quickly fell off the pace after he ran out of fuel, which allowed Cindric to zip by him with the lead through the frontstretch. As Blaney was trying to coast his No. 12 Ford around the circuit for a final time, Cindric was able to cruise his No. 2 Ford around the Gateway circuit smoothly for a final time as he returned to the frontstretch with enough fuel underneath his tank and victorious for the second time in his career.

    With the victory, Cindric, who notched the second victory in three races for the new Ford Mustang Dark Horse stock car, became the 142nd competitor overall to achieve multiple victories in the Cup Series and he snapped an 85-race winless drought since he notched his first Cup career victory in the 2022 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.

    In addition to becoming the ninth competitor to win through the 2024 season’s first 15-scheduled events and guaranteeing himself a Playoff berth for this season, Cindric also delivered the first Cup victory of the season for Team Penske and the first ever for crew chief Brian Wilson, who celebrated an Xfinity Series championship with Cindric in 2020 and was moved to the No. 2 team from the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team midway into the 2023 season.

    Photo by Simon Scoggins for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “Honestly, I’m heartbroken for the No. 12 team,” Cindric said. “I don’t know what happened to them at the end of the race, but they deserve to win this race. Ryan’s [Blaney] been a hell of a leader on this team. This weekend was a great weekend for everybody involved, but to have two cars in the fight, an eventual one, two [finish] there. Like I said, I’m heartbroken for those guys, but this is huge for me. This is huge for this team. I’m so glad I was able to get a win with [crew chief] Brian [Wilson] as my crew chief in the Cup Series. You never know when it’s going to happen again. Just drove my butt off and hope for the best.”

    “[The win]’s everything, it’s absolutely everything,” Cindric added. “The funniest thing about it is that this Freightliner Ford Mustang’s probably one of the best-looking cars on the racetrack. I have had terrible races every single time with this car and it’s great to win with a great paint scheme. Great to win front of an amazing crowd. This racetrack does an amazing job of putting on events. Just proud to be able to do it. Proud to bring it home for these [No. 2] guys. They deserve it.”

    As Cindric celebrated on the frontstretch, teammate Blaney was left dejected on pit road after ending up in 24th place in the final running order as he continues to seek his first Cup victory of the 2024 season.

    “No, I didn’t think so [of running out of fuel],” Blaney said. “[I] Never thought in my mind we were short, but one of those things. Proud of the No. 12 boys. [I] Had my work cut out for me holding off Christopher [Bell]. That was a fun battle. Yeah, one lap short. That stinks, but congrats to the No. 2 team. They did a good job all day, so it’s a props for them, Austin [Cindric]. Proud for Team Penske and Ford. Really happy with our showing today. I don’t know what I got to do to get some luck on our side. Gosh, [I] wrecked the last two points races and thought we had a great shot to win today. Ended up bad. Appreciate the effort, just got to keep sticking with it.”

    Meanwhile, Denny Hamlin piloted his No. 11 Yahoo! Toyota Camry XSE into the runner-up spot while Brad Keselowski, Tyler Reddick and Joey Logano came home in the top five.

    Austin Dillon settled in sixth place followed by Bell, who had enough power to finish despite leading a race-high 80 laps, while rookie Carson Hocevar, Justin Haley and Kyle Larson finished in the top 10.  

    There were 16 lead changes for 10 different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 32 laps. In addition, 24 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Following the 15th event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Denny Hamlin continues to lead the regular-season standings by 21 points over Kyle Larson, 27 over Chase Elliott, 44 over Martin Truex Jr. and 36 over William Byron.

    Results.

    1. Austin Cindric, 53 laps led

    2. Denny Hamlin

    3. Brad Keselowski, 17 laps led

    4. Tyler Reddick

    5. Joey Logano, one lap led

    6. Austin Dillon

    7. Christopher Bell, 80 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner

    8. Carson Hocevar

    9. Justin Haley

    10. Kyle Larson, seven laps led

    11. Ty Gibbs

    12. Ross Chastain

    13. Chase Elliott

    14. Chris Buescher

    15. William Byron  

    16. Todd Gilliland, six laps led

    17. Chase Briscoe

    18. Daniel Hemric

    19. Zane Smith

    20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    21. Bubba Wallace

    22. Noah Gragson

    23. Daniel Suarez

    24. Ryan Blaney, 20 laps led

    25. Michael McDowell, one lap down, 40 laps led

    26. Erik Jones, one lap down

    27. John Hunter Nemechek, one lap down

    28. Alex Bowman, one lap down

    29. Ryan Preece, one lap down

    30. Derek Kraus, one lap down

    31. Harrison Burton, one lap down

    32. Corey LaJoie, one lap down

    33. Cody Ware, two laps down

    34. Martin Truex Jr., three laps down, one lap led

    35. Kyle Busch – OUT, Accident, 15 laps led

    36. Josh Berry – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, June 9, and air at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

  • Randall Burnett to call 200th Cup event as crew chief at Gateway

    Randall Burnett to call 200th Cup event as crew chief at Gateway

    In his sixth full-time season as a crew chief in the NASCAR Cup Series, Randall Burnett, crew chief for Kyle Busch and the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team, is within reach of achieving a milestone start. By participating in this weekend’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway, Burnett will call his 200th event as a crew chief in NASCAR’s premier series.

    A native of Fenton, Missouri, Burnett is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a degree in mechanical engineering. He then spent 10 years at Chip Ganassi Racing, working in multiple engineering roles for the organization. During the span, Burnett served as Ganassi’s lead engineer for the No. 1 Chevrolet team piloted by Jamie McMurray, who won the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400 and the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway during the 2010 Cup Series season. Burnett also previously worked as the team engineer for CGR’s No. 42 Chevrolet team piloted by Juan Pablo Montoya in 2013 and Kyle Larson in 2014 and 2015.

    In 2016, Burnett made his debut as a Cup Series crew chief as he joined JTG-Daugherty Racing to lead AJ Allmendinger and the No. 47 Chevrolet team for the upcoming season. Participating in all but one of the 36-race schedule, Burnett and Allmendinger achieved a season-best runner-up result at Martinsville Speedway in April, two top-five results, nine top-10 results, a 17.9 average-finishing result and a 19th-place result in the final driver’s standings. The only event Burnett was unable to attend was Pocono Raceway in June, which he was serving a one-race suspension due to violating NASCAR’s lug nut procedures stemming from the previous event at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May.

    Burnett remained as Allmendinger’s crew chief in the early stages of the 2017 Cup season. Despite achieving a third-place result in the season-opening Daytona 500, Burnett was suspended for three races due to three loose lug nuts that were discovered on Allmendinger’s entry following the second event of the schedule at Atlanta Motor Speedway in February. Sitting out for four events, Burnett returned for five additional Cup races with Allmendinger before being replaced by veteran Ernie Cope, who had filled in during Burnett’s suspensions, for the remainder of the season, beginning in May.

    Following his demotion as the crew chief for JTG-Daugherty Racing, Burnett joined Richard Childress Racing to serve as a crew chief for the organization’s No. 2 Chevrolet Camaro team in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Between 2017 to 2019, Burnett was an Xfinity Series crew chief for RCR in 89 races. During this span, he achieved six victories, six poles, 35 top-five results and 56 top-10 results, all while working with Austin Dillon, Daniel Hemric, Ben Kennedy, Paul Menard, Matt Tifft and Tyler Reddick. Burnett’s accomplishments as an Xfinity crew chief were guiding Hemric to the 2017 Xfinity Series Championship Round and winning the 2019 Xfinity Series title with Reddick, which marked Burnett’s first title in NASCAR as a crew chief.

    A month after winning the 2019 Xfinity Series title, Burnett was named a full-time Cup crew chief for Reddick, who was also promoted to NASCAR’s premier series, and the No. 8 RCR Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE team for the 2020 season. Throughout the season, Burnett and Reddick achieved a season-best runner-up result at Texas Motor Speedway in July, three top-five results, nine top-10 results and a 19th-place result in the final standings, with Reddick ending up as the runner-up finisher to the Rookie-of-the-Year battle behind Cole Custer.

    Burnett remained as Reddick’s crew chief for the 2021 Cup season, where they achieved a single pole position at Circuit of the Americas in May along with a total of two runner-up results, three top-five results and 16 top-10 results in 35 events. The duo managed to claim the 16th and final berth in the 2021 Cup Series Playoffs, which marked their first presence in the Playoffs as title contenders, but they were eliminated following the Round of 16 after missing the Round of 12 cutline by two points. Burnett would then be absent from the finale at Phoenix Raceway in November due to COVID protocols as Reddick proceeded to finish in 13th place in the final standings.

    For the 2022 season, Burnett and Reddick recorded three top-10 results through the first eight-scheduled events before being one lap away of achieving their first Cup victory at the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Course in April, where Reddick was hit and spun by Chase Briscoe on the final lap and final corner as Reddick was then beaten by Kyle Busch by 0.330 seconds to settle in a disappointing runner-up result. Nine races later, redemption came for the duo after Reddick prevailed in a late battle against Chase Elliott to notch his first Cup career victory at Road America in July, which also marked Burnett’s first career win as a crew chief in NASCAR’s premier series.

    Another four races later, Burnett and Reddick solidified their spot into the 2022 Cup Playoffs after Reddick navigated his way amid a wild overtime shootout to win for the season time of the season at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. Despite having their Playoff hopes evaporated following respective finishes of third, 35th and 25th throughout the Round of 16, Burnett and Reddick notched their third Cup victory of the season during the Round of 12 opener at Texas Motor Speedway in September. They would then accumulate two top-10 results during the final six events on the schedule before settling in 14th place in the final standings.

    This past season, Burnett was paired with two-time Cup champion Kyle Busch, who replaced Reddick in RCR’s No. 8 entry as Reddick transitioned to 23XI Racing. Despite finishing in 19th place during the 65th running of the Daytona 500 amid a final lap multi-car wreck, the new duo quickly navigated their way to Victory Lane at Auto Club Speedway in February as Busch achieved his first win driving for RCR. Burnett and Busch would win at Talladega Superspeedway in April and at World Wide Technology Raceway in June as they would also accumulate a total of 14 top-10 results throughout the 26-race regular-season stretch before securing their spot into the Playoffs. Despite finishing within the top 20 throughout the Round of 16 which enabled them to transfer into the Round of 12, their title hopes came to an end amid respective finishes of 34th, 25th and third throughout the Round of 12. Managing only a single top-five finish in the final four scheduled events, Burnett and Busch concluded their first campaign in 14th place in the final standings.

    Through 199 previous Cup events, Burnett has achieved six victories, six poles, 31 top-five results, 72 top-10 results and 957 laps led while working with three different competitors. He and Busch are currently ranked in 14th place in the 2024 regular-season standings on the strengths of two top-five results and five top-10 results through the first 14 scheduled events.

    Randall Burnett is scheduled to call his 200th Cup Series event as a crew chief at World Wide Technology Raceway for the Enjoy Illinois 300 on Sunday, June 2. The event’s broadcast time is slated to occur at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Ricky Stenhouse Jr. fined, 2 crew members suspended after All-Star Race altercation

    Ricky Stenhouse Jr. fined, 2 crew members suspended after All-Star Race altercation

    NASCAR announced penalties today following the All-Star Race confrontation between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

    The incident stemmed from contact with Kyle Busch at the beginning of the race, knocking him out of contention after only two laps. Stenhouse could not leave the venue because the facility has no tunnel or a pedestrian bridge to exit without walking across the track.

    Stranded on the sidelines, a frustrated Stenhouse had plenty of time to think about what had happened and confronted Busch after the race. He ended the conversation by punching Busch in the face igniting a free-for-all between the two teams. Stenhouse’s father was also involved, grabbing Bush, as the fight escalated.

    NASCAR announced the following penalties Wednesday.

    “When crew members get involved and family members get involved, we’re going to react,” NASCAR Senior Vice President Elton Sawyer said. “That’s exactly what we did.”

    Ricky Stenhouse, Jr has been fined $75,000. JTG Daugherty Racing team members suspended for fighting include engine tuner Keith Matthews for four races and mechanic Clint Myrick for eight races (fighting and putting his hands on Busch). Richard Stenhouse (father) has been indefinitely suspended for grabbing Busch.

    Busch and his Richard Childress Racing team members did not receive any penalties.

    The suspensions and fines can be appealed.

  • Logano dominates for second All-Star triumph at North Wilkesboro

    Logano dominates for second All-Star triumph at North Wilkesboro

    Joey Logano erased his difficult start to the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season by capping off a dominant run with a big victory in the 40th annual running of the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Sunday, May 19. 

    The two-time Cup Series champion from Middletown, Connecticut, led all but one of 200 scheduled laps in an event where he took care of business a day earlier by qualifying on the pole position for the main event. From the drop of the green flag to the checkered flag, Logano managed through the event’s tire options and repaved surface, including the use of optional tires for grip, to keep his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry out in front amid four restarts and several challenges between his fellow competitors. Amid a 42-lap dash to the finish, Logano managed both his optional tires, the track’s racing surface and the clean air to fend off Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson to claim his second checkered flag in the All-Star event and cash in a million dollars.

    The starting lineup for the main event was determined through a combined session of on-track qualifying and the NASCAR Pit Crew Challenge that occurred on Saturday, May 18, where each competitor eligible for the All-Star Race took the green flag, ran one full lap around the circuit, pitted within a designated pit stall for four-tire pit stop with a mock fuel delivery included during the second lap and raced back to the checkered flag once returning to the track.  

    The overall qualifying time was evaluated by the total time from the green flag to the checkered flag, where the competitor who posted the fastest lap time between the three times would achieve the pole position. The event’s two 60-lap Heat events that would determine the rest of the starting lineup for the All-Star Race aside from the pole sitter was scheduled to occur on Saturday but was canceled due to on-track precipitation. 

    At the conclusion of the qualifying and Pit Crew Challenge sessions, Joey Logano claimed his first All-Star pole position after posting the fastest three-lap qualifying run in one minute, 29.75 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Brad Keselowski, who clocked in the second-fastest three-lap qualifying run in one minute, 30.14 seconds.  

    Christopher Bell, whose No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota pit crew achieved this year’s Mechanix Wear Pit Crew Challenge after delivering the fastest four-tire pit service during Bell’s qualifying run in 13.223 seconds, qualified in third place with a three-lap qualifying run in one minute, 30.17 seconds and he started alongside Daniel Suarez, who posted the fourth-fastest three-lap qualifying run in one minute, 30.20 seconds. 

    Prior to the event, Kyle Larson, who qualified an impressive fifth place for the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 while driving for Arrow McLaren, started at the rear of the field due to a driver change after Kevin Harvick practiced and qualified Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry while Larson was preparing for the Indy 500. 

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Logano muscled his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead from the outside lane as he led the field through the first two turns and through the backstretch while Kyle Busch, who started towards the middle of the pack, hit the outside wall after making contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. amid a three-wide battle.  

    Then as Logano proceeded to lead the first lap, Busch retaliated by bumping and sending Stenhouse hard into the outside wall in Turn 2 as his event came to an early end. Following the incident, however, Stenhouse nursed and parked his damaged No. 47 Icy Hot Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into Busch’s pit stall before he climbed out and exchanged words with Busch’s crew chief Randall Burnett before being directed to the infield care center. 

    During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Daniel Suarez pitted to have the soft “red” tires on their respective entries removed for prime “yellow” tires while the rest led by Logano and including Tyler Reddick, Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher and Ryan Blaney remained on the track. 

    When the event restarted under green on the 10th lap, Logano retained the lead through the first two turns and through the backstretch as Keselowski and Reddick battled for second in front of Blaney and Buescher. Behind, Christopher Bell, the first competitor racing on the fresh prime tires, was in sixth ahead of Suarez, Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch as Logano proceeded to lead the Lap 15 mark. 

    Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Logano was leading by four-tenths of a second over Reddick followed by Buescher, Blaney and Keselowski while Bell, Suarez, Chastain, William Byron and Denny Hamlin were racing in the top 10. Behind, Chase Elliott occupied 11th place ahead of Truex, Ty Gibbs, Kyle Larson and Busch while Bubba Wallace, AJ Allmendinger, Michael McDowell and Noah Gragson trailed behind, with last-place Gragson trailing the lead by more than seven seconds. 

    Ten laps later, Logano extended his advantage to more than a second over Buescher followed by Blaney, Reddick and Keselowski, with all the top-five front-runners separated by more than three seconds and still racing on the option “red” tires. Behind, Bell, the first competitor racing on the primary “yellow” tires in his No. 20 Yahoo! Toyota Camry XSE, trailed in sixth place by more than three seconds while Suarez, Chastain, Byron and Hamlin continued to run in the top 10. 

    Another 10 laps later, Logano stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Buescher while third-place Blaney trailed by more than two seconds. As Keselowski and Reddick trailed in the top five, Bell, Suarez, Chastain, Hamlin and Byron trailed in the top 10, respectively, while Elliott, Gibbs, Truex, Larson and Busch followed suit in the top 15 ahead of Wallace, McDowell, Gragson and Allmendinger. 

    At the Lap 50 mark, Logano continued to lead by nine-tenths of a second over Buescher, with Blaney and Keselowski trailing in third and fourth, respectively. Meanwhile, Bell cracked the top five on his primary tires while Reddick fell back to sixth place on his optional tires. Suarez, Chastain and Hamlin followed suit from seventh to ninth, respectively, while Elliott occupied 10th place ahead of teammate Byron and Gibbs. 

    Fifteen laps later, Logano retained the lead by a second over Buescher as Blaney, Keselowski and Bell trailed in the top five. Behind, Reddick occupied sixth place ahead of a battle between Hamlin and Suarez while Chastain and Elliott continued to run in the top 10. 

    A few laps later, trouble struck for Byron, who nursed his No. 24 RAPTOR Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to pit road under green due to a flat tire and for a bent toe link after hitting a bump and the outside wall. Amid Byron’s issues, which pinned the Charlotte native multiple laps down while his pit crew made repairs on pit road, Logano, who was beginning to approach lapped traffic, was leading by less than half a second over Buescher, who was starting to close in on Logano for the top spot, by the Lap 75 mark. 

    Just past the Lap 80 mark, Logano, who was still trying to navigate his way through lapped traffic, retained the lead by half a second over Buescher while third-place Blaney trailed by a second. Keselowski, Bell and Reddick continued to run in the top six ahead of Hamlin, Chastain, Suarez and Elliott while Logano, who was trying to lap Wallace, was still leading by the Lap 90 mark. 

    On Lap 100, which marked the halfway point of the event, a designated All-Star caution was flown. At the moment of caution, Logano, who was unable to lap Wallace but survived through the event’s first half on the optional tires, retained the lead ahead of Buescher, Keselowski, Blaney and Bell while Reddick, Hamlin, Chastain, Suarez and Elliott were scored in the top 10. By then, McDowell, who was running in 16th place behind Wallace, emerged as the first competitor swho was scored a lap down and he was the recipient of the free pass. 

    During the caution period, the field led by Logano made a mandatory four-tire pit stop. Following the pit stops, Logano retained the lead after beating both Buescher and Bell off of pit road first while Keselowski, Blaney, Hamlin, Chastain, Elliott, Suarez and Reddick followed suit in the top 10. Amid the pit stops, nearly the entire field led by Logano opted to change for a fresh set of optional tires while Gibbs and Reddick only opted to change for primary tires. 

    When the race restarted under green with 92 laps remaining, where Logano and Bell occupied the front row, Logano maintained a slight advantage over Bell through the first two turns and the backstretch, with both still battling dead even back to the frontstretch and for the following lap. Logano and Bell would continue to battle dead even for the lead with 90 laps remaining, with the former trying to pin and stall the latter’s momentum through the turns and straightaways.  

    Then with 88 laps remaining, Bell got loose underneath Logano, which sent both competitors up the track through Turns 3 and 4 amid contact. This allowed Hamlin to ignite a three-wide battle for the lead through the frontstretch. With Hamlin trying to emerge ahead through the first two turns from the inside lane, Logano fought back from the outside lane as he retained the lead by a narrow margin over Hamlin while Bell was trying to fend off Blaney for third place. In addition, Buescher was in fifth while Larson was up to sixth place. 

    With 83 laps remaining, the caution flew after Gibbs, winner of the 2024 All-Star Open, was bumped twice by Busch’s No. 8 Lenovo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entering Turn 1 while racing for 12th place, which sent Gibbs’ No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE spinning towards the outside wall in Turn 1. Gibbs would drop out of the lead lap category as he had issues trying to re-fire his car amid the incident while Suarez and Reddick pitted for tire options during the caution period. 

    As the event restarted under green with 77 laps remaining, Logano muscled away from Hamlin and the field from the outside lane through the first two turns and through the backstretch. As the field behind battled for late spots, Logano maintained a steady advantage of two-tenths of a second over Hamlin’s No. 11 Mavis Toyota Camry XSE with 75 laps remaining while Blaney, Bell, Buescher and Larson followed suit in the top six. 

    With 65 laps remaining, Logano stabilized his narrow advantage to three-tenths of a second over a side-by-side battle between Hamlin and Blaney for the runner-up spot. Behind, fourth-place Bell and fifth-place Buescher both trailed by a second as sixth-place Larson trailed by two seconds, with Keselowski, Wallace, Elliott and Reddick racing in the top 10. 

    With 50 laps remaining, a second designated All-Star caution was flown. At the moment of caution, Logano was the leader ahead of teammate Blaney, Hamlin, Bell and Buescher while Larson, Keselowski, Wallace, Elliott and Reddick were scored in the top 10 followed by McDowell, Gragson, Chastain, Busch, Truex, Suarez, Gibbs and Allmendinger. 

    During the caution period, some led by Larson and including Wallace, Elliott, Chastain, Truex, McDowell, Gragson, Busch and Suarez pitted for fresh optional “red” tires while the rest led by Logano remained on the track. 

    Down to the final 42 laps of the event, the event restarted under green as teammates Logano and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Logano retained the lead while Blaney, who got loose entering the first turn, was quickly overtaken by Hamlin for the runner-up spot. Blaney would then be challenged by Buescher for third place along with Larson as Hamlin started to challenge Logano for the lead with 40 laps remaining.  

    Over the next two laps, Larson, racing on fresh optional tires, overtook both Blaney and Buescher to move his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into third place. By then, Logano retained the lead ahead of Hamlin as Larson started to close in on the two leaders. Larson would then have issues trying to overtake Hamlin for the runner-up spot through the corners while Logano retained the lead with less than 35 laps remaining.  

    With 25 laps remaining, Logano was leading by six-tenths of a second over Hamlin while third-place Larson trailed the lead by a second. Behind, Buescher retained fourth ahead of Blaney while Wallace was up to sixth place followed by Chastain, Elliott, Truex and Busch. 

    Down to the final 15 laps of the event, Logano extended his advantage to a second over Hamlin while third-place Larson, who was starting to fade on his fresh tires, trailed by more than two seconds as he was also trying to fend off Buescher to retain third place. Blaney, Wallace, Chastain, Elliott, McDowell and Truex followed suit in the top 10 as Logano was leading by six-tenths of a second over Hamlin with 10 laps remaining. 

    With five laps remaining, Logano retained the lead by eight-tenths of a second over Hamlin as third-place Larson trailed by four seconds followed by Buescher and Blaney.  

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Logano remained as the leader by six-tenths of a second over Hamlin. Despite Hamlin’s late effort in keeping Logano as close as he could in front of him, he could not narrow the gap as Logano, who was out front in clean air, was able to cycle around the North Wilkesboro circuit smoothly for a final time and back to the frontstretch victorious as he claimed the checkered flag by six-tenths of a second. 

    With the victory, Logano joins Kevin Harvick, Mark Martin, Terry Labonte and Davey Allison as competitors to win the All-Star Race twice as this marks his first time winning the All-Star event since 2016. He also recorded the fifth All-Star victory for Team Penske and the 14th overall for the Ford nameplate, with the new Ford Mustang Dark Horse stock car winning for a second consecutive weekend.

    Logano’s All-Star victory capped off a strong day of motorsports competition for team owner Roger Penske, whose three-car operation in the NTT IndyCar Series swept the front row for next Sunday’s 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 as Scott McLaughlin captured his first Indy 500 pole over teammates Will Power and Josef Newgarden. For Logano, the victory served as a momentous boost for the former Cup Series champion, who came into the event with a single top-two result registered to his racing stats along with being winless through the first 13 events on the 2024 schedule. 

    Photo by Andrew Boyd for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “How about that, Wilkesboro?! That was awesome!” Logano exclaimed on the frontstretch on FS1. “What an incredible Shell/Pennzoil Mustang. It was so fast. Man, we came here and tested [in March]. We ran over 800 laps at the tire test. [Crew chief] Paul [Wolfe] really put me to work, really figured out what it was going to take to win the race. The [No. 22] boys executed a fantastic stop. Fantastic weekend, great execution. It’s been a while since we’ve won a race. I wish this one counted for points, but a million bucks will work as well…Man, it feels good. Feels great.” 

    As Logano celebrated on the frontstretch, tempers ignited in the garage area and towards the transport haulers as Stenhouse, who waited for Busch, who ended up 10th and was still displeased over the opening lap incident, confronted the latter as harsh words were exchanged. As the conversation continued, Stenhouse then swung a fist towards Busch as a fight ignited between both competitors and their respective crew members before they were separated. 

    Denny Hamlin, the 2015 All-Star Race winner, settled in second place for the second time in his career followed by Chris Buescher, who achieved his first top-five result in the All-Star event. Meanwhile, Kyle Larson capped off an eventful run between his Indianapolis 500 qualifying trials to campaigning for another All-Star victory by finishing fourth while Blaney rounded out the top five. 

    Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Michael McDowell and Kyle Busch completed the top 10 in the final running order. 

    There were two lead changes for two different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 27 laps. In addition, 17 of 20 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Results. 

    1. Joey Logano, 199 laps led 

    2. Denny Hamlin 

    3. Chris Buescher 

    4. Kyle Larson 

    5. Ryan Blaney 

    6. Bubba Wallace 

    7. Ross Chastain 

    8. Chase Elliott 

    9. Michael McDowell 

    10. Kyle Busch 

    11. Noah Gragson 

    12. Martin Truex Jr. 

    13. Ty Gibbs 

    14. Tyler Reddick 

    15. Daniel Suarez 

    16. Brad Keselowski, one lap led 

    17. Chistopher Bell 

    18. AJ Allmendinger, two laps down 

    19. William Byron, 14 laps down  

    20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Accident 

    Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the 65th running of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, May 26, during Memorial Day weekend and air at 6 p.m. ET on FOX. 

  • Kyle Busch on challenges of adjusting to the Next Gen car

    Kyle Busch on challenges of adjusting to the Next Gen car

    Kyle Busch spoke about the challenges he is experiencing with the Next Gen car Friday afternoon at Darlington Raceway. And although he has earned six top 10s this season, he is in the midst of a 33-race winless streak.  

    His frustration was palpable as he detailed the issues he has encountered in finding the right balance in the Next Gen car.

    “It definitely drives different than the old (Gen-6) car,” Busch explained. “You know, what that is… I’m not exactly sure. I mean, it seems when you lead into the corner and the right front is outside the right rear, the car is much tighter. When you get to the center off of the corner and the right front is inside the right rear coming downhill, it’s much looser. And so trying to find the balance of that has been difficult, trying to get that right. 

    “But the old car didn’t have that sensation,” he added. “It was easy to just make a smooth corner and have the balance stay the same the whole time, where now I feel like I’m fighting many more balance issues. 

    “And on top of just fighting those balance issues by yourself, throw in the aero deficiencies that you have in traffic and now you’re just confused. Like you think that you’re going to expect it to do one thing and it does something else and you lose a tenth of a second because you’re trying to garner that feel of what it is.

    “I mean, we’re literally all grasping at half of a tenth of a second to be the best car on the racetrack. I mean, many of our pace studies that come out after these races, two-tenths is the difference between first and 25th. So you’re literally grasping at very small gains to move yourself up that pylon.”

    Busch had another frustrating race at Darlington in the Goodyear 400 Sunday afternoon, finishing in 27th place.

    “We had a tough day today but my crew chief, Randall Burnett, and all the guys on the zone Chevrolet team never gave up. They made adjustment after adjustment all day long but just weren’t able to hit on a combination that worked. I just didn’t have any grip anywhere for much of the race.

    “In the last stage, Randall made the call to short pit and we gained track position, cycling up to 12th-place. We made our last stop with 40 or so laps to go but got zapped by a caution just a few laps later. We took the wave around and got back on the lead lap but unfortunately, we couldn’t make up that lost track position.”

    Busch is currently 13th in the driver point standings as the series heads to North Wilkesboro Speedway this weekend for the All-Star Race.

  • Kyle Busch to make 175th Truck career start at Darlington

    Kyle Busch to make 175th Truck career start at Darlington

    The upcoming NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series’ Buckle Up South Carolina 200 at Darlington Raceway is set to mark Kyle Busch’s fifth and final Truck Series start of the 2024 season, with the driver campaigning in his four previous events behind the wheel of Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Chevrolet Silverado RST. The event is also set to mark a unique milestone start for Busch, who is in his 22nd season with at least one start in the Truck circuit. By competing this weekend at Darington, the two-time Cup Series champion will make his 175th career start in the Truck circuit. 

    A native of Las Vegas, Nevada, Busch made his inaugural presence in the Truck Series at Indianapolis Raceway Park in 2001, where he replaced Nathan Haseleu in Roush Racing’s No. 99 Ford midway into the season. By then, the Truck event at Indiana marked Busch’s inaugural presence within NASCAR’s top three national touring series after spending the previous three seasons competing and winning in legends cars and late models in Las Vegas. Starting 23rd in his Truck debut, Busch notched a top-10 result after finishing ninth. He would proceed to finish 17th at Chicago Motor Speedway, 22nd at Richmond Raceway, 33rd at South Boston Speedway, 25th at Texas Motor Speedway and ninth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, respectively. Then at California Speedway in November, Busch, who was the fastest in practice, was not allowed to compete in the event due to being 16 years of age and not meeting the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement that prohibited individuals under 18 years of age from participating in events sponsored by Marlboro cigarettes. Ultimately, Busch would be replaced by Tim Woods for the main event.  

    After being absent from the series in 2002 and 2003 amid NASCAR’s new age restrictions with an imposed minimum age of 18 years for competitors to be granted to compete in NASCAR, Busch, who competed in the American Speed Association and the ARCA Racing Series in 2002 before reigniting his NASCAR career in the Xfinity Series with Hendrick Motorsports the following season, made a single Truck Series start with Morgan-Dollar Motorsports at Indianapolis Raceway Park in 2004. During the event, he finished 11th after starting 16th.  

    In 2005, Busch competed in 11 Truck Series events while driving the No. 15 Chevrolet for Billy Ballew Motorsports. In his first series start of the season at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, he led a race-high 77 laps en route to his first career victory. He would then notch his second consecutive victory during the series’ following event at Dover Motor Speedway before recording three top-five finishes during his next five starts. Busch then grabbed a dramatic final lap victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway in October after restarting ninth during a three-lap shootout to the finish and using four fresh tires amid a pit stop prior to the restart to overtake Jack Sprague on the final lap and final corner to win as a multi-truck wreck ensued entering the frontstretch. Busch would then cap off the 2005 Truck season by finishing third at Texas Motor Speedway and 11th at Phoenix Raceway, respectively. Ultimately, Busch achieved three victories, a pole, seven top-five results, nine top-10 results and 243 laps led during his 11-race Truck schedule. 

    Between the 2006 and 2007 seasons, Busch, who competed for Hendrick Motorsports in between the Cup and Xfinity Series, competed in a total of 18 Truck Series, all occurring with Billy Ballew Motorsports. In 2006, he achieved his lone victory of the season at Charlotte in May and finished in the top 10 in the seven events he entered. The following season, where he switched to BBM’s No. 51 entry, he won at Atlanta in October and at Phoenix in November as he also notched four top-five finishes in 11-entered events. Amid the victories, Busch accumulated a total of seven top-five results, 11 top-10 results and 547 laps led during the two-year stint, with Busch standing at six Truck career wins. 

    During the 2008 and 2009 seasons, Busch, who switched to Joe Gibbs Racing in the Cup Series but continued to compete in Billy Ballew Motorsports’ No. 51 entry on a part-time basis, made a total of 33 Truck starts. He commenced the 2008 season by finishing in the runner-up spot at Daytona International Speedway in February before notching back-to-back victories at Fontana and Atlanta. He then finished second at Texas in June and recorded five top-10 results during his next eight starts before grabbing his third victory of the season at Bristol Motor Speedway in August. Busch would proceed to finish second twice and no lower than eighth place during his final seven Truck events of the 2008 campaign, in which he competed in 18 of 25 scheduled events.

    In 2009, Busch, who competed in 15 events, started the season by finishing second behind at Daytona before winning at Fontana and Atlanta, respectively, for a second consecutive time. After posting two runner-up results during his next five starts, he won in his next five consecutive starts at Bristol, Chicagoland, New Hampshire, Talladega and Texas, respectively, before concluding the season with a runner-up result at Phoenix and a 13th-place run at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Overall, Busch garnered a total of 12 victories, three poles, 21 top-five results, 29 top-10 results and 1,624 laps led, with Busch’s win column increasing to 16. 

    In 2010, Busch debuted his own-operated racing team, Kyle Busch Motorsports, into the NASCAR Truck Series after purchasing the remaining assets of Xpress Motorsports and Roush Fenway Racing. Driving the No. 18 KBM Toyota Tundra, Busch’s first Truck event as a driver/owner would be mired with a 22nd-place finish at Daytona after being involved in a multi-truck wreck on the first lap. He would rally by finishing second at Atlanta before securing his first victory both of the season and for KBM at Nashville Superspeedway in April after leading a race-high 131 laps. After finishing 16th at Dover amid a late fuel pump issue, Busch won at Charlotte in May after leading 69 laps before finishing third and second during his next two series starts.

    He then notched back-to-back, dominant victories at Bristol and Chicagoland before finishing seventh at Kentucky, winning at New Hampshire and settling in second at Martinsville during his next three respective starts. At Talladega Superspeedway in October, Busch edged Aric Almirola by 0.002 seconds to win amid a last-lap pass before securing a dominant victory at Texas and another runner-up result at Phoenix during his next two-scheduled starts. He then concluded the 2010 season by scoring his eighth victory of the year at Homestead after leading a race-high 57 laps. With a total of eight victories, six poles, 13 top-five results, 14 top-10 results and a career-high 1,076 laps led in 16 scheduled starts, Busch also earned the 2010 Truck Series owner’s championship for his No. 18 KBM team. To this date, the eight victories earned throughout the 2010 season are the most by Busch in a Truck season as they also tallied Busch’s win column to 24. 

    The 2011 and 2012 Truck Series seasons generated mixed results for Busch, with the Las Vegas native piloting his No. 18 Toyota to six victories and tallying his wins total to 30 as he also garnered two poles, 11 top-five results and 13 top-10 results in 16 starts. Despite surpassing 100 career starts in the Truck Series, the low point of Busch’s career occurred at Texas in November after he intentionally turned and sent four-time champion Ron Hornaday Jr. head-on into the Turn 3 outside wall at full speed amid a caution period as a retaliatory act from an earlier incident where Hornaday slid up the track and caused Busch to scrape the outside wall while battling for the lead.

    The incident not only resulted in Busch being parked by NASCAR for the remainder of the event, but it would carry forth with Busch being suspended from competing in the remaining scheduled events at Texas along with the remaining Truck and Xfinity events of the season. Returning for three Truck events in 2012, Busch finished in the top four in all of his starts but went winless for the first time in his career. The closest he came to winning was during the finale at Homestead, where he led during a two-lap shootout until he was rubbed against the outside wall and edged by a hard-charging Cale Gale at the finish line on the final lap. 

    Sporting the No. 51 alongside his KBM entry for the 2013 Truck Series season, Busch commenced the season by finishing in the runner-up spot behind Johnny Sauter at Daytona in February before ending up in 27th place at Kansas Speedway in April after being involved in a late accident. He would then snap a one-year winless drought by collecting his first victory of the season at Charlotte before doubling down with another victory at Dover. After finishing third and second during his next two starts at Kentucky and Michigan, respectively, Busch won in his next two consecutive starts at Bristol in August and at Chicagoland in September.

    Despite being involved in a vicious final lap multi-truck wreck at Talladega on the final lap before settling in 10th before ending up in 28th place at Texas amid a late engine failure, a victory by Kyle Busch Motorsports’ newcomer Erik Jones at Phoenix followed by Busch notching a dominant victory in the finale at Homestead was enough for Busch to claim his second Truck Series’ owner’s championship and his first for the No. 51 KBM team in a tie-breaker over ThorSport Racing’s No. 88 entry piloted by Matt Crafton, who won the driver’s championship. With five victories, which tallied his wins total to 35, Busch capped off the 2013 Truck Series season with nine top-10 results in 11 starts and 356 laps led. 

    The 2014 Truck Series season was a breakout season for Busch both as a driver and as an owner. As a driver, Busch commenced the season by edging Timothy Peters by 0.016 seconds to claim his first elusive victory at Daytona in the series before proceeding to win seven races, finish in the top 10 in all but one of his 10 starts and lead 747 laps. As an owner, Busch’s Kyle Busch Motorsports team was victorious in 14 of 22 scheduled events, with sophomore competitor Bubba Wallace winning four races and finishing in third place in the final standings while Erik Jones won three races in 12 starts in KBM’s No. 51 Toyota. As a result, Busch and Jones contributed to Busch earning his third Truck Series owner’s championship. 

    From 2015 to 2017, Busch made a total of 15 Truck Series starts, all occurring in his Kyle Busch Motorsports equipment. In 2015, Busch, who was sidelined in February after suffering a compound fracture and broke both his right leg and left foot amid an Xfinity Series accident at Daytona before returning to competition in May, made four Truck starts and won two races: Pocono in July and Michigan in August. The following season, he made four series’ starts and won two races for a second consecutive season, this time at Martinsville Speedway in April and at Chicagoland in September.

    Making seven starts in 2017, Busch emerged victorious in three events: Kansas and Charlotte in May followed by Bristol in September. With a total of seven Truck victories, Busch also accumulated two poles, 10 top-five results, 11 top-10 results and 807 laps led during the three-year stretch, which tallied Busch’s win column to 49. Amid his success as a Truck Series competitor, Busch was also successful as an owner as he notched his first championship as an owner with Erik Jones in 2015, the owner’s title with rookie William Byron in 2016 and his second championship with Christopher Bell in 2017. 

    Scaling to a five-race basis in the Truck Series, Busch commenced the 2018 season with a 21st-place finish at Atlanta in February after leaving pit road amid a late pit stop with the left-rear wheel not properly secured on his entry, which the tire rolled out of Busch’s truck upon exiting pit road and plummeting the Las Vegas native to 21st place in the final running order. He would rally during his next series start at Las Vegas in March by notching his first victory of the season and the 50th of his Truck career after leading 55 laps before finishing in the runner-up spot twice at Kansas and Charlotte, respectively, in May. Then at Pocono in July, Busch withstood a late challenge from teammate Erik Jones to score his 51st Truck Series career win in his 145th series start and tie Ron Hornaday Jr. for the most victories in the series.  

    In 2019, Busch won in all five of his Truck Series starts, starting at Atlanta in February as he became the all-time wins leader in the series with career win No. 52 amid a five-lap dash to the finish. He would then win at Las Vegas and Martinsville in March, where he led a combined 284 laps led, before winning at Texas in April after leading 97 laps. Busch then capped off his 2019 Truck season by winning for the eighth time at Charlotte after leading a race-high 102 laps. At the season’s conclusion, Busch would notch his seventh owner’s title for Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 51 team. 

    From 2020 to 2022, which marked his final seasons as a Toyota competitor, Busch scored six Truck Series victories while making five starts per season. In 2020, he won for the fourth time in his career at Las Vegas before finishing second at Charlotte in May and 21st at Atlanta in June, respectively. He then won for the third time in his career at Homestead in June after leading a race-high 82 laps before claiming his fifth series victory at Texas after leading a race-high 72 laps and fending off a late challenge from teammate Christian Eckes.

    The following season, he finished in the top five in all five of his scheduled starts while collecting victories at Atlanta in March and at Kansas in May. Then in 2022, Busch finished no lower than seventh during his first four starts before claiming his first victory in his final series start of the season at Sonoma Raceway in June after leading a race-high 45 laps. In total, Busch notched six Truck Series victories, 13 top-five results, 14 top-10 results and 2,016 laps led in 15 starts during the three-year span, which tallied Busch’s win column to 62.  

    This past season, Busch, whose KBM team rebranded to Chevrolet after Busch departed from Joe Gibbs Racing to join Richard Childress Racing in the Cup Series, returned for a five-race stint in his own-operated No. 51 Chevrolet Silverado RST. He won in his first series start of the season at Las Vegas in March after leading a race-high 84 laps, which also marked the 99th Truck victory for KBM. Busch would proceed to finish second at Circuit of the Americas, second at Martinsville and seventh at Kansas, respectively, during his next three starts before notching a dramatic final lap victory over former KBM competitor Corey Heim to win in his fifth and final start of the season at Pocono in July. The Pocono victory not only marked Busch’s 64th Truck Series career win, but it would also mark the 100th and final NASCAR victory for KBM. Two months later, Busch announced that KBM would cease operations at the season’s conclusion after the team was purchased by Spire Motorsports.  

    In late February, Busch was announced as a driver of the No. 7 Chevrolet Silverado RST for Spire Motorsports for five Truck events for the 2024 season. His first start of the season occurred at Atlanta, where he won after he overtook Grant Enfinger with seven laps remaining before fending off Ty Majeski at the finish line. He then competed in the following scheduled events at Las Vegas, where he finished 15th amid a late pit road penalty, and at Bristol in mid-March, where he finished second behind Christian Eckes. During his latest series start at Texas in April, Busch, who briefly lost the lead at the start of a 10-lap shootout, reclaimed it from Eckes two laps later before he fended off a final lap charge from Corey Heim to notch his series-leading 66th career victory and his record-tying sixth at the Lone Star state. 

    Through 174 previous starts in the Truck Series, Busch has achieved 66 victories, which makes him the winningest competitor in the series. He has also notched up 23 poles, 118 top-five results, 141 top-10 results, 8,050 laps led and an average-finishing result of 6.4 as he strives to win for the first time in the Truck circuit at Darlington. 

    Kyle Busch is scheduled to make his 175th Craftsman Truck Series career start at Darlington Raceway for the Buckle Up South Carolina 200 on Friday, May 10, with the event’s broadcast time to occur at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Results. 

    1.  Kyle Larson, 63 laps led

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

    3. Chase Elliott

    4. Martin Truex Jr.

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

    6. Christopher Bell, five laps led

    7. Alex Bowman

    8. Kyle Busch, 14 laps led

    9. Noah Gragson

    10. Michael McDowell

    11. Brad Keselowski, one lap led

    12. Ryan Blaney

    13. John Hunter Nemechek

    14. Todd Gilliland, four laps led

    15. Josh Berry

    16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    17. Bubba Wallace

    18. Justin Haley

    19. Ross Chastain, 43 laps led

    20. Tyler Reddick, seven laps led

    21. Chase Briscoe

    22. Corey Heim

    23. William Byron

    24. Carson Hocevar

    25. Austin Dillon

    26. Corey LaJoie

    27. Daniel Suarez

    28. Ryan Preece

    29. Zane Smith

    30. Daniel Hemric

    31. Derek Kraus, six laps led

    32. Ty Gibbs, one lap down

    33. Austin Hill, one lap down

    34. Joey Logano, two laps down

    35. Riley Herbst, two laps down

    36. Harrison Burton, six laps down

    37. Austin Cindric – OUT, Accident 

    38. Jimmie Johnson – OUT, Accident 

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

  • Hamlin fends off Larson for third Cup victory of 2024 at Dover

    Hamlin fends off Larson for third Cup victory of 2024 at Dover

    Denny Hamlin earned a monstrous NASCAR Cup Series victory in the Würth 400 at Dover Motor Speedway on Sunday, April 28, after fending off Kyle Larson during a 62-lap dash to the finish while dominating the final stage period. 

    The three-time Daytona 500 champion from Chesterfield, Virginia, led twice for a race-high 136 of 400-scheduled laps in an event where he started sixth and ran up front throughout the event.

    Hamlin accumulated a handful of stage points during the first two stage periods before leading for the first time before the start of the third stage after squeezing his way past Larson and Alex Bowman on pit road during the second stage break period and pit cycle. 

    Despite being beaten off of pit road by Larson during a cycle of green flag pit stops with nearly 80 laps remaining, Hamlin quickly reassumed the lead from Larson during a late-race restart period with 72 laps remaining before he had to fend off Larson again during another restart period with 62 laps remaining.

    Despite having an advantage that stretched as high as one second evaporate in the closing laps while mired within a bevy of lapped traffic, which enabled Larson to gain ground, Hamlin managed to fend off Larson’s late-race charge during the final 62-lap run to claim his third Cup Series victory of the 2024 season as he won by two-tenths of a second over Larson.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup on Saturday, April 27, Kyle Busch secured his first Cup pole position of the 2024 season and the 34th of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 162.191 mph in 22.196 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Ryan Blaney, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 161.951 mph in 22.229 seconds. 

    Before the event, Christopher Bell and Zane Smith dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. Kaz Grala also dropped to the rear of the field in a backup car due to wrecking his primary car during Saturday’s practice session.

    When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Kyle Busch launched his No. 8 FICO Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ahead from the outside lane as he led the field through the first two turns and the backstretch. As the field behind fanned out and battled for early spots, Busch led the first lap ahead of Ryan Blaney and Tyler Reddick while Denny Hamlin and William Byron battled for fourth place in front of Noah Gragson. 

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Busch was leading by half a second over Blaney as Reddick, Byron and Hamlin followed suit in the top five while Gragson, Michael McDowell, AJ Allmendinger, Chase Briscoe and Alex Bowman battled in the top 10. Amid the early on-track battles, Busch retained the lead by six-tenths of a second over Blaney by the Lap 10 mark. 

    At the Lap 25 mark, Busch continued to lead Blaney by three-tenths of a second, with Reddick, Byron and Hamlin battling behind in the top five. Gragson, McDowell, Allmendinger, Briscoe and Bowman continued to run in the top 10 as Busch stabilized his lead to nearly three-tenths of a second over Blaney by the Lap 30 mark. 

    On Lap 34, Blaney made his move beneath Busch through Turns 3 and 4 as he assumed the lead in his No. 12 Würth Ford Mustang Dark Horse. Nearing the Lap 40 mark, however, the event’s first caution period flew after Todd Gilliland slid up the track beneath Austin Dillon through Turns 3 and 4 before spinning his No. 38 A&W Ford Mustang Dark Horse towards the frontstretch’s inside wall.  

    During the event’s first caution period, 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, Hamlin, Reddick, Busch, McDowell, Gragson, Martin Truex Jr., Chase Briscoe and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.. Amid the pit stops, Reddick made contact with newcomer Corey Heim while trying to exit his pit box and Bell had to reverse his No. 20 Yahoo! Toyota Camry XSE to have a wheel tightened. In addition, Michael McDowell was penalized for speeding. 

    When the event restarted under green on Lap 47, Blaney muscled ahead from the inside lane as he retained the lead through the first two turns. Meanwhile, Byron was being challenged by Reddick for the runner-up spot. Through Turns 3 and 4, Hamlin went up the track through Turns 3 and 4, which cost him a handful of spots and dropped him to seventh by the Lap 50 mark, where he was racing behind Kyle Busch, Briscoe, Gragson and Martin Truex Jr. By then, Blaney was leading by nearly three-tenths of a second over Byron. 

    At the Lap 70 mark, Blaney extended his advantage to nearly a second over Byron while Reddick, Busch and Truex were scored in the top five ahead of Larson, Hamlin, Bowman, Stenhouse and Gragson. Meanwhile, Ryan Preece, who had smoke brewing inside of his No. 41 Morton Buildings Ford Mustang Dark Horse and who pitted early, took his car to the garage and eventually became the first retiree of the event. 

    Nine laps later, Byron implemented a crossover move on Blaney through the backstretch to muscle his No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ahead as he assumed the lead for the first time of the day. Behind, Reddick retained third place ahead of a hard-charging Truex while Busch was in fifth ahead of Larson and Hamlin. 

    By Lap 100, Byron was leading by a second over Reddick, who claimed the runner-up spot from Blaney a few laps earlier, while Truex battled Blaney for third place. Behind, Busch retained fifth ahead of Larson, Hamlin, Bowman, Elliott and Stenhouse while Allmendinger, Gragson, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace and Chris Buescher trailed in the top 15. Meanwhile, Ross Chastain was back in 16th as Ty Gibbs, Austin Cindric, rookie Josh Berry and Christopher Bell occupied the top 20. 

    Fourteen laps later and with the leaders mired in lapped traffic, Truex, who zipped past Reddick’s No. 45 McDonald’s Toyota Camry XSE a lap earlier, muscled his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE into the lead as Byron was having issues trying to navigate past the lapped competitor of Daniel Suarez. Truex would proceed to drive away from Byron as Reddick attempted to battle Byron for the runner-up spot. 

    Then with three laps remaining in the first stage period, the caution flew after Brad Keselowski, who was battling Gragson in the top 15, spun from the middle to the apron of the track in Turn 2 as he emerged with a flat right-rear tire to his No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse. Keselowski’s incident was enough for the first stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 120 to conclude under caution as Truex claimed his second Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Byron settled in second followed by Reddick, Blaney and Larson while Hamlin, Busch, Bowman, Elliott and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were scored in the top 10. 

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Truex pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Truex retained the lead after exiting pit road first just ahead of Byron as Blaney, Reddick, Hamlin, Larson, Busch, Bowman, Elliott and Allmendinger exited suit in the top 10. 

    The second stage period started on Lap 129 as Truex and Byron occupied the front row. At the start, Truex and Byron battled dead even for the lead through the first two turns before Truex muscled ahead from the outside lane through the backstretch. As Truex led the field back to the frontstretch during the proceeding lap, Byron, Reddick and Blaney followed suit from second to fourth, respectively, while Hamlin and Larson battled dead even for fifth place in front of Bowman, Busch and Elliott. 

    Just past the Lap 140 mark, Truex was leading by six-tenths of a second over Byron while Reddick, Blaney and Larson were racing in the top five ahead of Hamlin, Bowman, Busch, Elliott and AJ Allmendinger. Stenhouse, Bubba Wallace, Chris Buescher, Austin Cindric and Ty Gibbs followed suit in the top 15 as Truex extended his advantage to a second over Byron by the Lap 150 mark. 

    Through the first 165 scheduled laps, Truex continued to lead by more than a second over Byron followed by Reddick, Blaney and Larson, all of whom continued to race in the top five, as Hamlin, Bowman, Busch, Elliott and Allmendinger also continued to run in the top 10. Behind, Stenhouse, Wallace, Busch, Gibbs and Cindric were scored in the top 15 ahead of Berry, Chastain, Gragson, Bell and Logano while Carson Hocevar, Daniel Hemric, Briscoe, John Hunter Nemechek and Corey LaJoie were mired in the top 25. Meanwhile, Corey Heim, who was making his Cup Series debut while substituting for the injured Erik Jones in the No. 43 Dollar Tree/Petty 75th Toyota Camry XSE, was in 26th ahead of Daniel Suarez, McDowell, Justin Haley and Keselowski. 

    Fifteen laps later, Truex extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Byron while Larson was up to third place as Reddick and Blaney followed suit in the top five. Behind, Bowman, Hamlin, Busch, Elliott and Stenhouse continued to run in the top 10 while Wallace moved up to 11th as he was ahead of Buescher, Gibbs, Berry and Chastain. 

    Another three laps later, green flag pit stops commenced as Bell, Allmendinger and Cindric pitted before Byron and Larson pitted during the following lap. The leader Truex would pit under green on Lap 184 along with Bowman, Hamlin, Elliott and Reddick while more names including Blaney and Busch pitted by Lap 186. With more of the leaders making pit stops, Corey LaJoie, who has yet to pit, was leading in his No. 7 Gainbridge Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 while Larson, who managed to exit pit road ahead of Truex, was running in third place. LaJoie would continue to lead the race and remain on the track by the Lap 190 mark as Larson trailed LaJoie by 19 seconds. 

    At the halfway mark on Lap 200, LaJoie, who continued to run on the track on old tires and fuel, was leading by more than 13 seconds over Larson while Truex, Reddick and Bowman occupied the top five ahead of Hamlin, Busch, Elliott, Blaney and Stenhouse. Meanwhile, Wallace, Gibbs, Buescher and Allmendinger rounded out the top 14 competitors who were scored on the lead lap while Bell was the first competitor scored a lap down in 15th place. 

    Eighteen laps later, Larson tracked and overtook LaJoie, who had led 33 laps, to assume the race lead. With LaJoie pitting under green just past the Lap 220 mark, teammate Bowman moved his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the runner-up spot while Hamlin, Truex, Busch, Elliott, Reddick, Blaney, Stenhouse and Wallace were running in the top 10.  

    By Lap 235, Larson retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over teammate Bowman while Hamlin trailed in third place by eight-tenths of a second. Meanwhile, Truex trailed the lead by a second in fourth place followed by Elliott, who trailed the lead by two seconds, as Busch, Reddick, Blaney, Stenhouse and Wallace continued to race in the top 10 ahead of Gibbs, Allmendinger, Bell, Buescher and Berry. Meanwhile, Keselowski, who scraped the outside wall 15 laps earlier, was mired in 34th place and scored multiple laps down after pitting to address a flat tire to his entry.  

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 250, Larson, who was mired in lapped traffic, captured his sixth Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Teammate Bowman settled in second followed by Hamlin, Truex and Elliott while Busch, Reddick, Blaney, Stenhouse and Wallace were scored in the top 10. By then, 21 of 37 starters were scored on the lead lap while Daniel Hemric managed to fend off Corey Heim to be the first competitor scored a lap down and the recipient of the free pass. 

    During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Larson returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin, who was in a tight three-wide squeeze against Bowman and Larson to exit pit road first, managed to fend off both to exit first as Larson and Bowman followed suit in second and third, respectively. Busch and Truex exited in the top five as Elliott, Blaney, Reddick, Wallace and Gibbs all exited pit road in top-10 spots. 

    With 142 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Hamlin and Larson occupied the front row. At the start, Hamlin rocketed his No. 11 Mavis, Brakes, Tires Toyota Camry XSE ahead from the outside lane as he led the field through the first two turns and the backstretch while Larson retained second ahead of teammate Bowman and Busch. Truex was mired back in fifth ahead of Blaney, Elliott, Gibbs, Reddick, Stenhouse, Wallace, Bell and Berry, as Hamlin retained the lead with 140 laps remaining. 

    With 130 laps remaining, Hamlin extended his advantage to three seconds over Larson as Bowman, Busch and Truex trailed in the top five by five seconds. Hamlin would stabilize his advantage to three seconds over Larson with 120 laps remaining before the advantage slightly decreased to two seconds with 110 laps remaining. Behind, Bowman, Busch and Truex continued to run in the top five. 

    Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Hamlin was leading by two seconds over Larson followed by Busch, Truex and Bowman while Blaney, Elliott, Gibbs, Reddick and Wallace were running in the top 10. Behind, Stenhouse, Berry, Allmendinger, Chastain and Bell were in the top 15 ahead of Buescher, Briscoe, Byron, Gragson and Logano while Cindric, Hemric, LaJoie, Corey Heim and Nemechek were trailing in the top 25. 

    Then with nearly 80 laps remaining, another cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Truex pitted before a bevy of names led by the leader Hamlin peeled off the track to pit a lap after. Then as the cycle of green flag pit stops continued, the caution flew with 79 laps remaining after Stenhouse, who was running in the top 10 earlier and trying to merge back onto the track following his green flag pit stop, made contact with Berry that sent Stenhouse’s No. 47 Hungry Jack Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 spinning towards the inside wall in Turn 2.

    At the moment of caution, Hemric, who had yet to pit, was leading while Larson, Hamlin, Busch and Truex followed suit in the top five. During the caution period, however, Hemric pitted along with Bowman and Busch, which enabled Larson to cycle back as the leader. 

    During the following restart period with 72 laps remaining, Larson and Hamlin battled dead even for the lead through the first two turns until Hamlin started to muscle ahead through the backstretch. The caution, however, quickly returned after rookie Zane Smith made contact with Bubba Wallace through the first two turns.

    It resulted in Wallace spinning his No. 23 Xfinity/U.S. Air Force Toyota Camry XSE towards the bottom of the backstretch as he was then hit on the right side by Byron, who had collided into Bell as Bell hit the inside wall head-on before Wallace and resulted with all three eliminated from contention with wrecked cars. The incident marked Bell’s second wreck of the weekend after he crashed during Saturday’s qualifying session.

    As the event restarted under green with 62 laps remaining, Hamlin fended off Larson and teammate Truex to retain the lead through the first two turns. Hamlin proceded to lead the following lap ahead of Larson and Truex while Gragson and Elliott battled for fourth place in front of Busch, Blaney and Hemric, with Bowman and Chastain racing in the top 10.  

    With 50 laps remaining, Hamlin extended his advantage to more than a second over Larson as Truex, Gragson and Elliott were scored in the top five ahead of Busch, Blaney, Hemric, Bowman and Chastain. Behind, Gibbs, Reddick, Berry, Allmendinger and Cindric occupied the top 15 as Cindric, Logano, Buescher, Briscoe and Nemechek were in the top 20. 

    Fifteen laps later, Hamlin stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Larson while Truex, Gragson and Busch trailed under five seconds in the top five. Behind, sixth-place Elliott trailed by more than five seconds as Blaney, Hemric, Bowman and Chastain continued to run in the top 10. 

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Hamlin, who was mired in lapped traffic, continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Larson, who was slowing clipping away Hamlin’s advantage in his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, as third-place Truex trailed by two seconds. Behind, Gragson and Kyle Busch continued to run in the top five ahead of Elliott, Blaney, Hemric, Bowman and Chastain while Gibbs, Reddick, Berry, Allmendinger and Cindric were in the top 15. 

    Five laps later, Hamlin’s advantage decreased to within four-tenths and half a second as Larson continued to gain ground on him for the top spot. Larson would trail the leader Hamlin by two-tenths of a second with 10 laps remaining as both were mired within lapped traffic and with Larson trying to steer across different sections of the circuit to gain more ground on Hamlin. 

    Down to the final five laps of the event and with the leaders mired in more lapped traffic, Hamlin was leading by a tenth of a second over Larson. Despite Larson making continuous efforts around the turns and the straightaways to narrow the gap between himself and Hamlin, Hamlin managed to maintain both his ground and lane as he also started to blend within Larson’s advantageous line to move in front of Larson, stall his momentum with the dirty air retain the top spot. 

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hamlin remained as the leader by two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Larson. Despite Larson’s final lap effort to go up the track to gain a draft for two final corners, Hamlin managed to keep himself in front of Larson for a final circuit and navigated back to the frontstretch victorious for his third checkered flag of the 2024 Cup Series season. 

    With the victory, Hamlin scored career win No. 54 in NASCAR’s premier series, which placed him in a tie with Lee Petty for 12th place on the all-time Cup Series wins list. Hamlin also racked up his second victory at Dover along with the fourth of the season and the fifth for Toyota through the first 11 events on the 2024 Cup schedule. The 2024 season marks Hamlin’s eighth season of notching at least three victories in a Cup Series season. 

    “Just a great team,” Hamlin said on FS1. “This whole Mavis, Tires, Brakes team just did a great job. All the guys on the wall right here, they’re the ones that make it happen. Thank you to them. [Crew chief] Chris Gabehart, [spotter Chris] Lambert, the whole team, for just giving me a great car. Man, I love winning. Kyle [Larson] did a great job executing on that green flag pit cycle. We were able to get the lead there on that restart, which allowed us, with the caution, to control the restarts. That was the key moment for us. Man, it certainly feels good winning here at Dover.” 

    Larson, who led 39 laps compared to Hamlin’s race-high 136 and won the second stage period, settled in the runner-up spot for the second time this season. The result, however, was enough for the 2021 Cup Series champion to maintain the lead in the regular-season standings. 

    “I could pace [the car] and get closer to [Hamlin] at the end of the runs, but it’s just so easy to air block,” Larson said. “Not that he was doing anything dirty or anything like that. It’s just so easy as the leader, especially at a place like this, to shut off the air on the guys behind you. I knew when I got within three car lengths, he was gonna start moving around. I just couldn’t really do anything. I was trying all sorts of different angles and speeds, all that, and nothing could generate enough speed to get close enough to do anything. That was a bummer.” 

    Martin Truex Jr., who led 69 laps and won the first stage period, settled in third place for his third top-five result of the season while pole-sitter Kyle Busch, who led 34 laps, and Chase Elliott finished in the top five. 

    Noah Gragson, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Daniel Hemric and Ty Gibbs ended up in the top 10 in the final running order. 

    Notably, Tyler Reddick, winner of last weekend’s Cup event at Talladega Superspeedway, ended up 11th ahead of Ross Chastain, AJ Allmendinger, rookie Josh Berry and Austin Cindric. In addition, Joey Logano ended up 16th ahead of Chris Buescher and Daniel Suarez, Corey LaJoie came home 21st despite leading 33 laps, Corey Heim settled in 22nd place in his Cup Series debut while substituting for the injured Erik Jones and Jimmie Johnson ended up 28th behind Austin Dillon in his third Cup start of the 2024 season.  

    There were 12 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 42 laps. In addition, 17 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap. 

    Following the 11th event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Kyle Larson leads the regular-season standings by 15 points over Martin Truex Jr., 33 over Chase Elliott, 49 over Denny Hamlin, 56 over Tyler Reddick, 62 over William Byron and 68 over Ryan Blaney. 

    Results. 

    1. Denny Hamlin, 136 laps led 

    2. Kyle Larson, 39 laps led, Stage 2 winner 

    3. Martin Truex Jr., 69 laps led, Stage 1 winner 

    4. Kyle Busch, 34 laps led 

    5. Chase Elliott 

    6. Noah Gragson 

    7. Ryan Blaney, 47 laps led 

    8. Alex Bowman 

    9. Daniel Hemric, five laps led 

    10. Ty Gibbs 

    11. Tyler Reddick 

    12. Ross Chastain 

    13. AJ Allmendinger 

    14. Josh Berry 

    15. Austin Cindric 

    16. Joey Logano 

    17. Chris Buescher 

    18. Daniel Suarez, one lap down 

    19. Chase Briscoe, one lap down 

    20. John Hunter Nemechek, two laps down 

    21. Corey LaJoie, two laps down, 33 laps led 

    22. Carson Hocevar, three laps down 

    23. Justin Haley, three laps down 

    24. Zane Smith, three laps down 

    25. Corey Heim, three laps down 

    26. Harrison Burton, three laps down 

    27. Austin Dillon, four laps down 

    28. Jimmie Johnson, five laps down 

    29. Kaz Grala, six laps down 

    30. Brad Keselowski, 17 laps down 

    31. Todd Gilliland, 21 laps down 

    32. Bubba Wallace – OUT, Accident, one lap led 

    33. William Byron – OUT, Accident, 36 laps led 

    34. Christopher Bell – OUT, Accident 

    35. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Accident 

    36. Michael McDowell – OUT, Hub 

    37. Ryan Preece – OUT, Safety 

    Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, May 5, and air at 3 p.m. ET on FS1. 

  • Kyle Busch fends off Heim for record-tying sixth Truck victory at Texas

    Kyle Busch fends off Heim for record-tying sixth Truck victory at Texas

    With a bevy of young guns squaring off and pounding against him through a series of late-race restarts, Kyle Busch had enough horsepower to fend off all of the youngsters’ challengers, including protege Corey Heim on the final lap, to score a big NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory in the SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday, April 12. 

    The two-time Cup Series champion from Las Vegas, Nevada, led a race-high 112 of 167 scheduled laps in an event where he started in fourth place and swept both stage periods. After cycling his way back into the lead during an extensive caution period starting with 37 laps remaining that interrupted a late green-flag pit stop sequence and prior to a restart period with 26 laps remaining, Busch would then be challenged by a bevy of young challengers that included Heim, Nick Sanchez and Christian Eckes during two late-race restarts. Despite losing the lead to Eckes during the final restart with 10 laps remaining, Busch would reassume the top spot two laps later and then fend off a late charge from Heim to clinch his second Truck victory of the 2024 season and his record-tying sixth at Texas.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Nick Sanchez notched his first Truck pole position of the 2024 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 184.811 mph in 29.219 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Christian Eckes, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 184.363 mph in 29.290 seconds. 

    Prior to the event, Tyler Ankrum and Tanner Gray dropped to the rear of the field in backup trucks after both wrecked their respective primary trucks separately during the event’s practice session earlier in the day. Rajah Caruth, Bret Holmes and Memphis Villarreal also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. 

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Nick Sanchez and Christian Eckes battled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch until Sanchez managed to muscle his No. 2 Gainbridge Chevrolet Silverado RST ahead on the inside lane through Turns 3 and 4, where he would lead the first lap. 

    Just past the first lap, the event’s first caution flew after rookie Thad Moffitt, who was running outside of the top 20, went up the track through Turns 1 and 2. Despite avoiding the outside wall, Moffitt then tried to steer his truck to the left to regain his momentum, where he just missed hitting Kris Wright before he collided with Tyler Ankrum. Memphis Villarreal was also involved as Moffitt’s damaged truck spun back across the track in the backstretch, thus knocking Ankrum, Moffitt and Villarreal out of the competition. 

    As the event restarted under green on the eighth lap, Sanchez and Eckes battled dead even for the lead through the first two turns as the field fanned out entering the backstretch. Through the following two turns and back to the frontstretch, Sanchez again muscled ahead to retain the lead from Eckes while Stewart Friesen and Kyle Busch battled for third in front of Daniel Dye, Grant Enfinger and rookie Layne Riggs. 

    Three laps later, the caution returned after Rajah Caruth, who barely dodged the event’s multi-truck incident on the first lap, spun his No. 71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST through Turn 2, but he was able to keep his truck from hitting the outside wall as he proceeded without any damage. During the caution period, a handful of competitors including Caruth and Bayley Currey pitted while the rest led by Sanchez remained on the track. 

    During the following restart on Lap 16, Eckes received a strong push from Busch on the outside lane to assume the lead just past the frontstretch and he would retain the top spot through the backstretch and during the proceeding lap while Busch proceeded to battle Sanchez for the runner-up spot. With Sanchez and Busch battling for the runner-up spot in front of Friesen and Zane Smith, Eckes retained the lead in his No. 19 Gates Hydraulics Chevrolet Silverado RST just past the Lap 20 mark. 

    Through the first 25 scheduled laps, Eckes was leading over Sanchez followed by Busch, Zane Smith and Daniel Dyle while Friesen, Layne Riggs, Enfinger, Corey Heim and Taylor Gray were running in the top 10. Behind, Dean Thompson occupied 11th place in front of Matt Crafton, Chase Purdy, Johnny Sauter and Ty Majeski while Jake Garcia, Stefan Parsons, Ben Rhodes, Connor Jones and Lawless Alan were racing in the top 20 ahead of Bret Holmes, Matt Mills, Bayley Currey, Ty Dillon and Tanner Gray. 

    Ten laps later, Eckes retained the lead by four-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Busch while third-place Sanchez trailed by eight-tenths of a second. Behind, Zane Smith and Dye were running fourth and fifth, respectively, while Friesen trailed in sixth by five seconds along with Riggs, Enfinger, Heim and Taylor Gray. 

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 40, Kyle Busch, who assumed the lead from Eckes two laps earlier, proceeded to capture his fourth Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Eckes settled in second ahead of Sanchez, Zane Smith and Friesen while Dye, Riggs, Enfinger, Heim and Taylor Gray were scored in the top 10. 

    Under the stage break, the entire field led by Busch pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Busch retained the lead after he exited first followed by Eckes, Sanchez, Taylor Gray, Heim and Matt Mills. 

    The second stage period started on Lap 46 as Busch and Eckes occupied the front row. At the start, Busch, who restarted on the inside lane, retained the lead while Heim overtook Eckes to claim the runner-up spot amid a brief three-wide battle that also involved Sanchez. As a series of battles within the field ensued, where even four-wide action occurred, Heim started to challenge Busch for the lead, where he would draw his No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro dead even against Busch’s No. 7 Realtree Chevrolet Silverado RST nearing the Lap 50 mark, before Busch retained the top spot ahead of Heim as Sanchez tried to join the battle. 

    At the Lap 55 mark, Busch was leading by six-tenths of a second over Heim followed by Sanchez, Eckes and Taylor Gray while Zane Smith, Dye, Enfinger, Riggs and Matt Crafton followed suit in the top 10. Busch would proceed to extend his advantage to more than a second over Heim and by more than two seconds over Sanchez by Lap 60 while Eckes and Taylor Gray continued to run in the top five. 

    By Lap 70, Busch continued to extend his advantage as he was leading by more than two seconds over Heim while third-place Sanchez also trailed by more than two seconds. Behind, Eckes continued to run in fourth place as he trailed the lead by three seconds while Taylor Gray occupied fifth place as he trailed the lead in his No. 17 JBL Toyota Tundra TRD Pro by nearly five seconds. As Zane Smith, Riggs, Dye, Enfinger and Sauter occupied the top-10 spots on the track, Busch would stabilize his advantage to two seconds by Lap 75 while Sanchez and Eckes overtook Heim for second and third. 

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 80, Busch captured his second consecutive Truck stage victory of the night and the fifth of his part-time campaign after stabilizing his lead to more than two seconds. Sanchez and Eckes followed suit in second and third, respectively, along with Heim and Taylor Gray while Riggs, Zane Smith, Dye, Enfinger and Sauter were scored in the top 10. 

    During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Busch returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Busch retained the lead after exiting pit road first while Taylor Gray, Eckes, Sanchez and Heim followed suit in the top five. 

    With 81 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced under green as Busch and Taylor Gray occupied the front row. At the start, Busch and Gray battled dead even for the lead in front of Eckes and Sanchez before Busch muscled ahead from the inside lane through the first two lanes. With Busch leading, Eckes would follow suit in second place before Heim would assume the spot shortly after. Eckes would then return the favor with 80 laps remaining as he would reclaim the runner-up spot while Sanchez was in fourth ahead of Taylor Gray, who dropped to fifth in front of Enfinger, Riggs and Ty Majeski. 

    With 75 laps remaining, Busch was leading ahead of a tight battle for the runner-up spot between Heim and Eckes while Taylor Gray followed suit in fourth place ahead of Sanchez, Enfinger, Riggs, Zane Smith, Dye and Majeski. Busch would extend his advantage to nearly a second over both Heim and Eckes with less than 70 laps remaining while Sanchez and Taylor Gray trailed by a second in the top five. 

    Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Busch, who was mired in lapped traffic, stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Eckes while Sanchez, Heim and Taylor Gray trailed by within four seconds in the top five on the track. A lap later, Johnny Sauter pitted his Niece Motorsports entry under green. Chase Purdy would pit his Spire Motorsports entry a few laps later along with Daniel Dye before Sanchez pitted with 46 laps remaining along with Grant Enfinger.  

    Starting with 45 laps remaining, more names that included Heim, Majeski, Taylor Gray, Bayley Currey and Dean Thompson pitted under green while Busch, who was among multiple names who have yet to pit, continued to lead ahead of Eckes. Then with 40 laps remaining, Busch surrendered the lead to pit under green. By then, more names that included Crafton, Stefan Parsons, Ben Rhodes and Friesen pitted before Eckes, who assumed the lead, pitted a lap later.  

    With 37 laps remaining, the caution flew after Layne Riggs, who pitted on Lap 110 under green due to a right-rear tire issue and was off the lead lap category, spun and slapped his No. 38 Infinity Communications Group Ford F-150 against the outside wall in Turn 2. By then, Zane Smith, who pulled off the track to pit road for service, opted to drive his No. 91 SpeedyCash.com entry through pit road, past his pit stall and back onto the track without pitting as he retained the lead ahead of Busch, Heim, Taylor Gray, Eckes, Sanchez and Lawless Alan, all of whom were scored on the lead lap.  

    During the caution period, Zane Smith surrendered the lead to pit while the rest of the field led by Busch remained on the track as Busch cycled back into the lead. In addition, the following drivers including Enfinger, Majeski, Friesen, Daniel Dye, Sauter, Dean Thompson, Crafton and Stefan Parsons took the wave around to cycle back onto the lead lap, thus placing 16 competitors on the lead lap. 

    Following an extensive caution period, the race restarted under green with 26 laps remaining as Busch and Heim occupied the front row. At the start, Busch and Heim battled for the lead ahead of Eckes and Taylor Gray before Busch muscled ahead with the lead on the inside lane. Behind, Taylor Gray assumed the runner-up spot as he was battling Eckes to retain the spot while Heim was trying to fend off Sanchez and Zane Smith for fourth place. As Riggs endured another on-track incident while running in the rear of the field, the event remained under green flag conditions.  

    Shortly after, the caution returned with 22 laps remaining after Kris Wright, who was piloting TRICON Garage’s No. 1 entry and mired a lap down, made contact with Mason Massey before he spun sideways in between Turns 1 and 2, where he would get hit by Stewart Friesen’s No. 52 Chili’s entry that caused Wright to collide back against the outside wall while Friesen spun sideways. 

    Down to the final 17 laps of the event, the field restarted under green, where a three-wide action for the lead ensued between Eckes, Busch and Heim before Eckes and Busch both muscled ahead and battle for the lead themselves while Heim dropped to fourth behind teammate Taylor Gray. Amid the tight battles towards the front, the caution, however, quickly returned when Dean Thompson, who was running 12th, got loose and tapped Enfinger entering Turn 3, thus sending both spinning through the turn as Enfinger backed his truck against the wall and Matt Crafton hit Thompson while trying to avoid the incident while Sauter got loose as he just avoided the incident. At the moment of caution, Eckes was scored the leader ahead of Busch. 

    During the following restart with 10 laps remaining, Eckes muscled away from the field with the lead as Busch, who struggled to launch on the outside lane, was left to battle Heim for the runner-up spot through the first two turns. Busch would fend off Heim for the runner-up spot through the backstretch before he ignited his battle with Eckes for the lead during the following two laps. Busch would then overtake Eckes for the lead through the frontstretch with eight laps remaining while Heim, who drafted Busch into the lead, followed suit. Eckes would then go wide entering the backstretch, which allowed Sanchez to assume third place. 

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Busch was leading by three-tenths of a second over Heim, who kept Busch within his sights, while third-place Sanchez trailed the lead by half a second. As Eckes and Daniel Dye trailed in the top five, Heim started to close in on Busch for the lead. Despite narrowing the gap to within a tenth of a second on Heim’s side, Busch, who was trying to navigate his way around different lanes around the Texas circuit while trying to break Heim’s draft and pull away, retained the lead over Heim. 

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Busch remained as the leader by a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Heim. Following the first two turns, Heim then closed in on Busch’s rear bumper with momentum and made a brief move on the inside lane before Busch blocked and stalled his momentum. While Heim kept Busch close within his sights and within a tenth of a second, he could not generate another charge to Busch as Busch was able to cycle back to the frontstretch and beat Heim to claim the checkered flag by a tenth of a second. 

    With the victory, Busch notched his 66th career win in the Craftsman Truck Series, his sixth in the Lone Star state, which ties him with Todd Bodine for the most series victories at Texas, and his second of the 2024 season, with his first occurring at Atlanta Motor Speedway in late February. He also recorded his second series victory driving for Spire Motorsports and his fourth with veteran crew chief Brian Pattie. 

    Tonight’s victory at Texas makes Busch two-for-four in this year’s Truck Series season, where he previously finished 15th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and second at Bristol Motor Speedway in March to coincide with his Atlanta victory. He is scheduled to make his fifth and final Truck start of the 2024 season at Darlington Raceway on May 10. 

    “Great team, everybody here at Spire [Motorsports],” Busch said on FS1. “[I] Appreciate [crew chief] Brian Pattie and everybody that was able to work so hard to prepare us a really fast Realtree Silverado. There’s cooler [wins], but [the competition] definitely kept me honest, I’ll give them that. Corey [Heim] kept us honest right there. He started to find that top [lane] over there and to get some momentum over there. I tried it with three [laps] to go. I chattered really bad, so my front just wasn’t working over there. I needed more laps on my tires to be able to get up there to make that work, but he made it. [He] Got to my rear bumper getting into [Turn] 3 and I just kind of was like, ‘I don’t know which way to go.’ So I ran the middle [lane] and darted bottom and then, he slipped up top. So, I guess we had enough of a gap after that.” 

    Heim, who won at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, in late March, settled in the runner-up spot for the second time and for his fifth top-three result through seven events on the 2024 schedule. The result also marks his second time finishing in second place on the track behind his former team owner, Kyle Busch.

    “I did all I could there, trying to take [Busch] through in the last restart and got the caution, unfortunately, and then just trying to build a run on him,” Heim said. “He’s just too good. He does a really good job. Really happy with our run tonight. To finish second is a good day for us and we’ll build on it and get better.” 

    Sanchez, the pole winner, came home in third place while Eckes and Zane Smith finished in the top five. Daniel Dye, Taylor Gray, Tanner Gray, Stefan Parsons and Ty Majeski ended up in the top 10 on the track. 

    There were seven lead changes for four different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 40 laps. In addition, 17 of 34 starters finished on the lead lap. 

    Following the seventh event of the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series season, Christian Eckes continues to lead the regular-season standings by two points over Corey Heim, 12 over Ty Majeski, 27 over Nick Sanchez and 38 over Taylor Gray. 

    Results. 

    1. Kyle Busch, 112 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner 

    2. Corey Heim 

    3. Nick Sanchez, 16 laps led 

    4. Christian Eckes, 31 laps led 

    5. Zane Smith, eight laps led 

    6. Daniel Dye 

    7. Taylor Gray 

    8. Tanner Gray 

    9. Stefan Parsons 

    10. Ty Majeski 

    11. Lawless Alan 

    12. Rajah Caruth 

    13. Stewart Friesen 

    14. Bayley Currey 

    15. Matt Crafton 

    16. Dean Thompson 

    17. Johnny Sauter 

    18. Connor Jones, one lap down 

    19. Jake Garcia, one lap down 

    20. Mason Massey, one lap down 

    21. Timmy Hill, one lap down 

    22. Bret Holmes, one lap down 

    23. Ty Dillon, one lap down 

    24. Ben Rhodes, two laps down 

    25. Chase Purdy, two laps down 

    26. Matt Mills, two laps down 

    27. Spencer Boyd, five laps down 

    28. Keith McGee, eight laps down 

    29. Grant Enfinger – OUT, Accident 

    30. Kris Wright – OUT, Accident 

    31. Layne Riggs – OUT, Accident 

    32. Thad Moffitt – OUT, Accident 

    33. Memphis Villarreal – OUT, Accident 

    34. Tyler Ankrum – OUT, Accident 

    Next on the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule is the Heart of America 200 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas. The event is scheduled for May 4 and airs at 8 p.m. ET on FS1.