With the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season less than a week away from concluding, Corey LaJoie is set to achieve a milestone start. By competing in this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship event at Phoenix Raceway, the driver of the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 will fulfill 200 career starts in NASCAR’s premier series.
A native of Kannapolis, North Carolina, and the son of two-time Xfinity Series champion Randy LaJoie, Corey LaJoie made his inaugural presence in the Cup Series at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September. By then, he had recorded five victories in the K&N Pro Series East and made two career starts in the Xfinity Series between Richard Petty Motorsports and Biagi-DenBeste Racing. Driving the No. 77 Ford Fusion for Randy Humphrey Racing, LaJoie started and finished 41st in his Cup debut. He then made his second Cup career start three weeks later at Charlotte Motor Speedway for RHR, where he finished 35th after starting 42nd.
Prior to the start of the 2017 Cup Series season, LaJoie joined forces with BK Racing on a part-time schedule. During the first of two Duel events at Daytona International Speedway in February, he rallied from being involved in a late multi-car wreck, where he wrecked Paul Menard and Reed Sorenson in the closing laps, to finish 16th and earn a transfer spot for the 59th running of the Daytona 500, where he finished 24th. He ended up competing in all but four of the 36-race schedule between the Nos. 23 and 83 Toyota Camry for BK Racing. His best on-track result throughout his schedule was an 11th-place run at Daytona in July.
For the 2018 Cup season, LaJoie piloted the No. 72 Chevrolet SS for TriStar Motorsports. Commencing the season with a 40th-place run during the 60th running of the Daytona 500 due to an engine failure and making a total of 23 starts, LaJoie’s season-best result was a 16th-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in September.
In 2019, LaJoie joined Go Fas Racing to pilot the No. 32 Ford Mustang in the Cup Series on a full-time basis. After commencing the season with an 18th-place run during the 61st running of the Daytona 500 and recording three top-20 results through the first 17-scheduled events, LaJoie notched his first top-10 career result in the Cup circuit after finishing sixth at Daytona in July. He went on to post a seventh-place result at Talladega Superspeedway in October before settling in 29th place in the final standings and in his first full-time stint in NASCAR’s premier series.
Remaining at Go Fas Racing for the 2020 Cup season, LaJoie commenced the season on a harrowing note after being involved in a final lap accident during the 62nd running of the Daytona 500. Entering the tri-oval, LaJoie was battling for a spot in the top 10 when he rammed into the upside-down No. 6 Ford Mustang piloted by Ryan Newman driver’s side that sent Newman’s car airborne before landing back on his roof. Despite the impact that damaged the front nose and windshield of his No. 32 Ford, LaJoie, who managed to finish eighth, emerged uninjured. He went on to finish in the top 20 five times throughout the 36-race schedule before finishing in 30th place in the final standings. By then, LaJoie surpassed 100 career starts in NASCAR’s premier series.
Following a two-year run with Go Fas Racing, LaJoie inked a multi-year deal to pilot the No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for Spire Motorsports, beginning in 2021. He finished ninth during the 63rd running of the Daytona 500 in his first event with Spire before posting five top-20 results during the next 23-scheduled events. At Michigan International Speedway in August, LaJoie missed the event following a positive COVID-19 test. From his return at Daytona in August through the season finale at Phoenix Raceway in November, he posted two additional results in the top 20 before finishing in 29th place in the final standings.
This season, LaJoie kicked off his second stint at Spire Motorsports with a 14th-place run during the 64th running of the Daytona 500. Two races later, he finished 15th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March before achieving his first top-five result in the Cup Series at Atlanta Motor Speedway another two races later in the schedule. The top-five run for LaJoie occurred after he rallied from being involved in an early multi-car pileup, where he spun backwards through the frontstretch grass. He went on to record five additional top-20 results during the following 13 events.
Then when NASCAR returned to Atlanta in July, LaJoie led a career-high 19 of 260-scheduled laps as he was battling Chase Elliott for the win during a three-lap shootout to the finish. After losing the lead to Elliott with two laps remaining, LaJoie made a move to the outside of Elliott on the final lap when he was blocked and forced into the outside wall in Turn 1. The contact and scrape stalled LaJoie’s momentum as he then veered below the track before shooting back across the outside wall and wrecked along with Kurt Busch and Cole Custer. The incident knocked LaJoie to a 21st-place result in the final running order after being in position of winning his first NASCAR Cup event. Despite posting three additional top-20 results during the final seven regular-season events, LaJoie did not accumulate enough points to move out of the top-30 cutline in the standings nor qualify for the 2022 Cup Playoffs. Through nine of 10 Playoff events, he has achieved three top-15 results and is currently ranked in 31st place in the drivers’ standings.
Through 199 previous Cup starts, LaJoie, who will be returning to Spire Motorsports for the 2023 season, has achieved one top-five result, five top-10 results, 57 laps led and an average-finishing result of 26.9.
LaJoie is scheduled to make his 200th Cup Series career start in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Championship event at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, November 6, with the event’s coverage to start at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.
With the 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season set to conclude following this weekend’s season-finale Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix Raceway, Grant Enfinger is set to achieve a milestone start of his own. By competing in the finale, the driver of the No. 23 GMS Racing Chevrolet Silverado RST will make his 150th career start in the Truck circuit.
A native of Fairhope, Alabama, Enfinger made his Truck Series debut at Talladega Superspeedway, his home track, in October 2010. By then, he had made 18 career starts in the ARCA Menards Series with seven top-five results and 10 top-10 results. Driving the No. 95 Ford F-150 for Team Gill Racing, Enfinger started 12th but finished 22nd in his series debut after being involved in a late multi-truck wreck that involved series champions Todd Bodine and Ron Hornaday Jr.
During the following two seasons, Enfinger made a total of five starts between four different organizations in the Truck Series. His best results during the five-race span were three 12th-place results: the first occurring at Talladega in October 2011 while competing for Bragg Racing Group, the second occurring at Daytona International Speedway in February 2012 with Bragg Racing Group and the third occurring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in September 2012 while driving for Brad Keselowski Racing.
After competing in the ARCA Menards Series from 2013 to 2015, where he achieved 14 victories and the series championship in 2015, Enfinger made his return to the Truck Series in 2016 and on a part-time basis for GMS Racing. He commenced his part-time season by notching his first Truck career pole at Daytona in February. Despite leading four laps, Enfinger finished 20th in the 32-truck field after being involved in a late multi-truck pileup towards the front. He rebounded during the following weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway by earning his first top-five career result in fifth place. After finishing no lower than 12th during his next four scheduled events, Enfinger earned his first career victory in the Truck Series at Talladega, his hometrack, in October after leading a race-high 45 of 94 laps and fending off teammate Spencer Gallagher and the field during a two-lap shootout. He went on to make his eighth and final series start of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November, where he piloted the No. 92 RBR Enterprises Ford F-150 to a 23rd-place result.
In 2017, Enfinger earned a full-time Truck ride in the No. 98 Toyota Tundra for ThorSport Racing, where he replaced Rico Abreu. After commencing the season with a 16th-place result at Daytona due to being involved in a last lap multi-truck wreck, he picked up his first top-10 result of the season by finishing eighth during the following event at Atlanta. After finishing 16th and 11th during the following two events, Enfinger earned five top-five results during the following six events. Despite earning two additional top-five results during the next five events, he did not earn enough points to make the 2017 Truck Playoffs. He went on to finish in the top 10 in five of the final seven events as he capped off his first full-time Truck campaign in 11th place in the final standings along with nine top-five results, 15 top-10 result and an average-finishing result of 9.4.
Remaining at ThorSport Racing for the 2018 season as the team changed manufacturers from Toyota to Ford, Enfinger commenced the season with a sixth-place result at Daytona followed by a ninth-place result at Atlanta and back-to-back fourth-place results at Las Vegas and Martinsville Speedway. Earning a total of 12 top-10 results through the 16 regular season stretch, including a runner-up result at Eldora Speedway in July following a photo finish loss against teammate Chase Briscoe, were enough for Enfinger and the No. 98 Ford F-150 team to earn a spot in the 2018 Truck Playoffs. Despite commencing the Playoffs with a 17th-place result at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, he rebounded during the following event at Las Vegas in September by notching his second career victory in the series and earning a spot in the Round of 6. During the Round of 6, however, Enfinger’s three-race stretch of finishing no lower than 14th were not enough for him to earn a spot to the Championship Round at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Nonetheless, Enfinger capped off the 2018 season with a runner-up result during the finale and in fifth place in the final standings in a season where he achieved one victory, two poles, seven top-five results, 15 top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 8.7.
Enfinger commenced the 2019 Truck season on a strong note by finishing in the runner-up spot behind Austin Hill at Daytona while rallying from a late multi-truck wreck. Throughout the 16-race regular season stretch, he did not record a victory, but he earned seven top-five results and 13 top-10 results, which were enough for him to claim the 2019 Truck regular season championship and 15 bonus points to the 2019 Truck Playoffs. Despite finishing fifth at Bristol and 13th at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, respectively, Enfinger’s title hopes came to an end following an early engine failure at Las Vegas in September, an issue that would also affect his Playoff teammates Johnny Sauter and Matt Crafton despite the latter proceeding to win the title. With his title hopes for 2019 evaporated, Enfinger went on to finish in the top 10 in the final four scheduled events and conclude the season in seventh place in the final standings and with two poles, a career-best 10 top-five results, a career-high 18 top-10 results and a career-best average-finishing result of 8.5.
Enfinger commenced the 2020 Truck season on a high note by capturing his third career victory at Daytona and snapping a one-year winless drought after edging Jordan Anderson by 0.010 seconds at the finish line during an overtime attempt. The Daytona victory for Enfinger marked the 100th Truck career victory for the Ford nameplate. Despite finishing no higher than 12th during the following two Truck events, he rebounded at Atlanta in June by overtaking Austin Hill during a two-lap overtime shootout to win for the second time in 2020 and achieve multiple Truck victories in a season for the first time in his career. He then capped off the regular season stretch by winning at Richmond Raceway in September following a late battle with teammate Matt Crafton. After utilizing consistency to transfer from the Round of 10 to 8 during the Playoffs, Enfinger fended off teammate Ben Rhodes and the field during a two-lap shootout to claim his fourth victory of the season and earn a spot to the Championship Round at Phoenix Raceway in November. During the finale, however, he got shuffled all the way back to 13th despite starting on the front row for a two-lap shootout as he settled in a career-best fourth place in the final standings. Despite falling short of winning his first NASCAR title, Enfinger concluded the 2020 season with a career-high four victories, eight top-five results, 13 top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 10.4. By then, he surpassed 100 career starts in the Truck Series.
For the 2021 season, Enfinger’s racing schedule was reduced to a part-time role as he split driving duties of the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Toyota Tundra with Christian Eckes. After finishing 11th at Daytona despite being involved in a multi-truck wreck approaching the finish line, Enfinger did not compete during the following scheduled event at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course. He rebounded during the following event at Las Vegas by finishing seventh while piloting the No. 9 Chevrolet Silverado for CR7 Motorsports. For the remainder of the season, Enfinger split driving duties between ThorSport Racing and CR7 Motorsports. In total, he earned 11 top-10 results throughout the 22-race schedule with all but three of his total top-10 results occurring with ThorSport Racing. The results were enough for the Alabama native to finish in 11th place in the final standings.
A month prior to the conclusion of the 2021 season, GMS Racing announced that Enfinger will be rejoining the organization to pilot the No. 23 Chevrolet Silverado RST on a two-year basis, beginning in 2022. After finishing no higher than 12th through the first three scheduled events, he went on to achieve six top-10 results during the following seven events. Despite earning an additional top-10 result during the final six regular-season events, he managed to secure a spot for the 2022 Truck Playoffs based on points. Then during the Playoff opener at Lucas Oil Raceway, Enfinger navigated his way from fourth to first during an overtime shootout to win as he snapped a one-year winless drought and transferred from the Round of 10 to 8. His title hopes, however, came to an end after finishing fourth, 29th and 14th, respectively, during the Round of 8, which were not enough for him to transfer to the Championship 4 round.
Enfinger is currently ranked in seventh place in the drivers’ standings entering this weekend’s finale at Phoenix. Through 149 previous Truck starts, he has achieved seven victories, five poles, 49 top-five results, 88 top-10 results, 899 laps led and an average-finishing result of 10.7.
Enfinger is scheduled to make his 150th Camping World Truck Series career start in the season-finale Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix Raceway on Friday, November 4, with the event’s coverage to occur at 10 p.m. ET on FS1.
In his third full-time season as a NASCAR Xfinity Series crew chief, Andy Street, who currently works atop the pit box of the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro team piloted by rookie Austin Hill, is primed to achieve a milestone start. By participating in this weekend’s Xfinity Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway, Street will call his 100th Xfinity event as a crew chief.
A native of Kernersville, North Carolina, and a former drag racer who graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a mechanical engineering degree, Street, who first joined Richard Childress Racing as a design and test engineer in 2003 and has since remained at RCR while working on the engineering and mechanical aspects, made his debut as a NASCAR crew chief at Richmond Raceway in September 2019. Working with driver Joe Graf Jr. and the No. 21 RCR Chevrolet Camaro team, Street led Graf to a 16th-place result in qualifying before the team finished 14th during the main event.
For the 2020 Xfinity season, Street was promoted to a full-time crew chief role for RCR’s No. 21 Chevrolet Camaro team that was piloted between Myatt Snider, Anthony Alfredo and Kaz Grala. In Street’s first full-time campaign as a NASCAR crew chief, he guided the No. 21 RCR team to pole position with Snider for the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway in February and a total of 15 top-10 results throughout the 33-race schedule. The team’s highest on-track result made throughout the season was a third-place run by Alfredo at Texas Motor Speedway in October followed by three fourth-place results made between Alfredo, Grala and Snider. The results were enough to place RCR’s No. 21 entry in 11th place in the final Xfinity owners’ standings.
In 2021, Street, who remained at RCR, was assigned to crew chief RCR’s No. 2 Chevrolet Camaro team that was driven by Snider for the entire season. Following two top-15 results through the first two-scheduled events, Street recorded his first career win as a NASCAR crew chief after Snider survived two overtime restarts and held off Tyler Reddick to score his first Xfinity career win at Homestead-Miami Speedway in February. Street and Snider went on to record seven additional top-10 results throughout the 26-race regular-season schedule before entering the 2021 Xfinity Playoffs as a title contender. Following respective finishes of 15th, 31st and eighth during the Round of 12, however, Snider was one of four competitors to be eliminated from title contention. With the championship hopes of 2021 evaporated, Street and Snider managed to achieve an additional top-10 result during the final four scheduled events before concluding the season in ninth place in the final drivers’ standings.
This season marked another change for Street, who remained at RCR but returned atop the pit box of the No. 21 Chevrolet Camaro team that was taken over by former Camping World Truck Series competitor Austin Hill. In their first race together, Street and Hill went to Victory Lane at Daytona in February after Hill overtook AJ Allmendinger on the final lap and at the moment of caution due to a multi-car wreck to claim his first Xfinity career victory. Sixteen races and eight additional top-10 results later, the duo earned their second victory of the 2022 campaign at Atlanta Motor Speedway in July. The pair of victories along with a total of 16 top-10 results during the 26-race regular-season stretch were enough for the No. 21 RCR team to qualify for the 2022 Xfinity Series Playoffs. Amid an up-and-down Playoff run highlighted with a pole, a runner-up result at Texas Motor Speedway in September and three consecutive top-10 results during the Round of 8, Hill and Street were eliminated from title contention following this past weekend at Martinsville Speedway. They are ranked in sixth place in the drivers’ standings as the duo look to cap off the season with a third victory to the 2022 campaign.
Through 99 previous Xfinity events, Street has achieved three victories, two poles, 17 top-five results, 46 top-10 results and 388 laps led while working with six different competitors.
Street is scheduled to call his 100th Xfinity Series event as a crew chief in the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, November 5, with the event’s coverage to occur at 6 p.m. ET on USA Network.
Embarking in his 11th and final full-time season in the NASCAR Cup Series, Aric Almirola is primed to achieve a milestone start. By competing in this weekend’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, the driver of the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang will achieve career start No. 400 in NASCAR’s premier series.
A native of Tampa, Florida, Almirola made his inaugural presence in the Cup Series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March 2007. By then, he had made 10 career starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and 29 starts in the Truck Series as he was competing on a part-time schedule with Joe Gibbs Racing. Driving the No. 80 Chevrolet Monte Carlo for JGR, Almirola started 31st and finished 41st in his Cup debut after being involved in an early accident.
Later in the 2007 season, Almirola transitioned from Joe Gibbs Racing to Dale Earnhardt Inc. as he piloted the No. 01 Chevrolet in five of the remaining 13 Cup races to the schedule. His best result during his span was a 30th-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway in October.
In 2008, Almirola served as a co-primary driver of the No. 8 Dale Earnhardt Inc. Chevrolet Impala alongside NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin. His first start of the season occurred at Bristol Motor Speedway in March, where he achieved his first top-10 career finish in eighth place. He then made 11 additional starts throughout the 2008 Cup season, where he collected two 13th-place results (Bristol Motor Speedway in August and Talladega Superspeedway in October). He also led 53 laps at Martinsville Speedway in October before falling back to 20th place. When the final checkered flag of the 2008 season flew, Almirola capped off his part-time Cup campaign by finishing in 35th place in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November following an early spin.
Almirola commenced the 2009 Cup Series season as a full-time competitor in DEI’s No. 8 Chevrolet Impala. He finished 30th in the 51st running of the Daytona 500 after being involved in two separate incidents, but rallied three races later by finishing 21st at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March. Following the first seven races of the season, however, Almirola’s full-time Cup ride with DEI was cut short due to sponsorship issues. Returning to compete in four Xfinity and 16 Truck Series races for the remainder of the 2009 season, he also made an additional Cup start at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September, where he drove the No. 09 Phoenix Racing Chevrolet Impala to a 29th-place result.
Almirola entered the 2010 season with plans of competing with Phoenix Racing on a full-time basis in the Cup Series while also racing in the Camping World Truck Series for Billy Ballew Motorsports. His Cup plans with Phoenix Raceway, however, came to an early end after he failed to qualify in three of the first seven scheduled events and finished no higher than 39th, which was sat Bristol in March. He then set his main focus towards vying for the 2010 Truck title with Billy Ballew Motorsports, where he went on to win his first two Truck career races and finish in second place in the final standings. He also competed in eight Xfinity races with JR Motorsports. A month prior to the 2010 Cup season’s conclusion, however, Almirola drove the No. 9 Ford Fusion for Richard Petty Motorsports at Martinsville as an interim competitor in place of veteran Kasey Kahne, who left RPM for Red Bull Racing. Finishing 21st at Martinsville, Almirola ended up competing in the final four Cup races of the season with RPM. During this short span, he notched his first career top-five result in the Cup Series after finishing fourth in the season finale at Homestead in November.
After spending the 2011 season in the Xfinity Series with JR Motorsports, where he earned 18 top-10 results and finished in fourth place in the final standings, Almirola was signed by Richard Petty Motorsports to drive the iconic No. 43 Ford Fusion for the 2012 Cup season. Almirola started the season by finishing in 33rd place in the 54th running of the Daytona 500 after being involved in a late multi-car accident. He managed to finish 12th at Phoenix Raceway, but fell back to 24th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March. During the first nine events of the season, he had one top-10 result logged in, which was an eighth-place result at Martinsville in April. After finishing 12th at Talladega and 19th at Darlington Raceway in May, Almirola captured his first Cup career pole at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coca-Cola 600. Despite finishing in 16th place in the Coke 600, Almirola rebounded the following week at Dover International Speedway by finishing in sixth place. From Pocono Raceway in June through Richmond Raceway in September, Almirola finished no higher than 17th place on the track, which were enough to prevent him from qualifying for the 2012 Cup Playoffs. At Kansas Speedway in October, he led 69 laps but was involved in three separate incidents that dropped him to 29th place in the final running order. He rallied during the following event at Martinsville by finishing fourth. He then capped off the season with a seventh-place result at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November and a 20th-place result in the final standings.
Remaining at Richard Petty Motorsports for the 2013 Cup season, Almirola finished 13th in the 55th running of the Daytona 500 and 15th during the following race at Phoenix. Following the first 10 Cup races of the season, he was coming off four consecutive top-10 results and was in eighth place in the regular-season standings. The early consistency for Almirola and the No. 43 team, however, did not last for the remainder of the 26-race regular-season stretch as he achieved only one top-five result, which was a season-best fifth place at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July, and failed to make the Playoffs. He went on to conclude the 2013 season in 18th place in the final standings along with six top-10 results and a career-best average result of 18.8. Following the 2013 season, Almirola surpassed 100 career starts in NASCAR’s premier series.
After inking a three-year extension to remain at Richard Petty Motorsports, Almirola commenced the 2014 season with a 39th-place result in the Daytona 500 after being involved in a late multi-car accident. Three races later, he captured his first top-three result in the Cup circuit after finishing in third place at Bristol Motor Speedway behind Roush Fenway Racing’s Carl Edwards and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
When NASCAR returned to Daytona in July, which marked the halfway point of the season, Almirola had achieved one top-five result and three top-10 results, but came into Daytona with an opportunity to grab a victory and race his way into the 2014 Cup Playoffs. During the race, Almirola dodged two multi-car accidents and outlasted the field, including late challenges from Brian Vickers, Kurt Busch and Casey Mears, to retain the lead when the race was red-flagged and deemed official on Lap 112 of 160 due to heavy precipitation. The call handed Almirola his first Cup career victory in his 125th series start as he snapped five-year winless drought for Richard Petty Motorsports. Almirola’s first Cup victory marked the first win for the No. 43 since 1999, which was last made by the late John Andretti at Martinsville Speedway. It also occurred 30 years to the day where Richard Petty recorded his unprecedented 200th and final NASCAR win at Daytona. With his victory, Almirola clinched a spot for the 2014 Cup Playoffs.
Following the breakthrough victory at Daytona, Almirola recorded two top-10 results for the remaining eight regular-season races before entering the Playoffs as one of 16 competitors vying for the 2014 Cup championship. He, however, was one of four competitors who was eliminated from title contention following the Round of 16 despite finishing as high as sixth place at New Hampshire in September. Despite his early exit from title contention, Almirola went on to finish the season in a career-best 16th place in the final standings and with a career-high seven top-10 results.
Following a breakthrough 2014 season, Almirola started the 2015 season with a 15th-place result in the 57th running of the Daytona 500 followed by an 11th-place run at Atlanta. Throughout the 26-race regular-season stretch, he achieved two top-five results and 14 top-15 results. During the regular-season finale at Richmond in September, Almirola, who was within striking distance of the lead, recorded a strong fourth-place result, which would mark his season-best result, but he missed the Playoffs by 17 points. He went on to notch one additional top-five run and four top-10 results for the remaining 10 Playoff races before finishing in 17th place, best of the non-Playoff competitors, in the final standings. In light of missing the Playoffs, he achieved a career-best average-finishing result of 17.9, compared to his average result of 21.4 in 2014 when he won a race and made the Playoffs.
Remaining at Richard Petty Motorsports for a fifth consecutive season, Almirola’s 2016 season started with a 12th-place result in the 58th running of the Daytona 500. He then finished in 15th place during the following race at Atlanta despite being involved in a four-car wreck during an overtime shootout to the finish. Compared to his previous two seasons, the 2016 season was a disappointing season for Almirola, who achieved only one top-10 result, which was a season-best eighth-place result at Talladega in October, and an average result of 23.3 before falling back to 26th place in the final standings. Following the 2016 season, Almirola surpassed 200 career starts in the Cup Series.
Returning for a sixth full-time Cup season with RPM in 2017, Almirola commenced the season on a high note by finishing in fourth place in the 59th running of the Daytona 500. During the first 10 scheduled races, he achieved three top-10 results, including another fourth-place result at Talladega despite being penalized 35 points for a post-race infraction.
Then during the following race at Kansas Speedway in May, Almirola was involved in a late horrific accident, where he collided into Joey Logano and Danica Patrick’s cars at full speed in Turn 1 as both competitors wrecked in front of Almirola seconds prior to his involvement. The impact launched the back of Almirola’s car off the ground amid a shower of flames and sparks before his No. 43 Ford came to rest against the outside wall. Following the incident, Almirola had to be extricated from his car and placed on a stretcher, where he was airlifted to the University of Kansas Hospital. It was later determined that he had suffered a compression fracture of his T5 vertebrae. While Almirola spent time recovering from his injuries, he was absent for eight races, including the All-Star Open/Race weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. During his absence, Regan Smith, Bubba Wallace and Billy Johnson each took turns piloting the No. 43 Ford Fusion.
In July at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Almirola, who received medical clearance to return to race, finished in 24th place. Given seven races to try to win and position himself into the top-30 in the standings to make the Playoffs through an injury waiver, he finished no higher than 12th place and was unable to compete for the 2017 title. Nonetheless, he collected three top-10 results, including a fifth-place result at Talladega in October, as he finished in 29th place in the final standings. He also recorded an average-finishing result of 18.8, which matched his result from 2013.
A week and a half prior to the 2017 Cup season’s conclusion in November, Almirola announced a new partnership with Stewart-Haas Racing to drive the No. 10 Ford team for the 2018 Cup Series season, where he replaced Danica Patrick. Three months later, Almirola made his first Cup start with SHR in the 60th running of the Daytona 500. During the event, he was leading on the final lap when Austin Dillon made contact and turned Almirola into the outside wall in Turn 3, which spoiled Almirola’s opportunity in winning the Daytona 500 for the first time as he ended up in 11th place and with a wrecked race car.
During the first 16 Cup races of the new season, Almirola recorded seven top-10 results and 14 top-15 results. By then, he was ranked in 10th place in the regular-season standings. He went on to record three additional top-10 results and secure a spot in the 2018 Playoffs based on points and following a strong consistent regular-season stretch despite having no victories under his belt.
Returning to the Playoffs for a second time and following a three-year absence, Almirola commenced his title run in September by finishing sixth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and fifth at Richmond Raceway. Despite finishing in 19th place at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course in September, he transferred to the Playoff’s Round of 12 in a three-way tie-breaker that included Kyle Larson and saw seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson eliminated from title contention.
After leading 64 laps and finishing 13th at Dover in October due to being involved in a late multi-car incident, Almirola, who was still within reach of transferring from the Round of 12 to 8, came into the following race at Talladega Superspeedway with an opportunity to fulfill his first victory as a Stewart-Haas Racing competitor. After spending the majority of the race running towards the front with his Stewart-Haas Racing teammates, he capitalized on a late two-lap restart and with teammate Kurt Busch running out of fuel on the final lap to hold off teammate Clint Bowyer entering the tri-oval and capture his first elusive victory of the season along with his second Cup career victory. The victory earned Almirola and his No. 10 SHR Ford team a one-way ticket into the Playoff’s Round of 8.
After finishing 10th the following week at Kansas, Almirola finished 11th, eighth and fourth respectively in the Round of 8. Despite the results, he failed to advance to the Championship 4 round at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he capped off the season in ninth place on the track. While he did not emerge as a Cup champion, the 2018 season stands as Almirola’s productive season to date that includes a win, a career-high four top-five result, a career-high 17 top-10 results, a career-high 181 laps led, a career-best average-finishing result of 12.8 and a career-best points result of fifth place.
With the 2018 season in the record books, Almirola entered the 2019 Cup season with high aspirations of repeating his on-track success from the previous season, beginning with the 61st running of the Daytona 500. His season, however, started off on a low note when he was involved in a late multi-car accident and was scored in 29th place. He rebounded the following six weeks by finishing in the top 10 in all of them. Throughout the 26-race regular-season stretch, Almirola and his No. 10 SHR team achieved 10 top-10 results, as Almirola qualified for his third Cup Playoffs. After finishing 13th, 16th and 14th respectively during the Round of 16, however, he was eliminated from title contention. With his 2019 title hopes coming to an early end, he went on to capture two top-five results, including a season-best second place behind teammate Kevin Harvick at Texas Motor Speedway in November, and conclude the season in 14th place in the final standings. Overall, he recorded a pole, three top-five results and 12 top-10 results despite logging in zero victories. In addition, Almirola surpassed 300 Cup career starts.
The 2020 Cup Series season, which marked Almirola’s third full-time campaign with Stewart-Haas Racing, started off with the Floridian wrecking out of the season-opening Daytona 500. Two weeks later, he finished eighth at Auto Club Speedway, which he backed up with another eighth-place result at Phoenix in March. When NASCAR returned to on-track competition for a Darlington Raceway doubleheader feature in May amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Almirola finished 12th and seventh respectively. From a pair of Charlotte Motor Speedway events in May to Martinsville Speedway in June, he finished no higher than 15th. Then, beginning at Homestead in June through New Hampshire in July, he recorded nine consecutive finishes inside the top five or top 10. During this streak, he also started on pole position three times through a random draw. To go along with two additional top-10 results during the final six regular-season events, Almirola clinched a spot to the 2020 Playoffs for the fourth time in his career and third in a row in recent years. Three consecutive top-10 results during the Round of 16 transferred the driver of the No. 10 SHR Ford into the Round of 12, but his title hopes came to an end following finishes of 17th, 37th and 16th respectively. Despite settling in 15th place in the final standings, he achieved a career-high six top-five results and 18 top-10 results. His total laps led of 305 throughout the season was also his personal best.
The 2021 Cup season marked a difficult start for Almirola, who won the first Bluegreen Vacations Duel at Daytona in February but ended up in 34th place in the 63rd running of the Daytona 500 after being involved in an early multi-car wreck. Through the first 16 scheduled events, his best result was sixth at Richmond in April while he finished outside of the top 20 10 times. He then rallied at Nashville Superspeedway in June, where he started on pole and finished fourth, but finished no higher than 14th place during the following four events.
Then at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Almirola persevered through his difficult start to 2021 by leading twice for 25 laps, including the final 20, to win over Christopher Bell and claim his third NASCAR Cup career victory. The victory, which was Almirola’s first since winning at Talladega in 2018, sent the driver and his No. 10 SHR team into the 2021 Cup Playoffs. During the Playoff’s Round of 16, however, he missed the cutline to the Round of 12 by two points despite logging in three consecutive top-20 results. Capping off the season with back-to-back sixth-place results on the track, Almirola capped off his 10th full-time season in the Cup Series in 15th place in the final standings.
In January 2022, Almirola announced his intentions to retire from full-time NASCAR competition at the conclusion of the season. He commenced his final full-time season with a fifth-place run during the 64th running of the Daytona 500 in February followed by back-to-back top-10 results before finishing no higher than eighth place during the next eight events. He is currently ranked in 11th place in the drivers’ standings.
Through 399 previous Cup starts, Almirola has achieved three victories, three poles, 27 top-five results, 88 top-10 results, 899 laps led and an average-finishing result of 19.0.
Almirola is set to make his 400th Cup Series career start in the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, May 8, with the event’s coverage to occur at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
1. Chase Briscoe: Briscoe used a quick late pit stop and nailed two restarts to win the Rouff Mortgage 500 at Phoenix, securing his spot in the NASCAR playoffs.
“I became the 200th winner in NASCAR’s history,” Briscoe said. “And I’m proud to drive for Stewart-Haas Racing. Tony Stewart was my childhood hero. As a kid, I would eat, breathe, and sleep racing. And just like Tony, the eating part was my favorite.”
2. Joey Logano: Logano finished eighth at Las Vegas.
“The restarts at Phoenix were wild,” Logano said. “Turn 1 is wide enough for cars to take several different lines. In essence, NASCAR is encouraging drivers to ‘cut corners,’ much like the lame punishment of starting in the back for unapproved adjustments encourages drivers to ‘cut corners.’”
3. Ryan Blaney: Blaney started on the pole at Phoenix and won Stage 2 on his way to a fourth-place finish in the Rouff Mortgage 500.
“I also was fastest in Saturday’s practice,” Blaney said, “and I led the most laps in Sunday’s race. Combine that with the pole and Stage 2 win, and you could say we checked all the boxes, except one.”
4. Kyle Larson: Larson broke a valve spring with about 74 laps remaining and limped home to a 34th-place finish.
“With a championship last year,” Larson said, “and a win already this year, we were operating under the motto ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ That obviously changed.”
5. Kyle Busch: Busch finished seventh at Phoenix.
“I realize I was wrong to criticize Alex Bowman for his lucky win at Las Vegas,” Busch said. “I should be more complimentary, so here goes: I think every driver at Phoenix performed well. In fact, I would give all of them a passing grade for the race. In other words, my stance on other drivers is this: ‘zero F’s given.’”
6. Aric Almirola: Almirola finished 12th, his first finish outside the top 10 this year.
“You could say I’m ‘flying under the radar,’” Almirola said. “Apparently, the ‘radar’ gauges drivers with an actual chance of winning a Cup championship.”
7. Tyler Reddick: Reddick finished third in the Rouff Mortgage 500
“I think it’s a brilliant strategy for NASCAR to have a race sponsored by a home loan financing company,” Reddick said. “It may be the only way to draw more ‘interest’ in the sport.”
8. Chase Elliott: After challenging for the win with about 25 laps remaining, Elliott faltered with a slow pit stop and a spin on the backstretch. He finished a disappointing 11th.
“This just goes to show,” Elliott said, “that I don’t need anyone else to cost me a win, because me and my team are perfectly capable of doing it ourselves.
“Alex Bowman was driving the ‘Best Friends’ No. 48 Chevrolet. That paint scheme describes the animal welfare non-profit organization, and in no way represents my relationship with Kyle Larson.
9. Kevin Harvick: Harvick finished sixth at Phoenix and tied a Cup record with his 18th straight top 10 at one track.
“My good friends at Hunt Brothers Pizza were my main sponsor for the race at Phoenix,” Harvick said. “As you know, Hunt Brothers Pizza is arguably the nation’s best gas station pizza. And in these uncertain times, isn’t it nice to know you can get a large Hunt Brothers Pizza for less than a gallon of gas?”
10. (tie): Martin Truex Jr.: Truex blew a tire on Lap 221 and slammed the wall hard, ending his day at Phoenix. He finished 35th.
“I was stunned,” Truex said. “Not because of the impact, but because Brad Keselowski had nothing to do with my accident.”
10. (tie): Alex Bowman: Bowman finished 14th in the Rouff Mortgage 500.
“It would have been nice to win two in a row,” Bowman said. “Then I could tell Kyle Busch he was exactly right, because I’d ‘back’ into another win because I’d be back in Victory Lane.
“But I must say, it’s entertaining to get under Kyle’s skin. As much as I hate to give him props, Kyle’s skin is unmatched by any other driver, because it’s the thinnest and the palest.”
In a three-lap shootout between three competitors vying for their first career win in the NASCAR Cup Series level, Chase Briscoe came out on top at Phoenix Raceway. After fending off Ross Chastain and Tyler Reddick he won the Ruoff Mortgage 500 Sunday afternoon and claimed his first victory in his 40th career start in NASCAR’s premier series.
The 27-year-old Briscoe from Mitchell, Indiana, led three times for 101 of the 312-scheduled laps, including the final 24, and had enough horsepower within his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang to hold off the field, including Chastain, Reddick and teammate Kevin Harvick in a three-lap shootout. Briscoe is the second first-time winner of the 2022 season and the 200th different competitor to win in the NASCAR Cup Series’ 74th season of competition.
With on-track qualifying occurring on Saturday, Ryan Blaney claimed his seventh Cup career pole after notching the top starting spot with a pole-winning lap at 132.709 mph. Joining him on the front row was Denny Hamlin, who posted a fast qualifying lap at 132.353 mph.
Prior to the event, Kyle Larson (unapproved adjustment), rookie Harrison Burton (unapproved adjustment) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (engine change) dropped to the rear of the field.
When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Kyle Busch used the dogleg to vault himself into the top 10 from his 11th-place starting spot while Blaney rocketed with an early advantage ahead of the field. Behind, William Byron challenged Hamlin for the runner-up spot. Following the first lap, Blaney was out in front of a side-by-side battle between Hamlin and Byron while Christopher Bell settled behind in fourth, followed by Chase Briscoe and Aric Almirola.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps of the event, Blaney was leading by more than a second over Hamlin, who was followed by Byron, Bell and Chase Briscoe while Kyle Busch, rookie Austin Cindric, Joey Logano, Alex Bowman and Tyler Reddick were in the top 10.
Ten laps later, Blaney continued to lead by nearly two seconds over Hamlin, who was engaged in a battle with Byron for the runner-up spot. Behind, Briscoe was in fourth followed by Kyle Busch, Logano, Reddick and Bowman while Bell slipped back to ninth ahead of Kevin Harvick.
When the competition caution flew on Lap 25, Blaney was out front by more than two seconds over Hamlin and Byron. By then, Larson was scored in 20th after starting at the rear of the field.
Under the competition caution, the field pitted for early adjustments and Blaney retained the lead after exiting pit road with the lead followed by teammate Logano, Briscoe, Hamlin and Reddick. During the pit stops, Kyle Busch stalled his No. 18 DeWalt Toyota TRD Camry on pit road after running in fifth place, Following the pit stops, Blaney was sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road along with Michael McDowell, Hamlin and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. The penalties moved Logano, who opted for a two-tire pit stop, to the lead followed by Briscoe, Reddick, Byron and Alex Bowman.
When the race restarted on Lap 31, the field fanned out through the dogleg as Logano retained a narrow advantage followed by Briscoe, Byron, Reddick and Chase Elliott.
Two laps later, Briscoe moved his No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang into the lead ahead of Logano while Hendrick Motorsports’ Byron and Elliott battled for third place.
On Lap 45, the caution flew when Corey LaJoie smacked against the backstretch, outside wall. The hard impact knocked the tire carcass off of LaJoie’s No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 as Cody Ware hit and ran over the carcass.
Under caution, some including Blaney, Aric Almirola, Daniel Suarez, Erik Jones, rookie Harrison Burton and Ross Chastain pitted while the rest led by Briscoe remained on the track.
When the race restarted on Lap 52, Byron used the inside lane to his advantage as he stormed his No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to the lead while teammate Elliott challenged Briscoe for the runner-up spot. As Briscoe used the outside lane to retain the runner-up spot, Reddick started to challenge Elliott for third place while Bowman settled in fifth.
When the first stage concluded on Lap 60, Byron notched his first stage victory of the season. Briscoe settled in second followed by Elliott, Reddick, Bowman, Bell, Larson, Harvick, Logano and Austin Dillon while Martin Truex Jr., the reigning Phoenix spring winner, was in 11th ahead of Kurt Busch, Blaney, Cindric, Chris Buescher and Kyle Busch.
Under the stage break, some led by Blaney, Kyle Busch, Cole Custer and Burton remained on the track while the rest led by Byron pitted. During the pit stops, Elliott was the first competitor to exit first followed by Briscoe, Reddick, Byron and Harvick.
The second stage started on Lap 69 as Blaney and Kyle Busch occupied the front row. At the start and as the field fanned out through the dogleg, Blaney retained the lead while Kyle Busch was left to retain the runner-up spot ahead of Briscoe, Elliott, Byron and Reddick.
By Lap 75 and with the field jostling for positions, Blaney was leading by a second over Kyle Busch while Elliott, Briscoe and Byron were in the top five. Reddick was in sixth ahead of Harvick, Larson, Custer and Logano while Burton, Bowman, Cindric, Truex and Hamlin were in the top 15.
Fifteen laps later, Blaney stabilized his advantage to more than two seconds over Elliott while Byron was in third place ahead of Kevin Harvick, a nine-time Phoenix winner who was on a quest to end a 46-race winless drought. Reddick was in fifth followed by Kyle Busch, Larson, Briscoe, Logano and Bowman.
Through the first 100 scheduled laps of the event, Blaney’s No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang continued to lead by more than a second over Elliott’s No. 9 UniFirst Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 while Byron, Harvick, Reddick, Kyle Busch, Larson, Briscoe, Logano and Bowman remained in the top 10. Behind, Ross Chastain was in 11th followed by Austin Dillon, Custer, Truex, Hamlin, Bell, Kurt Busch, Cindric, Almirola and Chris Buescher while Harrison Burton was mired in 21st ahead of Ty Dillon, Erik Jones, rookie Todd Gilliland and Justin Haley. Meanwhile, Daniel Suarez, AJ Allmendinger, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace and Stenhouse were in the top 30 while Michael McDowell was the final car on the lead lap in 31st.
On Lap 118, the caution flew when Bell got loose and spun his No. 20 Rheem Toyota TRD Camry through the backstretch. By then, names like Keselowski, Wallace, Burton and Stenhouse were lapped.
Under caution, the leaders returned to pit road and Elliott emerged with the top spot for the first time after exiting with the lead followed by Blaney, Byron, Harvick, Larson and Briscoe.
When the race restarted on Lap 125 and as the field fanned out through the dogleg, Elliott persevered over a brief battle with Blaney to retain a narrow advantage while Byron fended off Harvick and Larson to retain third place.
Eight laps later and following a side-by-side battle with Elliott, Blaney re-emerged with the lead, though Elliott kept Blaney’s No. 12 Ford within his close sights.
By Lap 140, Blaney extended his advantage to more than a second over Elliott, who started to have Harvick close in on him for the runner-up spot. Byron was back in fourth ahead of teammate Larson while Reddick, Chastain, Briscoe, Austin Dillon and Logano were in the top 10.
At the halfway mark on Lap 156, Blaney stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Elliott and less than two seconds over Harvick while Byron and teammate Larson remained in the top five. Reddick, Chastain, Briscoe, Austin Dillon and Logano remained in the top 10 ahead of Truex, Kyle Busch, Bowman, Almirola, Suarez, Buescher, Hamlin, Custer, Kurt Busch and Gilliland while Erik Jones, Ty Dillon, Haley, Cindric, Allmendinger, Keselowski, Wallace, Stenhouse, Bell and McDowell rounded out the top 30.
By Lap 175, Blaney continued to lead by four-tenths of a second over Elliott while third-place Harvick trailed by more than three seconds. Trailing by more than four seconds behind were teammates Byron and Larson.
When the second stage concluded on Lap 185, Blaney fended off Elliott to claim his first stage victory of the 2022 season. Harvick crossed the start/finish line in third followed by Byron, Larson, Reddick, Chastain, Briscoe, Austin Dillon and Logano.
Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Elliott returned to the top of the leaderboard followed by Harvick, Reddick, Blaney, Byron and Larson.
With 118 laps remaining, the final stage started under green. At the start and with the fan fanning out through the dogleg, Reddick was quick to attack Elliott for the lead, but Elliott was just able to utilize the outside lane to his advantage as he retained the lead. Meanwhile, Blaney moved up to third while Larson challenged Harvick for fourth place.
Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Elliott was leading by less than half a second over Reddick while Blaney, Harvick and Larson were in the top five. Briscoe was back in sixth followed by Chastain, Austin Dillon, Byron and Truex. Bowman was in 11th followed by Logano, Suarez, Buescher and Kyle Busch while Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch, Hamlin, Erik Jones and Custer were in the top 20.
Eight laps later, the caution flew when Truex went dead straight after cutting a right-front tire and pounded his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota TRD Camry into the backstretch outside wall hard. The incident was enough to terminate Truex’s event as he emerged uninjured and made the mandatory trip to the infield care center.
Under caution, the leaders returned to pit road and Elliott retained the lead followed by Harvick, Briscoe, Chastain, Austin Dillon and Byron while Blaney dropped to ninth place. Following the pit stops, Daniel Suarez was penalized for speeding on pit road.
With 83 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Briscoe assumed the lead over Elliott and Harvick retained third place as the field jostled for positions.
Eight laps later, Briscoe was leading by nearly eight-tenths of a second over Elliott while Harvick, Logano and Chastain were in the top five. Byron was in sixth followed by Austin Dillon, Blaney, Larson and Bowman. Shortly after, Larson fell off the pace and had to limp his No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for another full lap before pitting. Soon after pitting, it was determined that a broken valve spring was detected in Larson’s car, which forced the reigning Cup champion to nurse his car to the garage.
Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Briscoe continued to lead by more than three-tenths of a second over Elliott, who continued to stalk Briscoe for the lead, while Harvick, Chastain and Blaney were in the top five.
Not long after and with the leaders mired in lapped traffic, the battle for the lead intensified as Elliott pressured Briscoe for the top spot. Despite Elliott’s efforts in closing the gap and trying to navigate his way around Briscoe’s No. 14 Ford for the lead, Briscoe was able to maintain the top spot.
With 30 laps remaining, Briscoe continued to lead by less than half a second over Elliott while third-place Harvick trailed by more than a second. Chastain, coming off his strong run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, was in fourth followed by Team Penske’s Blaney and Logano. Reddick was in seventh ahead of teammate Austin Dillon while Bowman and Almirola were in the top 10.
Shortly after, the caution flew when Erik Jones spun off of Turn 2 and made contact with the inside wall.
Under caution, the leaders pitted and Briscoe managed to retain the lead ahead of teammate Harvick, Chastain and the field.
With 20 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start and with the field fanning out, Chastain bolted below the dogleg to challenge Briscoe for the lead along with Harvick, but Briscoe managed to retain the lead by a narrow margin. Not long after, Chastain fought back on the inside lane and he drew himself alongside Briscoe as Tyler Reddick joined the party after he passed Harvick.
Shortly after, a three-wide battle ensued between three competitors seeking their first Cup victory before Briscoe managed to remain ahead of Reddick and Chastain.
With less than 15 laps remaining, Briscoe, who was representing Stewart-Haas Racing, was leading by half a second over Reddick, who was representing Richard Childress Racing, and more than a second over Chastain, who was representing Trackhouse Racing. Meanwhile, Harvick was mired back in fourth, trailing by more than a second, while Blaney was in fifth.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Briscoe continued to lead by more than half a second over Reddick while Chastain was being pressured by Harvick for third place.
Just then, the caution flew with eight laps remaining when Elliott got loose and spun through the backstretch while running in seventh place. The caution evaporated Briscoe’s steady margin over Reddick.
Under caution, the top-13 competitors led by Briscoe remained on the track while the rest led by Chris Buescher, who was in 14th place, pitted.
Down to the final three laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Briscoe, who restarted on the inside lane, darted his car to the dogleg and received a bump from Chastain to clear the field and retain the lead entering the backstretch. Behind, Chastain challenged Reddick for the runner-up spot as Kurt Busch challenged Blaney and Harvick for fourth place.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Briscoe was still leading by over Chastain and Reddick. With all types of battles ensuing behind, Briscoe was able to pull away and streak across the finish line in first place as he emerged victorious for the first time in his second full-time season in the Cup circuit.
With the victory, Briscoe recorded the first win for Stewart-Haas Racing this season and for SHR’s No. 14 team currently led by crew chief Johnny Klausmeier since former veteran, Clint Bowyer, won a rain-shortened event at Michigan International Speedway in June 2018. In addition, Briscoe, who claimed the Cup Rookie-of-the-Year title in 2021, became the 38th different competitor to achieve a victory across NASCAR’s top three national touring series (Camping World Truck, Xfinity and Cup).
“That’s unbelievable,” Briscoe, who was emotional on the frontstretch, said on FOX. “I was crying the whole last lap. I mean, this is definitely a team win, but I gotta thank everybody that’s got me to this point. Seven years ago, I was sleeping on couches, volunteering at race shops and was literally driving home to give up. [Owners] Briggs Cunningham [III] and Kerry Scherer and Beth Cunningham gave me an opportunity and it’s led to this. Unbelievable. So blessed to be driving at the organization of the team and the car that was my hero [Tony Stewart] growing up. To get this No. 14 back in Victory Lane, to do it with Mahindra Tractors, their first year in the sport…it’s unbelievable.”
Behind, Chastain edged Reddick to finish in the runner-up spot, with both competitors claiming their best results through the first four events of the 2022 campaign.
“Like a day at the K1 track, that was so much fun,” Chastain said, “To get to race like that at this level. Trackhouse Racing believes in me. These people, they believed in me early in the season whenever stuff wasn’t going so great. If we can keep putting these together. That’s so cool to race with Tyler [Reddick] and Chase [Briscoe]. That’s everything I’ve ever wanted. My crew chief Phil Surgen, people don’t know how good he is. His adjustments this year have been so incredible and he gave me exactly what I needed. We just came up one spot short, but I’m so happy.”
“I thought we got a really good launch [on the restart] considering all things,” Reddick added. “Being right there with [Briscoe] going into [Turn] 1, but I knew about how deep I could drive it in Turn 1 all day. I thought I got pretty good heat in the tires. I still over-stepped it. I couldn’t have drove it any deeper than I did and I thought I was still gonna get up in the fence. Chase was just able to drive it off in there. Kind of like dirt racing, clear high and take the lead. It was a lot of fun. It was great to claw back from a hiccup we had early in the race. Everyone on this Guaranteed Rate Chevrolet did a really, really good job all day. We had one little miscue that took us from second to 12th, but my pit crew did an amazing job. They got us right back out of that hole and we had one good restart at the end to put ourselves in position. It was a fun day. It was a nice way to recover. It’s nice to recover from a mistake that late in the race and still be battling for the win there at the end. All in all, great day. We’ll see what else we can learn from this and get ready for what lies ahead.”
Blaney, who led a race-high 144 laps, finished fourth and Kurt Busch claimed his first top-five result of the season and with 23XI Racing after muscling his No. 45 MoneyLion Toyota TRD Camry in fifth place.
Harvick came home in sixth place while Kyle Busch, Logano, Suarez and Chris Buescher finished in the top 10.
Notably, Elliott settled in 11th following his late spin, Hamlin ended up in 13th place in between Almirola and Bowman, Byron fell back to 18th and Austin Dillon finished 21st after being involved in a last-lap skirmish with Daniel Suarez while battling for a top-10 spot. Todd Gilliland was the highest-finishing rookie in 16th place while Bubba Wallace, Brad Keselowski and Austin Cindric finished 22nd, 23rd and 24th.
There were 14 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 52 laps.
Despite finishing in eighth place, Joey Logano leads the regular-season standings by four points over Kyle Busch, five over Chase Elliott, 10 over Chase Briscoe and Kyle Larson and 14 over Aric Almirola.
Results.
1. Chase Briscoe, 101 laps led
2. Ross Chastain
3. Tyler Reddick
4. Ryan Blaney, 143 laps led, Stage 2 winner
5. Kurt Busch
6. Kevin Harvick
7. Kyle Busch
8. Joey Logano, four laps led
9. Daniel Suarez
10. Chris Buescher
11. Chase Elliott, 50 laps led
12. Aric Almirola
13. Denny Hamlin
14. Alex Bowman
15. Ty Dillon
16. Cole Custer
17. Justin Haley
18. William Byron, 12 laps led, Stage 1 winner
19. Todd Gilliland
20. AJ Allmendinger
21. Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident
22. Bubba Wallace, one lap down
23. Brad Keselowski, one lap down
24. Austin Cindric, one lap down
25. Erik Jones, one lap down
26. Christopher Bell, two laps down
27. Michael McDowell, two laps down
28. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., two laps down
29. Harrison Burton, three laps down
30. Landon Cassill, four laps down
31. Cody Ware, five laps down
32. Garrett Smithley, seven laps down
33. BJ McLeod, eight laps down
34. Kyle Larson – OUT, Engine, two laps led
35. Martin Truex Jr. – OUT, Accident
36. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is Atlanta Motor Speedway, the first of two stops at the venue for the series and the first race since the track was reconfigured for this season. The event is scheduled to occur on Sunday, March 20, at 3 p.m. ET on FOX.
Following three consecutive top-three results three races into the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, Noah Gragson broke through the win column after scoring a dominant victory in the United Rentals 200 at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, March 12.
The 23-year-old Gragson from Las Vegas, Nevada, started on the front row before leading seven times for a race-high 114 of 200 laps en route to his first Xfinity victory of the season after beating runner-up Brandon Jones by more than two seconds and becoming the fourth different winner through the first four scheduled events of the 2022 Xfinity season.
With on-track qualifying occurring on Saturday, Trevor Bayne notched his first Xfinity pole since Iowa Speedway in August 2014 after posting a pole-winning lap at 131.839 mph. Despite enduring a kill switch issue while trying to roll his car off of pit road, Bayne’s crew was able to repair the issue as he retained the top starting spot. Joining him on the front row was Noah Gragson, who posted a fast qualifying lap at 131.565 mph.
Prior to the event, Sam Mayer, Ryan Vargas, Justin Allgaier, Josh Berry and Stefan Parson dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective machines. In addition, Anthony Alfredo took his No. 23 Our Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro to the garage due to an early mechanical issue.
When the green flag waved and the race commenced, the field fanned out through the dogleg turn as Bayne retained the lead and led the first lap ahead of Gragson, Brandon Jones and Ty Gibbs.
Through the first five laps of the event, Bayne continued to lead by half a second over Gragson followed by Jones, Gibbs and John Hunter Nemechek. Behind, Daniel Hemric was in sixth ahead of Ryan Sieg, rookie Sheldon Creed, AJ Allmendinger and Parker Retzlaff.
Five laps later, Bayne stabilized his advantage to eight-tenths of a second over Gragson while Jones, Gibbs and Nemechek remained in the top five.
By Lap 20, Bayne extended his advantage to more than a second over Gragson, who was fending off Jones for the runner-up spot. Gibbs and Nemechek continued to run in the top five followed by Hemric, Allmendinger, Creed, Landon Cassill and Ryan Sieg. Meanwhile, Justin Allgaier, who started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro, was up in 12th behind Jeb Burton.
A lap later, the first caution of the event flew when Riley Herbst spun and pounded the Turn 3 outside wall after his brake pedal fell to the floor, thus destroying his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang as his event came to an early end.
When the field restarted on Lap 33, Gragson challenged and emerged with the advantage over Bayne as the field fanned out and battled for positions. Meanwhile, John Hunter Nemechek, who made a bold move below the dogleg during the the restart, was in third ahead of Brandon Jones.
By Lap 40, Gragson stabilized his advantage to three-tenths of a second over Bayne while Jones, Nemechek and Gibbs were in the top five.
Shortly after, a side-by-side battle for the lead occurred between Bayne and Gragson as Bayne challenged to reassume the top spot while Gragson refused to relinquish the lead. As they battled, Brandon Jones started to join the battle.
When the first stage concluded on Lap 45, Bayne edged Gragson to claim the stage victory and his second of his part-time campaign. Jones settled in third followed by Nemechek, Gibbs, Allgaier, Landon Cassill, Allmendinger, Josh Berry and Sam Mayer while Daniel Hemric fell back to 11th.
Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Jones emerged with the lead after exiting pit road first followed by JR Motorsports’ Gragson, Allgaier and Mayer while Bayne came out in fifth ahead of Gibbs. Following the pit stops, however, Mayer and Brandon Brown dropped to the rear of the field after both were busted for speeding on pit road.
The second stage started on Lap 54 as Jones and Gragson occupied the front row. At the start and with the field fanning out, Jones and Gragson battled dead even for the lead before Gragson peaked ahead. Just then, Gibbs, who was in the top five, spun after Josh Berry clipped Gibbs’ No. 54 Sport Clips Toyota Supra in Turn 2. As the field scattered to avoid hitting Gibbs, the caution returned.
When the race restarted on Lap 61, Josh Berry engaged in a battle with teammate Allgaier for third place as Brandon Jones used the outside lane to his advantage as he assumed the lead for the first time ahead of Gragson.
Nine laps later, Gragson reassumed the lead after closing in and persevering in a battle with Jones while Allgaier settled in third.
Through the first 75 laps of the event, Gragson was leading by less than three-tenths of a second over Jones while Allgaier, Bayne and Berry were in the top five. Behind, Allmendinger was in sixth ahead of Nemechek, Ryan Sieg, Hemric and Cassill while Sheldon Creed, Jeb Burton, Brett Moffit, Mayer and rookie Austin Hill were in the top 15. Meanwhile, Gibbs was mired in 26th ahead of JJ Yeley.
Despite encountering lapped traffic, Gragson was able to extend his advantage to more than a second and claim the second stage victory on Lap 90, thus claiming his third stage victory of the 2022 season. Behind, Allgaier overtook and fended off Jones to settle in second followed by Bayne, Berry, Nemechek, Allmendinger, Hemric, Cassill and Mayer, who rallied from speeding on pit road prior to the start of the second stage,
Under the stage break, the leaders returned to pit road and Allgaier emerged with the lead followed by Jones, Gragson, Allmendinger and Mayer. Following the pit stops, Bayne and Mayer were both busted for speeding on pit road and sent to the rear of the field.
With 101 laps remaining, the final stage started. At the start and with the field fanning out, Allgaier went wide and got loose through Turns 1 and 2 as Jones moved into the lead ahead of Nemechek and Gragson. Shortly after, Jones was being challenged by John Hunter Nemechek before the latter took over with 98 laps remaining.
With 90 laps remaining, Nemechek was leading by nearly half a second over Gragson while Jones, Allgaier and Berry were in the top five. Allmendinger was in sixth ahead of Kaulig Racing’s Hemric and Cassill while Gibbs was back up in ninth ahead of Ryan Sieg.
Three laps later, Gragson reassumed the lead over Nemechek.
Down to the final 75 laps of the event, Gragson extended his advantage to more than a second over Jones while Nemechek fell back to third. Teammates Allgaier and Berry were in the top five followed by Allmendinger, Hemric, Gibbs, Cassill and Bayne, who was trying to work his way back to the front.
Fifteen laps later, Gragson stabilized his advantage to less than two seconds over Jones while Allgaier, Berry and Nemechek remained in the top five. Meanwhile, Bayne carved his way up in sixth place followed by teammate Gibbs while Allmendinger slipped back to eighth ahead of teammates Hemric and Cassill. Mayer was in 12th in between Ryan Sieg and Creed while Austin Hill was in 16th behind Jeb Burton.
Another 10 laps later and with the teams plotting their final scheduled pit stops of the event, Gragson continued to lead by more than two seconds over Jones.
With less than 40 laps remaining, pit stops under green commenced as Austin Hill pitted. Soon after, Allmendinger pitted along with Allgaier, Mayer, Creed, Berry, Jones, Bayne, Nemechek, race leader Gragson, Gibbs and others. During the pit stops, Mayer was busted twice for speeding on pit road on two separate occasions: once during his scheduled stop and again while serving his first penalty. In addition, Allgaier was penalized for running over an air hose on pit road.
Back on the track and with less than 30 laps remaining, Brandon Jones cycled to the lead by more than a second over Gragson.
With 20 laps remaining, Jones, who encountered lapped traffic, continued to lead by half a second over Gragson, who continued to narrow the deficit behind Jones’ No. 19 Menards Toyota Supra.
Six laps later and following a close side-by-side battle with Jones amid lapped traffic, Gragson reassumed the lead.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Gragson started to extend his advantage to more than a second over Jones while third-place Berry trailed by more than three seconds. Bayne was up in fourth followed by Nemechek. Meanwhile, Kaz Grala scrapped the outside wall in Turn 4, but the race proceeded under green.
With five laps remaining, Gragson stabilized himself to more than a second over Jones with victory in sight.
When the white flag waved and the final lap commenced, Gragson extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Jones while Berry trailed by five seconds. Having no challengers narrow the gap between himself and victory, Gragson cycled his way back to the finish line as he claimed his first checkered flag of the season.
With the victory, Gragson, who blew both of his rear tires during his victorious burnout before climbing the fence and saluting the fans, claimed his first win at Phoenix, the first win of the 2022 season for JR Motorsports and his sixth NASCAR Xfinity Series career triumph in his 106th series start. In addition, Gragson claimed his first win with new crew chief Luke Lambert, who joined JR Motorsports prior to the season and claimed his first Xfinity victory as a crew chief since 2012.
“It feels great to get the 50th anniversary Bass Pro Shops Camaro in Victory Lane,” Gragson said on FS1. “Most importantly, thank you all you race fans for coming out. You guys are awesome. You guys are loud. We love you. Thanks for coming to Phoenix. This team, the pit crew, everybody who makes this possible…The pit crew executed great. This team’s been on a roll so far this year. All top three finishes [through the] first four races. [I] Can’t thank everybody enough for all their hard work and try to keep in going.
Jones, a former winner at Phoenix, claimed his first top-five result of the season after finishing in second place followed by Berry, who claimed his third consecutive top-five result of this season.
“This is, first off, exactly what this No. 19 team needed,” Jones said. “To kind of turn the season around. We’ve had speed at all these race tracks so far. Just haven’t quite got finishes yet that we need. It’s really early in the season still. I thought when we came out of the pits there and came ahead of [Gragson] there that it was gonna be pretty good because aero situations were pretty tough today. It seemed like whoever was leading the race kind of was difficult to pass…Still all in all, really happy to come home second. I think this is the right momentum we need to turn this deal around.”
Trevor Bayne recorded his second top-five result in his second start of this year’s Xfinity season in Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 Toyota Supra by finishing fourth while Nemechek came home in fifth place while driving Sam Hunt Racing’s No. 26 Toyota Supra.
Gibbs, Allmendinger, Hemric, Cassill and Allgaier completed the top 10 on the track as the top-10 competitors were the only competitors to finish on the lead lap.
Notably, Creed and Austin Hill finished 14th and 17th while Mayer, who was busted with four pit road speeding penalties, settled in 22nd place.
There were 16 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 33 laps.
With his victory, Noah Gragson continues to lead the regular season standings by 39 points over Ty Gibbs, 42 over Justin Allgaier, 43 over AJ Allmendinger and 53 over Josh Berry.
Results.
1. Noah Gragson, 114 laps led, Stage 2 winner
2. Brandon Jones, 30 laps led
3. Josh Berry
4. Trevor Bayne, 38 laps led, Stage 1 winner
5. John Hunter Nemechek, 11 laps led
6. Ty Gibbs
7. AJ Allmendinger
8. Daniel Hemric
9. Landon Cassill
10. Justin Allgaier, five laps led
11. Ryan Sieg, one lap down, two laps led
12. Jeb Burton, one lap down
13. Brandon Brown, one lap down
14. Sheldon Creed, one lap down
15. Brett Moffitt, one lap down
16. Ryan Ellis, one lap down
17. Austin Hill, one lap down
18. Jeremy Clements, one lap down
19. Alex Labbe, one lap down
20. Bayley Currey, one lap down
21. Stefan Parsons, two laps down
22. Sam Mayer, two laps down
23. Mason Massey, two laps down
24. Myatt Snider, two laps down
25. JJ Yeley, two laps down
26. Nicholas Sanchez, two laps down
27. Joe Graf Jr., three laps down
28. Jade Buford, three laps down
29. Ryan Vargas, three laps down
30. Kyle Weatherman, three laps down
31. David Starr, four laps down
32. Kyle Sieg, four laps down
33. Kaz Grala, four laps down
34. Jeffrey Earnhardt, four laps down
35. Josh Williams – OUT, Ignition
36. Parker Retzlaff – OUT, Fuel Pump
37. Anthony Alfredo, 53 laps down
38. Riley Herbst – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ first of two visits to the newly reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway. The event is scheduled to occur on Saturday, March 19, at 5 p.m. ET on FS1.
NASCAR heads to Phoenix Raceway this weekend as the Cup Series and Xfinity Series close out the West Coast swing. The Camping World Truck Series has the week off and will return Saturday, March 19, to compete at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Friday evening the ARCA Menards Series will begin the on-track activities with practice at 4 p.m. ET followed by the General Tire 150 at 7:30 p.m. with radio coverage on MRN.
Notes:
We have seen three different race winners in the first three races of the NASCAR Cup Series this season – Austin Cindric at Daytona, Kyle Larson at Auto Club and Alex Bowman at Las Vegas. We have also had three different pole winners – Kyle Larson (Daytona), Austin Cindric (Auto Club) and Christopher Bell (Las Vegas).
The top contenders for the Xfinity Series Sunoco Rookie are led by Austin Hill with 74 points, followed by Sheldon Creed with 66 points, Kyle Sieg with 21 points and Jesse Iwuji with 14 points.
Press Pass Live will be available throughout the weekend.
All times are Eastern.
Saturday, March 12
11:30 a.m.: Xfinity Series practice – FS1 Noon: Xfinity Series qualifying – FS1 1:30 p.m.: Cup Series practice – FS1/MRN 2:05 p.m.: Cup Series qualifying – FS1/MRN 4:30 p.m.: Xfinity Series United Rentals 200 FS1/TSN/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Distance: 200 miles (200 Laps) Stage 1 ends on Lap 45, Stage 2 ends on Lap 90, Final Stage ends on Lap 200 Purse: $1,344,059 2021 Race Winner: Austin Cindric
Sunday, March 13
3:30 p.m.: Cup Series Ruoff Mortgage 500 FOX/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio TV: FOX/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Distance: 312 miles (312 laps) Stage 1 ends on Lap 60, Stage 2 ends on Lap 185, Final Stage ends on Lap 312 The Purse: $7,039,168 2021 Race Winner: Martin Truex Jr.
1. Kyle Larson: Larson used a quick late pit stop to take the lead at Phoenix, and held on to win and claim his first Cup championship.
“I owe it all to my pit crew,” Larson said. “On that last stop, I came in fourth and left in first. I call that ‘service with a smile,’ with the smile being mine.”
2. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin finished third at Phoenix, again coming up short in his quest to win his first championship.
“It just wasn’t to be,” Hamlin said. “Maybe I’m just cursed. That’s a real possibility because if you took a poll of NASCAR fans, about 85% of them would say they have ‘cursed’ me, often more than once.”
3. Chase Elliott: Elliott finished fifth at Phoenix.
“I was going for my second Cup championship in a row,” Elliott said. “So, I was going for the repeat. Kyle Larson has spent the last two years trying not to ‘repeat.’”
4. Kyle Busch: Busch finished seventh at Phoenix.
“NASCAR told me I have to take sensitivity training,” Busch said. “That came after I used the ‘R’ word after Martinsville. Fortunately, they told me I only have to take it, and not necessarily pass it.”
5. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex came up just short at Phoenix, finishing second to race winner and Cup champion, Kyle Larson.
“It stings to come this close,” Truex said. “I finished less than a second behind Larson, yet I feel like I was five laps behind him. I guess what I’m saying is it sucks to feel like Quin Houff.”
6. Joey Logano: Logano finished 11th at Phoenix.
“Three of the championship drivers’ crew chiefs were ejected for multiple inspection failures,” Logano said. “NASCAR is a competitive sport, so you really have to cheat to win. And you have to deal with the consequences, which is being called a cheater. That doesn’t bother most drivers. We have very thick skin, especially on our wrists, which get slapped all the time.”
7. Ryan Blaney: Blaney finished fourth in the Xfinity 500 at Phoenix.
“Next year,” Blaney said, “I’m dedicating myself to winning the championship. Up until that point, I’m going to try really hard to convince myself to believe that.”
8. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski finished 10th at Phoenix.
“This was my final race for Penske Racing,” Keselowski said. “It would have been nice to go out with a win. But I didn’t. So, I didn’t go out with a bang. Instead, I went out with a ‘Dang!’”
9. William Byron: Byron finished 17th at Phoenix.
“If Kyle Busch has to take sensitivity training,” Byron said, “should everyone else be required to take training on how not to be like Kyle Busch?”
10. Alex Bowman: Bowman finished 18th in the Xfinity 500 at Phoenix.
“I was born in Tucson, Arizona,” Bowman said. “So, this is my home race. And that made Denny Hamlin an enemy of the state.”
After spending the previous season on the sidelines, Kyle Larson made the most of his second opportunity with the powerhouse organization of Hendrick Motorsports and emerged as the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion after winning the season finale race at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday afternoon.
The Elk Grove, California, native qualified on the pole position Saturday and led seven times during the race for a total of 107 laps, including the final 28. He beat Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott to win his first Cup title in his first full-time season at Hendrick Motorsports along with claiming his season-high 10th race victory in the desert state.
Qualifying occurred on Saturday, November 6, to determine the starting lineup and Kyle Larson, a nine-time race winner vying for his first Cup title, won the pole position with a pole-winning lap at 137.847 mph. Joining him on the front row was Chase Elliott, Larson’s teammate and the reigning series champion who qualified with an initial fast speed at 136.939 mph.
With Larson and Elliott starting on the front row, Denny Hamlin, vying for his first Cup title, lined up in sixth place to contend for his first Cup title while teammate Martin Truex Jr., going for his second title, rolled off the starting grid in 12th place.
Larson, Hamlin and Truex entered the finale without their regular car chiefs after their respective cars failed the pre-race technical inspection process twice, but they all retained their starting spots for the main event. On the other hand, Josh Bilicki and Timmy Hill started the finale at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their cars.
When the green flag waved and the finale commenced, Larson briefly broke ahead through the frontstretch, but Elliott fought back entering the backstretch. As both Hendrick Motorsports teammates dueled coming back to the start/finish line, Larson led the first lap. Elliott, however, had other plans as he rocketed to the lead entering Turns 1 and 2 during the following lap.
By the fifth lap, Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE was ahead by half a second over teammate Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE.
Two laps later, the first caution of the finale flew when Bubba Wallace got hit by Corey LaJoie, spun and backed into the Turn 3 outside wall with extensive rear-end damage. After exiting his damaged No. 23 DoorDash Toyota Camry, Wallace expressed his displease to LaJoie before making the mandatory trip to the infield care center.
Under caution, Larson elected to pit for four fresh tires and fuel while the rest of the field led by Elliott remained on the track.
When the finale restarted under green on Lap 11, Elliott retained the lead ahead of the field, which fanned out through the frontstretch. Behind, Ryan Blaney was in second followed by Denny Hamlin, William Byron and Kevin Harvick while Kurt Busch challenged Christopher Bell for sixth. Truex, meanwhile, was situated in the top 10.
Four laps later, the caution returned when LaJoie made contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. entering Turn 3, which sent both competitors spinning towards the outside wall as LaJoie sustained heavy rear-end damage.
Under caution, a majority of the field led by Elliott pitted while the rest led by Blaney remained on the track.
The finale restarted under green on Lap 20 as Blaney and teammate Brad Keselowski occupied the front row. At the start, Blaney retained the lead while Larson, who moved back into the top 10, made a bold move through the dogleg to move up to fourth ahead of Michael McDowell.
With the field continuing to fan out and jostle for positions, Larson settled in fourth behind Blaney, Ross Chastain and Keselowski while Elliott moved up to sixth. Truex was in eighth in between Chris Buescher and Kevin Harvick while Hamlin was in the top 15.
By Lap 25, Blaney was the race leader and Larson was the championship leader in second place just ahead of teammate Elliott, Chastain and Keselowski. Meanwhile, Truex was in sixth while Hamlin was mired back in 12th.
Through the first 30 laps of the finale, Blaney was leading by more than a second over Larson and Elliott, both of whom continued to challenge hard against one another for the championship lead early. Harvick was in fourth, trailing the lead by two seconds, while Truex remained in fifth. Keselowski, Byron, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch and Hamlin were in the top 10.
Five laps later, Harvick, who is pursuing his first victory of the season, moved up to second place on the track, thus dropping Larson and Elliott to third and fourth while Truex continued to run in fifth.
Another five laps later, Harvick, who cut Blaney’s advantage to a tenth of a second, started to challenge Blaney for the top spot around every turns and straightaway in his No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang. Behind, Elliott moved up to third while Truex challenged and passed Larson for fourth.
Through the first 50 laps of the event, a three-wide battle for the lead ensued between Harvick, Blaney and Truex through the frontstretch, with the latter gaining ground and catching the top-two leaders. Behind, teammates Elliott and Larson were in fourth and fifth while Hamlin moved up to sixth, thus placing all four Cup championship contenders in the top six.
Following their intensive battle at the front, Truex emerged with the lead on Lap 51 over Harvick, who led Lap 49, and Blaney, who led Laps 17-48 and 50.
By Lap 60, Truex extended his advantage to more than a second over Harvick. Behind, Elliott retained third place ahead of teammate Larson while Hamlin moved up to fifth place ahead of Blaney.
Ten laps later, Truex continued to extend his advantage to more than three seconds over Harvick while Elliott, Hamlin and Larson were situated in third, fourth and fifth. Behind, Blaney was trying to fend off Cole Custer and William Byron for sixth while Kurt Busch and Matt DiBenedetto were in the top 10.
When the first stage concluded on Lap 75, Truex, who won at Phoenix in March, received the early upper hand in his quest for his second Cup title by motoring his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry to his sixth stage victory of the season. Harvick settled in second followed by Elliott, Hamlin, Larson, Byron, Custer, Blaney, Kurt Busch and DiBenedetto.
Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Elliott emerged with the top spot following a stellar work from his pit crew. Truex exited in second followed by Harvick, Hamlin, Larson and Kurt Busch.
The second stage started on Lap 83. At the start and with the field fanning out through the dogleg, Elliott retained the lead by a narrow margin over Truex. The following lap, Larson made a bold three-wide move in between Hamlin and Harvick to move up to third.
By Lap 85, the final four championship contenders were running first through fourth and separated by less than a second as Elliott was leading ahead of Truex, Larson and Hamlin.
Five laps later, the four title contenders were separated by more than a second as Elliott stabilized himself in the lead by nearly six-tenths of a second over Truex. Third-place Larson trailed by more than a second while fourth-place Hamlin trailed by one-and-a-half seconds as Harvick started to close in on Hamlin.
Through the first 100 laps of the finale, Elliott continued to lead by more than a second over Truex, two seconds over teammate Larson and more than three seconds over Harvick, who overtook Hamlin a few laps earlier. Byron, Blaney, DiBenedetto, Kyle Busch and Aric Almiorla were in the top 10 while Kurt Busch, rookie Chase Briscoe, Tyler Reddick, Cole Custer and Christopher Bell were in the top 15. Meanwhile, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Alex Bowman were mired in the top 20 while Daniel Suarez and Ryan Newman were in 21st and 22nd.
Twenty laps later, Truex and Elliott battled for the top spot, with the former succeeding during the following lap. Harvick was in third, trailing by more than two seconds, while Larson and Hamlin remained in the top five.
On Lap 129, the caution flew when Quin Houff lost a right-front tire and smacked the outside wall hard right-side in Turn 3. The incident was enough to end Houff’s run in the garage and in the final NASCAR event for Starcom Racing.
Under caution, the leaders returned to pit road and Elliott exited with the lead followed by Harvick, Larson, Truex and Byron while Hamlin fell back to ninth.
When the finale restarted under green on Lap 135, Elliott retained the lead on the outside lane while teammate Larson challenged and overtook Harvick for second place through the first two turns. Behind, Byron closed in on Harvick for third as Truex joined the party.
Five laps later, the caution returned when Stenhouse hammered the outside wall in Turn 3 after blowing a left-front tire.
Another five laps later, the race restarted under green. At the start and with the field fanning out through the dogleg and entering the first two turns, Elliott just managed to clear Harvick through the backstretch as Larson made another strong move to the outside of Harvick to take second. The following lap, Truex overtook Harvick for third as Harvick was being pressured by Blaney for more.
Through the first 150 laps of the event, Elliott was leading by a second over teammate Larson while Truex was in third and slowly catching Larson for more. Harvick, Blaney, DiBenedetto and Byron were running fourth through seventh while Hamlin was mired in eighth in front of Keselowski and Aric Almirola.
By Lap 155, the caution flew when rookie Chase Briscoe, who cut down a left-rear tire, got bumped by Kyle Busch, spun and wrecked into the Turn 3 outside wall.
Under caution, nearly all of the lead lap cars pitted as Larson exited his pit stall with the lead followed by Elliott, Truex, Harvick and Hamlin. Back on the track, however, Tyler Reddick, Kurt Busch, Alex Bowman and Daniel Suarez remained on the track.
With 30 laps remaining in the second stage, Larson, who restarted in the second row, used the dogleg to thunder past Kurt Busch and Reddick to reassume the lead as the field fanned out through the frontstretch. Behind, Elliott also muscled his way to second behind teammate Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet as Truex and Hamlin also charged their way to the front.
A few laps later, the final four title contenders were back running first through fourth as Larson continued to lead by a narrow margin over teammate Elliott.
By Lap 175, title rivals Larson, Elliott, Hamlin and Truex remained in first through fourth, separated by two seconds, as Larson continued to lead ahead of teammate Elliott while Hamlin started to make his charge to the front after struggling early. Blaney settled in fifth ahead of Harvick, Logano, Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Byron.
When the second stage concluded on Lap 190, Larson took his stance in his quest to achieve his first Cup title by capturing his season-high 18th stage victory of the season. Teammate Elliott settled in second followed by Hamlin and Truex while Blaney ended up in fifth, trailing by more than three seconds. Harvick, Keselowski, Logano, Kyle Busch and Byron were scored in the top 10.
Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Larson exited his pit stall with the lead ahead of teammate Elliott, Hamlin, Truex and Kyle Busch.
With 115 laps remaining, the final stage commenced. At the start, Larson peeked ahead and cleared teammate Elliott through the frontstretch and the first two turns. While Hamlin tucked in third behind the two Hendrick competitors, Truex battled Harvick for fourth place as Blaney and Kyle Busch kept both Cup champions within their sights.
Down to the final 100 laps of the finale, Larson stabilized himself with the lead by four-tenths of a second over teammate Elliott. Hamlin was in third, trailing by more than two seconds, while Truex was mired back in fourth, three seconds behind. Harvick and Blaney were in fifth and sixth as both closed in on Truex for more while Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Logano and Almirola were in the top 10.
Under the final 80 laps, the battle for the championship between two Hendrick Motorsports teammates ignited as Elliott, who tracked and methodically caught Larson, overtook Larson with 76 laps remaining. Though Elliott emerged with the lead, he had teammate Larson within close sights of his rearview mirror.
Near the final 70 laps of the event, Keselowski surrendered his spot in the top 10 to short pit under green.
Back on the track, Elliott was leading by more than half a second over teammate Larson as Hamlin, who was in third, started to close in on the two leaders in the fight for the championship. Truex, meanwhile, was in fourth and trailing by more than two seconds.
With 66 laps remaining, Hamlin was up into second place after overtaking Larson, all while Elliott continued to lead by nearly a second.
Just then and while a few more competitors including Truex pitted under green, the caution flew when rookie Anthony Alfredo went dead straight and pounded the outside wall in Turn 2. The caution served as a huge moment for Truex, who completed his service and remained on the lead lap.
Under caution, the lead lap competitors led by Elliott pitted and Hamlin exited in first followed by Elliott, Logano, Larson and Almirola. Back on the track, however, Truex, who pitted prior to the caution, cycled to the lead followed by Blaney.
With 58 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Truex and Hamlin dueled through the frontstretch until Truex cleared Hamlin entering the backstretch. Behind Blaney was in third followed by Elliott, Logano and Larson as the field jostled for positions.
Five laps later, the final four title contenders were back running first through fourth as Joe Gibbs Racing’s Truex and Hamlin led Hendrick Motorsports’ Elliott and Larson. In the midst of this, Elliott challenged Hamlin for the runner-up spot.
Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Truex was leading by nearly a second over Hamlin and Elliott, both of whom continued to battle for second place, while Larson trailed by more than a second. Blaney was in fifth followed by Logano, Harvick, Almirola, Ross Chastain and Christopher Bell.
Ten laps later, Truex stabilized himself with the lead by nine-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin while third-place Elliott, who was losing ground to Hamlin, was nearly two seconds behind, and fourth-place Larson, who was gaining no ground on the leaders, was behind by more than three seconds.
Just then, the caution flew with 30 laps remaining due to debris reported in Turn 3 and coming off of David Starr’s car, with the driver reporting a broken rotor off of his car.
Under caution, the leaders pitted for four fresh tires and fuel. At the end of the services, Larson’s crew under the leadership of sophomore crew chief Cliff Daniels got the job done as he exited with the top spot followed by Hamlin, Truex and Elliott.
Down to the final 24 laps of the finale, the field restarted under green. At the start, Larson rocketed away with the lead as Truex also muscled his way into second place on the outside lane. Behind, Hamlin and Elliott battled for third.
With 20 laps remaining, Larson was leading by more than two-tenths of a second over Truex while Hamlin and Elliott persevered in his battle with Hamlin for third place.
Five laps later, Larson remained as the leader by four-tenths of a second over Truex as the battle for the win and the championship continued to ignite between both. Meanwhile, third-place Elliott trailed by more than a second while Hamlin was mired in fourth and more than a second behind.
Down to the final 10 laps of the finale, Larson slightly increased his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Truex while Elliott and Hamlin continued to battle for third ahead of Blaney.
With five laps remaining, Larson continued to lead by more than eight-tenths of a second over Truex. Behind, Hamlin moved his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry to third while Elliott was mired back in fourth and losing ground, trailing by less than three seconds, as Blaney started to challenge Elliott for more.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson was still leading by three-tenths of a second over Truex, who nearly got into the left-rear quarter panel of Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet entering the backstretch earlier, lost ground and was trying to narrow the deficit. While Truex got as close as he could, Larson kept himself at the front and was able to hold off the Joe Gibbs Racing driver through the final turn as he came back to the frontstretch and took the checkered flag to win both the race and the championship.
With the victory, Larson became the 35th different competitor to achieve a Cup Series championship and the fifth to do so while driving for Hendrick Motorsports as HMS, which won 17 of 36 races in this year’s schedule, achieved its 14th Cup title. Larson also joined Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch as the only Cup regular season champions to go on to win the overall season championship.
By claiming his season-high 10th victory of the 2021 Cup season and notching his 16th Cup career victory, Larson became the first championship-winning competitor to achieve double-digit victories in a championship-winning season, the last of which was made by Jimmie Johnson in 2007 when he beat teammate Jeff Gordon. Larson also racked up a career-high 20 top-five results, 26 top-10 results, nearly 2,600 laps led and a personal-best average-finishing result of 9.1.
This marked the eighth consecutive season where a competitor won the race in order to win the Cup championship in the current elimination-style Playoff format.
The championship also completed Larson’s redemptive road back to the top level in NASCAR after being released by Chip Ganassi Racing and indefinitely suspended from the sport for using a racial slur during a live iRacing event a year ago. Spending the majority of 2020 racing in sprint cars and the dirt, Larson was able to complete NASCAR’s Road to Recovery program and be reinstated prior to the 2021 season. By then, he was given an opportunity to reinstate his career when Hendrick Motorsports acquired him in October 2020, 13 months prior to Larson’s title.
Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“I cannot believe it,” Larson, who celebrated on the frontstretch and praised his pit crew, said on NBC. “I didn’t even think I’d be racing a Cup car a year-and-a-half ago. To win a championship is crazy. I’ve got to say first off thank you so much to Rick Hendrick, Hendrickcars.com, Jeff Gordon, NASCAR, every single one of my supporters in the stands watching at home, my family. I’ve got so many of my friends and family here. My parents, my sister, my wife and kids. [Son] Owen had been giving me crap a month-and-a-half ago about how I can’t win a Cup race when he’s there, so that added a lot of pressure. There were so many points in this race where I did not think we were going to win. Without my pit crew on that last stop, we would not be standing right here. They are the true winners of this race. They are true champions. I’m just blessed to be a part of this group. Every single man or person, man and woman at Hendrick Motorsports, this win is for all of us and every one of you. This is unbelievable. I’m speechless.”
“This event was crazy,” Larson added. “This format is wild. I’m glad we were able to get it done. And yes, a big shout-out to my parents for getting me involved in racing, my dad for everything he did, building my go-karts when I was young to get me playing around, my mom for videotaping every lap I ever raced and giving me something I could look at and study and get better. Gosh, so cool. I cannot believe it.”
Larson’s championship was one that received high praises from Rick Hendrick and Jeff Gordon, both of whom played instrumental roles in signing Larson for the 2021 season.
“I’ll tell you, we’ve always known he’s a wheelman, and he works so hard off the track,” Hendrick said on the championship stage. “Man, I just — he deserves this, and what a year, man. I never thought I was taking a risk [by signing Larson]. I mean, I know how good he is. I’m just fortunate we were able to get him, and man, what a wheelman he is. Ten races won, 11 with the All-Star Race. It’s unbelievable.”
“Unbelievable,” Gordon added. “By the whole team and Kyle Larson is a great talent. You give him a great race car and great race teams, and he does amazing things. We’ve seen it before, we’ve seen it in other forms of racing. He and this pit crew and this team, they did it all year long. They got to this point. What a battle. I just want to say Phoenix Raceway, NASCAR and all these fans that came out here today, this is what a championship weekend is supposed to feel like, and that was a championship battle. Great competitors and a great champion here.”
In addition, crew chief Cliff Daniels, who debuted atop the pit box midway into the 2019 season with Jimmie Johnson, achieved his first championship as a crew chief while the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team achieved its first title since the 1996 season with Terry Labonte.
“It’s an amazing moment,” Daniels said. “It’s been such a blessing just to be a part of this team, to be a part of Hendrick Motorsports. The thing that I think about the most is so many guys on our team have been there for so many years with Chad [Knaus] and with Jimmie [Johnson], and we learned from the best. We learned from those guys. Obviously, the last two, three years, just as a company, we were down a little bit. It was easy to get down as a team. It was easy for me to get down. It was easy for the guys to get down. For them to dig so hard all year long, to dig so hard today, because we were not the best car at times today. And then, for our pit crew to have a money stop on the money stop, I couldn’t be more thankful. I could not be more proud of those guys…They were ready.”
Truex, who initially had the race and the championship within his grasp until the late caution, concluded the season in second place on the track and in the standings for the third time in the previous four seasons. The runner-up result was one that left Truex disappointed in a season where he achieved four victories, 13 top-five results, 20 top-10 results and an overall average-finishing result of 12.0.
Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“The clean air seemed to be a good bit of an advantage,” Truex said. “Whoever got out front was good for 20, 30, 40 laps, and then the long run cars would start coming around. I don’t know. Ultimately we needed to beat [Larson] off pit road. It’s unfortunate, but we win and lose as a team. And really proud of our efforts this year. That’s three times we’ve been second and that sucks. Second hurts I’m not going to lie, especially with the car we had and the job the guys did. That’s racing, as they say, and sometimes you’re just not on the right end of things. We were on the right end to things to get the lead there and weren’t able to hold on to it. If we could have had the lead, I think it would have been over, but that’s kind of how [Larson] did it, too. So, they had a hell of a season and congrats to them. Gosh, second sucks. I hate it.”
Teammate Hamlin, who was starting to catch Larson and Truex in the closing laps, settled in third place on the track and in the standings as his bid to win his first Cup title in his 16th full-time season highlighted with two postseason victories, 19 top-five results, 25 top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 8.4 fell short.
Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“Yeah, certainly, I really liked where we were at with about 25 [laps] to go,” Hamlin said. “We were just exceptional in the long run, which wasn’t too surprising, but started running [Truex] back down there and got within a couple car lengths and obviously that debris caution changed a lot. Special congrats to Larson and his team. Those guys, any time you can win 10 races in a year, you’re absolutely a deserving champion. They did a great job on the last pit stop and got him out there, and it was just set sail after that. Proud of my team. Really great effort adjusting on the car all day, getting it so much better, and thank our partners. Just a really good year. A really, really good year and things just didn’t pan out. We needed that thing to go green those last 25 laps, and it didn’t.”
Meanwhile, Elliott, who was overtaken by Blaney on the track, ended up in fifth place in the final leaderboard and in the final standings as he came up short in defending his series title. Despite the result, Elliott kept his head high in a season where he notched two victories, 15 top-five results, 21 top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 11.4.
Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“I felt like our NAPA Chevy was really good and I thought our team did a really good job preparing this week,” Elliott said. “I was really proud of our group. I thought we brought a really good car and did a lot of things that we were wanting it to do today. Just didn’t work out and the sequence of the way all that went certainly was unfortunate for us, but look, proud of our team, a lot to build on and also, congrats to Kyle and Cliff. What an amazing season. Very, very deserving champions and glad to see Kyle have success. When you’re a good driver and a good person and you surround yourself with good people, success is warranted. It’s good to see that. But we’ll be back stronger next year and try to give them a run.”
Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Christopher Bell and Brad Keselowski completed the top 10 on the track.
Austin Dillon, who finished 15th in the finale, emerged as the highest non-Playoff contender in the final standings in 17th place.
Despite finishing in 35th place following his accident, Chase Briscoe captured the 2021 Cup Rookie-of-the-Year title over Anthony Alfredo. With his accomplishment, Briscoe, who earned three top-10 results in his first full-time Cup season, became the third competitor to capture the rookie title across NASCAR’s top three national touring series (Cup, Xfinity and Truck).
Brad Keselowski finished 10th in his 435th and final run in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford Mustang while Todd Gordon, crew chief for Ryan Blaney, called his 526th and final race as a crew chief between the Xfinity and Cup Series before retiring.
Ross Chastain and Kurt Busch finished 14th and 16th in Chip Ganassi Racing’s final race and season in NASCAR as the team’s assets will be transferred over to Trackhouse Racing, which will be expanding to two cars and welcome Chastain as a teammate alongside Daniel Suarez, for the 2022 season.
Ryan Newman finished 23rd in his 725th career start in the Cup circuit as he has yet to announce his plans for the 2022 season.
Matt DiBenedetto finished 12th in his 72nd and final run with the Wood Brothers Racing team, Ryan Preece finished 20th in his 108th and final run with JTG-Daugherty Racing and Justin Haley finished 26th in his 34th and final run with Spire Motorsports.
Meanwhile, 23XI Racing settled in 21st place in the final standings and as the highest of the new teams over Trackhouse Racing (25th) and Live Fast Motorsports (32nd). The team will be expanding to two cars next season with Bubba Wallace and Kurt Busch set to drive for the team in 2022.
The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season was the ninth and final season for the current Generation 6 stock cars, thus paving the way for the new NextGen stock cars that will debut in NASCAR competition in February 2022. It was also the final season where the five lug nut pattern was implemented on the tires for the cars as the series will have a single, center-locked lug nut for the wheels next season.
There were 18 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 51 laps.
Results:
1. Kyle Larson, 107 laps led, Stage 2 winner
2. Martin Truex Jr.,72 laps led, Stage 1 winner
3. Denny Hamlin
4. Ryan Blaney, 33 laps led
5. Chase Elliott, 94 laps led
6. Aric Almirola
7. Kyle Busch
8. Kevin Harvick, one lap led
9. Christopher Bell
10. Brad Keselowski
11. Joey Logano
12. Matt DiBenedetto
13. Cole Custer
14. Ross Chastain
15. Austin Dillon
16. Kurt Busch, one lap led
17. William Byron
18. Alex Bowman
19. Tyler Reddick, four laps led
20. Ryan Preece
21. Daniel Suarez
22. Erik Jones
23. Ryan Newman
24. Michael McDowell
25. Chris Buescher, one lap down
26. Justin Haley, two laps down
27. BJ McLeod, three laps down
28. Cody Ware, six laps down
29. Joey Gase, nine laps down
30. Josh Bilicki, nine laps down
31. Garrett Smithley, 11 laps down
32. Corey LaJoie, 31 laps down
33. David Starr – OUT, Brakes
34. Anthony Alfredo – OUT, Accident
35. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Accident
36. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Accident
37. Quin Houff – OUT, Accident
38. Timmy Hill – OUT, Handling
39. Bubba Wallace – OUT, Accident
Final standings.
1. Kyle Larson
2. Martin Truex Jr.
3. Denny Hamlin
4. Chase Elliott
5. Kevin Harvick
6. Brad Keselowski
7. Ryan Blaney
8. Joey Logano
9. Kyle Busch
10. William Byron
11. Kurt Busch
12. Christopher Bell
13. Tyler Reddick
14. Alex Bowman
15. Aric Almirola
16. Michael McDowell
Bold indicates championship finale contenders.
With the 2021 season concluded, the NASCAR Cup Series competitors enter their off-season period before commencing the 2022 season with the inaugural Clash event at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which will occur on February 6 at 8 p.m. ET on FS1.
