A gusty call to pit for four fresh tires under caution with less than 10 laps remaining before bolting his way to the front through two late-race restarts netted Grant Enfinger a big victory in the TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park on Friday, July 29.
The 37-year-old Enfinger from Fairhope, Alabama, led four times for 13 of 207 over-scheduled laps and utilized four fresh tires to overtake Zane Smith during an overtime attempt to capture his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory of the season and to become the first Playoff contender to transfer from the Round of 10 to 8.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup on Friday, Playoff contender John Hunter Nemechek started on pole position for the fifth time in 2022 after posting a pole-winning lap at 111.188 mph in 22.211 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Nemechek’s teammate and Playoff contender Chandler Smith, who won last weekend’s event at Pocono Raceway and won Friday’s ARCA Menards Series event earlier at IRP before he clocked in his best lap at 110.998 mph in 22.249 seconds.
Prior to the event, Chris Hacker and Josh Reaume dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective trucks.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Nemechek launched his No. 4 Yahoo! Toyota Tundra TRD Pro to the lead while Chandler Smith and Christian Eckes battled for the runner-up spot before the former retained the spot in front of the field.
As the field returned to the start/finish line to complete the first lap, Nemechek retained the top spot ahead of teammate Chandler Smith and Eckes while Grant Enfinger, Carson Hocevar and Corey Heim battled for spots within the top six.
By the fifth lap, Enfinger moved his No. 23 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet Silverado RST up to third followed by Hocevar while Eckes fell back to fifth in front of Stewart Friesen and Heim. Meanwhile, Nemechek remained as the leader by three-tenths of a second over Chandler Smith’s No. 18 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro.
Nearing the Lap 10 mark, the first caution of the event flew when Josh Reaume and Spencer Boyd wrecked in Turn 1, resulting in Reaume’s truck sustaining significant rear-end damage and Body’s truck bursting into flames. By then, Nemechek, who nearly lost the lead to teammate Chandler Smith, was back out in front followed by Enfinger, Hocevar and Friesen while Heim, Eckes, Ben Rhodes, Ty Majeski and Derek Kraus were in the top 10. In addition, Zane Smith, the 2022 Truck Series regular-season champion, was mired in 17th behind Austin Wayne Self while Matt Crafton was back in 22nd behind Chase Purdy.
Following an extensive caution period, the event restarted under green on Lap 20. At the start, Nemechek retained the top spot while Carson Hocevar made a bold move on the inside lane in an attempt to take the lead before he settled in third behind Chandler Smith. Behind, Enfinger and Stewart Friesen battled for fourth in front of Corey Heim and the field that fanned out to multiple lanes.
Through the first 25 scheduled laps, Nemechek was leading by two-tenths of a second over teammate Chandler Smith followed by Hocevar, Friesen and Enfinger while Heim, Ben Rhodes, Eckes, Kraus and Majeski were in the top 10.
Four laps later, the caution returned when Reaume, who was involved in the first caution with Spencer Boyd, spun in Turn 4. During the caution period, Matt Crafton pitted for adjustments to his No. 88 Menards Toyota Tundra TRD Pro along with Jesse Little and Blake Lothian while the rest of the field led by Nemechek remained on the track.
When the event proceeded under green on Lap 37, Nemechek retained the lead while Chandler Smith fended off Hocevar and Friesen to remain in second. As the field fanned out, Enfinger was in fifth followed by Heim, Rhodes, Majeski and Eckes while Zane Smith cracked the top 10.
At the Lap 50 mark, Nemechek continued to lead by more than a second over teammate Chandler Smith as the top-10 spots were occupied by Playoff contenders. The only Playoff competitor who was not in the top 10 was Crafton, who was mired in 24th.
When the first stage concluded on Lap 60, Nemechek captured his fourth stage victory of the season. Teammate Chandler Smith trailed in the runner-up spot while Hocevar, Friesen, Enfinger, Rhodes, Heim, Majeski, Zane Smith and Eckes were scored in the top 10. Crafton, meanwhile, was still mired in 24th.
Under the stage break, the leaders led by Nemechek pitted and teammate Chandler Smith emerged with the lead followed by Hocevar, Nemechek, Rhodes, Heim and Enfinger. Following the pit stops, Rhodes and Kris Wright were sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.
The second stage started on Lap 70 as Chandler Smith and Hocevar occupied the front row. At the start, Hocevar rocketed his No. 42 Premier Security Chevrolet Silverado RST to the lead on the inside lane in front of Chandler Smith as the field fanned out to multiple lanes around the circuit.
Three laps later, the caution returned when Blake Lothian came to a stop in Turn 1 as his night came to an end.
When the event restarted under green on Lap 80, Hocevar managed to retain the lead while on the inside lane as Enfinger challenged Chandler Smith for the runner-up spot in front of Nemechek. Behind, Tyler Ankrum was in fifth ahead of Heim, Kraus, Friesen, Eckes and Zane Smith.
By Lap 90, a heated side-by-side battle for the lead was occurring between Hocevar and Enfinger. While Enfinger gained a run and was strong through the turns, Hocevar managed to fend off Enfinger and retain the lead entering the straightaways. Meanwhile, third-place Nemechek trailed by less than a second while Chandler Smith and Ankrum were in the top five.
At the halfway mark on Lap 100, Hocevar was leading by a narrow margin over Enfinger while Nemechek, Chandler Smith, Ankrum, Friesen, Heim, Zane Smith, Majeski and Kraus were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Christian Eckes was in 11th, Rhodes was in 14th and Crafton was back in 17th behind Taylor Gray.
Five laps later, Enfinger persevered through his tight, endless battle against Hocevar by taking the lead through the backstretch and entering Turn 3. Another two laps later, the caution returned when Nemechek, who was closing in on Hocevar and teammate Chandler Smith for the runner-up spot, spun in Turn 2 after making contact with the lapped truck of Kris Wright. Despite spinning and coming to a stop in the middle of the track and in a cloud of smoke in Turn 2, Nemechek was dodged by the oncoming competitors led by Ankrum as he managed to continue without sustaining any significant damage.
During the caution period, most of the field led by Enfinger pitted while names that included Chandler Smith, Rhodes, Kaz Grala, Lawless Alan and Timmy Hill remained on the track as Smith reassumed the lead.
With six laps remaining in the second stage, the race restarted under green. At the start, Chandler Smith retained the lead on the inside lane ahead of Rhodes as the field fanned out entering the backstretch. Two laps later, however, Ty Majeski muscled his No. 66 Road Ranger Toyota Tundra TRD Pro to the lead on fresh tires followed by Enfinger, who quickly dispatched Chandler Smith on fresh tires. Another two laps later, Zane Smith and Chandler Smith made contact as Zane rubbed against Chandler’s No. 18 Toyota in Turn 1 with both making contact with the outside wall. Despite the contact, the race proceeded under green as Majeski remained as the leader.
When the second stage concluded on Lap 120 under caution after Dean Thompson spun in Turn 2, Majeski held off Enfinger to claim his second stage victory of the season. Enfinger settled in second followed by Rhodes, Hocevar, Zane Smith, Heim, Friesen, Chandler Smith, Ankrum and Colby Howard.
Under the stage break, Chandler Smith, Zane Smith, Rhodes, Lawless Alan, Kaz Grala, Austin Wayne Self, Johnny Sauter, Hailie Deegan, Timmy Hill and Jake Garcia pitted while the rest led by Majeski remained on the track.
With 72 laps remaining, the final stage commenced under green. At the start, Majeski fended off Enfinger to remain as the leader while Hocevar was in third ahead of Friesen, Ankrum, Nemechek and Heim while the field fanned out.
Following a debris caution reported in Turn 4 10 laps later, the race proceeded under green with 55 laps remaining. At the start, Majeski retained the lead by a narrow margin over Enfinger while Nemechek, Friesen and Ben Rhodes duked for fifth in front of Hocevar, Heim and Tyler Ankrum. Not long after, however, the caution returned when Lawless Alan, who was locked in a tight four-wide battle through the backstretch, got turned by Chase Purdy as he spun and made hard contact against the inside wall. In the midst of the carnage, Zane Smith sustained minimal damage to his No. 38 Boot Barn Ford F-150 after hitting Alan.
During the caution period, names like Zane Smith, Taylor Gray, Austin Wayne Self and Dean Thompson pitted while the rest led by Ty Majeski remained on the track.
With 42 laps remaining, the event restarted under green. At the start, Majeski and Enfinger dueled for the lead through Turn 1 as Nemechek also attempted to squeeze his way to the top spot. Despite the tight racing for the lead entering the backstretch, Majeski managed to clear Enfinger to remain as the leader while Nemechek settled back in third. Behind, Friesen was in fourth while Rhodes was in fifth in front of Hocevar.
Down to the final 30 laps of the event, Majeski was leading by more than one-and-a-half seconds over Enfinger followed by Nemechek, Friesen and Rhodes while Hocevar, Heim, Colby Howard, Ankrum and Matt DiBenedetto were in the top 10. By then, Zane Smith, Chandler Smith, Crafton and Eckes were in 14th, 15th, 17th and 21st, respectively.
Ten laps later, Majeski, who was carving his way through lapped traffic, extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Enfinger while Nemechek, Rhodes and Friesen remained in the top five.
Then with 12 laps remaining, Majeski, who was getting stalled by the lapped truck of Hailie Deegan and Blaine Perkins, was caught by Enfinger as Enfinger dueled and overtook Majeski for the lead a lap after as Nemechek started to close in while running in third place.
With 10 laps remaining, however, the caution flew when Colby Howard, who was having a strong run in eighth place, made contact with Hocevar entering Turn 4, which Hocevar repaid the favor by veering dead left and sending Howard’s No. 91 Gates Hydraulics Chevrolet Silverado RST backward into the outside wall. The incident prompted Howard to express his displeasure towards Hocevar after he exited his damaged truck.
During the caution period, the majority of the field led by Enfinger and Majeski pitted while names like Nemechek, Taylor Gray, Ankrum, Zane Smith, DiBenedetto, newcomer Layne Riggs, Johnny Sauter, Austin Wayne Self, Jesse Little and Chris Hacker remained on the track as Nemechek inherited the lead.
Down to a two-lap shootout to the finish, the race restarted under green. At the start, Taylor Gray managed to pull ahead of Nemechek and the field to take the lead entering the backstretch. Then entering Turn 4, Gray was hit by Nemechek as he spun his No. 17 David Gilliland Racing Ford F-150 across the outside wall, which prompted NASCAR to display the caution and send the event into overtime. At the moment of caution, Nemechek managed to retain the top spot followed by Zane Smith while Ankrum was in third ahead of Enfinger, Layne Riggs and DiBenedetto.
At the start of the first overtime attempt, Nemechek launched ahead on the outside lane entering the first two turns before he got forced into the outside wall by Zane Smith. With Nemechek falling below the leaderboard following his late scrape, Zane Smith assumed the top spot followed by a hard-charging Enfinger, who was on four fresh tires, as the field fanned out and jostled for late positions.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Enfinger was ahead by a nose over Zane Smith as Rhodes carved his way into third. Enfinger then managed to clear Zane Smith and the field through the first two turns and the backstretch to assume full authority. With no late challenges instigating behind and having four fresh tires to his advantage, Enfinger cycled his way back to the frontstretch and claimed the checkered flag by four-tenths of a second over Rhodes.
With the victory, Enfinger, who competed between ThorSport Racing and CR7 Motorsports a year ago before reuniting with GMS Racing as a full-time competitor this season, claimed his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win since winning at Martinsville Speedway in October and his seventh career win in the series. He also became the 13th overall competitor to win a Truck event at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park as he recorded the first victory of the season for GMS Racing and the third for the Chevrolet nameplate.
By winning the first event of the 2022 Truck Series Playoffs at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, Enfinger, who managed to secure a Playoff spot based on points a week ago at Pocono Raceway, also earned an automatic transfer spot to the Round of 8 as he continues his pursuit to win his first NASCAR national touring series championship.
“We’re finally moving forward at all,” Enfinger said on FS1. “This is the first laps we’ve led since Atlanta or something. Terrible off-season. Not because of these [pit] guys behind me, but we’ve just been off a little bit as an organization. [I] Can’t say thank you enough to [GMS Racing president] Mike Beam, [owner] Maury Gallagher, Ron Booth, everybody at GMS Fabrication and everybody on this No. 23 team. We’ve been working so hard because we’ve been sucking. It hurts to say it, but we’ve had a terrible season to this point. We had a great No. 23 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet all day. [I] Felt like every time I got the lead, the caution come out. It put [crew chief Jeff] Hensley in a bad spot. I knew from experience, just trust his gut. It’s a pretty special night. Definitely very, very thankful.”
During his victory celebration, Enfinger credited the late gusty pit call made by his veteran crew chief Jeff Hensley, who reunited with Enfinger at GMS Racing in late June. Both Enfinger and Hensley worked together at ThorSport Racing from 2017 to 2020.
“Four years and we’ve ridden the roller coaster together,” Enfinger added. “We’ve been in the lows. We missed the Playoffs our first year together and we haven’t missed it since then. We’ve had some success together. He’s a racer. I’m a racer. Neither one of us are very smart, but we put it together tonight.”
Rhodes came home in second place in front of Zane Smith while Friesen and Heim finished in the top five. Ankrum finished in sixth in front of newcomer Layne Riggs while Majeski, who was initially in a position to win his first NASCAR race, settled in eighth. Crafton rallied to finish ninth while Nemechek, who led a race-high 75 laps and ended up in the wall while leading, fell back to 10th place.
Notably, Playoff contenders Christian Eckes, Chandler Smith and Carson Hocevar finished 16th, 18th and 21st, respectively.
The Truck Series’ return to Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park since 2011 featured 12 lead changes for six different leaders. The race also featured 10 cautions for 78 laps.
Results.
1. Grant Enfinger, 13 laps led
2. Ben Rhodes
3. Zane Smith
4. Stewart Friesen
5. Corey Heim
6. Tyler Ankrum
7. Layne Riggs
8. Ty Majeski, 71 laps led, Stage 2 winner
9. Matt Crafton
10. John Hunter Nemechek, 75 laps led, Stage 1 winner
11. Matt DiBenedetto
12. Johnny Sauter
13. Hailie Deegan
14. Derek Kraus
15. Jesse Little
16. Christian Eckes
17. Timmy Hill
18. Chandler Smith, 13 laps led
19. Austin Wayne Self
20. Kaz Grala
21. Carson Hocevar, 34 laps led
22. Taylor Gray, one lap led
23. Tanner Gray
24. Chris Hacker
25. Jack Wood
26. Blaine Perkins
27. Chase Purdy, one lap down
28. Jake Garcia, one lap down
29. Dean Thompson, three laps down
30. Chad Chastain, three laps down
31. Kris Wright, three laps down
32. Colby Howard – OUT, Accident
33. Josh Reaume – OUT, Too slow
34. Lawless Alan – OUT, Accident
35. Blake Lothian – OUT, Driveshaft
36. Spencer Boyd – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates Playoff contenders.
Playoff standings
1. Grant Enfinger – Advanced
2. Zane Smith +50
3. Ben Rhodes +36
4. Stewart Friesen +28
5. John Hunter Nemechek +24
6. Chandler Smith +24
7. Ty Majeski +19
8. Carson Hocevar +7
9. Matt Crafton -7
10. Christian Eckes -7
With the 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoffs underway, the second Round of 10 events is scheduled to occur at Richmond Raceway on August 13. The event’s coverage is scheduled to occur at 8 p.m. ET on FS1.
This weekend the NASCAR Cup Series heads to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course for a tripleheader weekend of racing with the Xfinity Series and the NTT IndyCar Series.
The Camping World Truck Series Playoffs will take center stage Friday night at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in the TSport 200, preceded by the ARCA Menards Series Reese’s 200.
There are only five races remaining in the Cup Series regular season and 14 different drivers have already collected wins, leaving two available spots in the Playoffs. Ryan Blaney (+105 points) and Martin Truex Jr. (+85 points) are currently above the cutoff.
With seven races to go in the Xfinity Series regular season, there are five open spots in the Playoffs. Ty Gibbs (four wins), Justin Allgaier (three), Noah Gragson (three), AJ Allmendinger (two), Josh Berry (two), Austin Hill (two) and Brandon Jones (one) have each qualified for the Playoffs via wins.
Zane Smith, the regular season Truck Series champion begins the Playoffs with 2037 points, followed by Chandler Smith (2022), Ben Rhodes (2017) John Hunter Nemechek (2,016), Stewart Friesen (2,013), Christian Eckes (2,007), Ty Majeski (2,006), Carson Hocevar (2,005), Grant Enfinger (2,002) and Matt Crafton (2,001 points)
All times are Eastern.
Friday, July 29 – Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP)
10:35 a.m.: Truck Series Practice (All Entries) No TV 12:30 p.m.: ARCA Menards Series Practice – No TV 2:15 p.m.: ARCA Menards Series Qualifying (Impound – Single Vehicle/2Laps/All Entries) No TV 4:30 p.m.: Truck Series Qualifying (Impound – Single Vehicle/2Laps/All Entries) FS1
6 p.m.: ARCA Menard Series Reese’s 200 – FS1/MRN
9 p.m.: Truck Series TSport 200 Distance: 137.2 miles (200 Laps) Stage 1 ends Lap 60, Stage 2 ends Lap 120, Final Stage ends Lap 200 FS1/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Purse: $622,754
Friday, July 29 – Indianapolis Road Course
3:05 p.m.: Xfinity Series Practice (All Entries) USA 3:35 p.m.: Xfinity Series Qualifying (Impound – Groups A & B/Multi-Vehicle/Two Rounds) USA
Saturday, July 30 – Indianapolis Road Course
9:35 a.m.: Cup Series Practice (Groups A & B) USA 10:35 a.m.: Cup Series Qualifying (Impound) (Groups A & B/Multi-Vehicle/Two Rounds) USA
3:30 p.m.: Xfinity Series Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard Distance: 151.22 miles (62 Laps) Stage 1 ends Lap 20, Stage 2 ends Lap 40, Final Stage ends Lap 62 NBC/Peacock/IMS Radio/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Purse: $1,750,651
Sunday, July 31 – Indianapolis Road Course
2:30 p.m.: Cup Series Verizon 200 at the Brickyard Distance: 199.998 miles (82 Laps) Stage 1 ends Lap 15, Stage 2 ends Lap 35, Final Stage ends Lap 82 NBC/IMS Radio/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Purse: $8,671,417
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.
In a racing career highlighted with numerous heartbreaks and “what-ifs” moments, Daniel Hemric defied the odds and silenced his doubters by capturing two firsts following the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, November 6: first win and first championship.
Following an overtime finish for the ages, Hemric, a 30-year-old native from Kannapolis, North Carolina, dueled and rubbed fenders against the reigning series champion Austin Cindric on the final lap and final corner to come out on top by a fender and achieve both his first elusive NASCAR Xfinity Series race win and the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship.
The championship occurred in Hemric’s 208th NASCAR national touring series start (120th in the Xfinity Series) and following 10 runner-up results in the Xfinity circuit while competing for three different teams, including this season with Joe Gibbs Racing.
Qualifying occurred on Saturday, November 6, to determine the starting lineup and Austin Cindric, the reigning series champion, started on pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 131.902 mph. John Hunter Nemechek, piloting the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Supra, qualified alongside Cindric on the front row.
With Cindric starting as the highest of four Xfinity competitors vying for this year’s title, Daniel Hemric started fourth, Noah Gragson qualified sixth and AJ Allmendinger lined up in 12th.
Prior to the event, Harrison Burton dropped to the rear of the field due to multiple inspection failures. JJ Yeley also started at the rear of the field in a backup car after spinning in practice along with David Starr, who dropped back due to unapproved adjustments to his car.
When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Cindric and Nemechek dueled for the lead through the dogleg, the frontstretch and for a full lap before Nemechek was able to power through and lead the first lap.
As the field fanned out and jostled early for positions, Cindric was in second behind Nemechek followed by Hemric, Justin Allgaier, Brandon Jones and Gragson. Allmendinger, meanwhile, was in the top 12.
Through the first 10 laps of the finale, Nemechek was leading by nearly four-tenths of a second over Cindric, who was the highest-running title contender on the track. Hemric settled in third followed by Allgaier, Gragson, Haley, Brandon Jones, Riley Herbst, Allmendinger and Michael Annett. Jeb Burton was in 11th, Sam Mayer was in 13th ahead of Myatt Snider and Ryan Sieg, Brandon Brown was in 16th and Harrison Burton was battling for a top-20 spot.
Ten laps later, Cindric made a strong move beneath Nemechek through the frontstretch and the dogleg to take the lead for the first time, though Nemechek kept Cindric’s No. 22 CarShop Ford Mustang within his sights. Hemric remained in third place on the track ahead of Allgaier, Gragson settled in fifth and Allmendinger was mired in 10th behind Annett.
Another 10 laps later, Cindric, who navigated his way through lapped traffic, continued to lead by more than seven-tenths of a second over Nemechek’s No. 54 Mobil 1 Toyota Supra. Hemric stabilized himself in third place, but his No. 18 Poppy Bank Toyota Supra trailed the two leaders by nearly two seconds as he also had Allgaier closing in for position. Gragson continued to run in fifth while Allmendinger was up in ninth.
When the first stage concluded on Lap 45, Cindric received the early upper hand in his bid to defend his series title as he captured his season-high 13th stage victory of the season. Behind, Hemric edged teammate Nemechek to settle in second followed by Allgaier, Gragson, Brandon Jones, Allmendinger, Annett, Herbst and Haley.
Under the stage break, the leaders pitted for adjustments and Hemric emerged with the lead following a stellar work from his pit crew that enabled him to exit pit road with the top spot. Cindric exited in second followed by Jones, Gragson, Allgaier, Nemechek and Allmendinger.
The second stage started on Lap 52 as Hemric and Gragson occupied the front row followed by Jones, Cindric, Allmendinger and Allgaier. At the start, Hemric rocketed away with the lead as the field fanned out to multiple lanes through the frontstretch and the dogleg.
The following lap, Cindric muscled his way back to second as Allgaier challenged teammate Gragson for third along with Nemechek.
Nearing the Lap 60 mark, the caution flew due to an on-track incident and long spin for Jeffrey Earnhardt on the backstretch as the incident also involved Joe Graf Jr. and Kyle Weatherman. At the time of caution, Hemric was leading by nearly three-tenths of a second over Cindric. In addition, Allgaier and Nemechek, both of whom were battling for third place, had made on-track contact twice towards the frontstretch in front of Gragson while Allmendinger was in sixth ahead of teammate Justin Haley.
On Lap 65, the race restarted under green as Hemric and Allgaier occupied the front row. At the start, Hemric and Allgaier dueled for the lead as the field again fanned out through the frontstretch. Through the backstretch, however, Hemric was able to clear Allgaier to retain the top spot until Nemechek, who gained a strong run entering the frontstretch, muscled his way back to the top spot the following lap.
With Nemechek leading teammate Hemric, Allgaier retained third ahead of Cindric while Allmendinger and Gragson battled for fifth.
Through the first 75 laps of the event, Nemechek was leading by nearly a second over teammate Hemric and Cindric. Teammates Allgaier and Gragson were in the top five followed by Allmendinger, Haley, Jeb Burton, Annett and Harrison Burton, who methodically worked his way from the rear of the field.
Five laps later, Nemechek extended his advantage to more than a second while Hemric and Cindric challenged one another for the runner-up spot and for the championship lead.
With four laps remaining in the second stage, Hemric, who managed to cut his deficit to Nemechek amid lapped traffic, overtook teammate Nemechek entering the frontstretch to reassume the lead.
When the second stage concluded on Lap 90, Hemric echoed his challenge for his first NASCAR national touring series title against his fellow competitors by capturing his 10th stage victory of the season. Cindric managed to overtake Nemechek to move into second followed by Allgaier, Gragson, Allmendinger, Haley, Harrison Burton, Annett and Herbst.
Under the stage break, the leaders returned to pit road and Hemric retained the lead following another strong service from his crew followed by Cindric, Nemechek, Allgaier, Allmendinger and Harrison Burton while Gragson, who dodged an uncontrolled tire pit road penalty, dropped to 10th.
With 103 laps remaining, the final stage started under green. At the start, the field fanned out to multiple lanes through the frontstretch and through the first turn. Amid the start, Hemric retained the lead ahead of Cindric, Nemechek, Allmendinger, Harrison Burton and Allgaier.
The following lap, the caution returned due to a hard accident involving Joe Graf Jr. in Turn 1 after making contact with Sage Karam.
Under the final 93 laps of the finale, the field restarted under green. At the start and with the field again fanning out through the frontstretch, Hemric dueled and managed to fend off Nemechek to retain the lead ahead of a steaming pack of cars.
During the following lap, however, the caution returned when Sage Karam made contact with Matt Mills, which sent Mills into the Turn 1 outside wall and with right-side damage.
Under caution, Gragson pitted his No. 9 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro for a chassis adjustment while the rest led by Hemric remained on the track.
With 87 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Hemric retained the lead by a narrow margin over Cindric and Nemechek as Harrison Burton made his way up to fourth ahead of Allgaier.
Two laps later, Cindric made a bold move beneath Hemric entering the frontstretch and nearly slid in front of Hemric’s No. 18 Toyota to take the lead. Behind, Harrison Burton challenged Nemechek and Allgaier for third while Allmendinger was battling teammate Haley and Annett for sixth.
With approximately 75 laps remaining, the caution returned due to possible fluid on the track when the No. 99 Chevrolet Camaro driven by Stefan Parsons erupted in flames past the start/finish line as he parked his car on the dogleg in the frontstretch. At the time of the caution, Cindric was leading by a reasonable margin over Hemric, Nemechek, Allgaier and Harrison Burton.
Under caution, the leaders returned to pit road and Cindric retained the lead following a strong service from his pit crew ahead of Nemechek, Allgaier, Allmendinger and Hemric.
With 66 laps remaining, the race restarted under green as Cindric and Allgaier occupied the front row. At the start, Allgaier pulled ahead on the inside lane in front of Cindric and the field.
Not long after, the caution returned when Jade Buford spun in Turn 2. Then, Allgaier, the leader, was penalized for dropping below the apron and the yellow line prior to crossing the start/finish line during the previous restart. Allgaier’s penalty moved Cindric back to the lead ahead of Hemric. In the midst of the restart, Gragson, who restarted 13th, was up to seventh.
Down to the final 60 laps of the finale, the field restarted under green as Cindric and Nemechek occupied the front row. At the start, Cindric retained the lead while Hemric moved up to second after Allmendinger made contact with Nemechek entering the first turn. Behind, Gragson challenged Harrison Burton and Allmendinger for fourth as Jeb Burton joined the party.
Ten laps later, Cindric continued to lead by more than a second over Nemechek and Hemric, both of whom were battling for the runner-up spot before the former prevailed. Gragson was in fifth behind Harrison Burton while Allmendinger was in sixth.
With 40 laps remaining, Cindric stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Nemechek while third-place Hemric kept the two leaders within his sights as close as possible. Behind, Gragson was up in fourth ahead of Harrison Burton while Allmendinger was mired back in sixth, trailing the lead by more than five seconds.
Under the final 30 laps of the finale, Cindric increased his advantage to nearly two seconds over Nemechek. Hemric trailed by more than two seconds while Gragson and Allmendinger remained in fourth and sixth.
Down to the final 24 laps of the finale, Hemric’s charge for the championship began as he overtook teammate Nemechek for second place. By then, Cindric continued to lead amid lapped traffic, but was only approximately two seconds ahead.
Then with 19 laps remaining, the caution flew when Allmendinger, who was in sixth and trying to pit under green amid vibration issues, spun his No. 16 Hyperice Chevrolet Camaro below the Turn 2 apron and near the pit road entrance. The caution all but erased Cindric’s advantage over Hemric, Nemechek and the field.
Under caution, the leaders pitted and Cindric retained the lead following another stellar service from his pit crew. Hemric exited in second followed by Gragson, Harrison Burton, Nemechek and Haley.
Down to the final 13 laps of the finale, the field restarted under green. At the start and with the field fanning out through the dogleg, Cindric dueled against Hemric while Gragson challenged behind. Through the first two turns and the backstretch, Cindric, who had Gragson trailing behind him, managed to fend off Hemric on the outside lane to retain the lead back to the frontstretch and past the start/finish line. Just then, the caution flew when Jeb Burton, who was in a three-wide battle, spun following contact with Sheldon Creed in Turn 3, which drew the caution as Burton continued without sustaining any serious damage.
With eight laps remaining, the field restarted under green. At the start and with the field again fanning out through the dogleg, Hemric dueled against Cindric trough the first two turns followed by Gragson, but Cindric managed to clear Hemric through the backstretch.
The following lap, Gragson, who tried to narrow the gap between himself and his two title rivals, slid up and hit the Turn 1 outside wall. Though he continued to run under power, he was losing spots on the track and losing ground towards his championship bid. Meanwhile, Hemric started to launch an attack beneath Cindric for the lead through Turns 3 and 4.
Just then, the caution returned when Buford and Josh Williams wrecked in Turn 3. The wreck was enough to send the finale into overtime.
In overtime, Cindric and Hemric again dueled for the lead through the first two turns ahead of the field. Remaining side-by-side through the backstretch, Hemric wiggled slightly underneath Cindric entering Turn 3 and barely clipped Cindric, but both continued running straight approach the frontstretch.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Cindric was still leading by a narrow margin over Hemric as Harrison Burton tried to spoil the battle.
Entering the first turn, Cindric had Hemric cleared for the top spot. Hemric then tried to draw himself alongside Cindric entering the backstretch, but Cindric fought back on the outside lane and Hemric chose to settle behind Cindric through the straightaway. Then on the final corner, Hemric sent his No. 18 Toyota as hard as he could to the inside lane and managed to move Cindric up the track entering Turn 4. As both competitors dueled and rubbed fenders coming to the finish line, Hemric managed to pull ahead and beat Cindric by 0.030 seconds to win the race and the championship.
With his accomplishment, Hemric became the 31st different competitor to achieve an Xfinity Series championship, the third to do so while driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, the third to do so while driving a Toyota and the 170th different competitor to win an Xfinity race. In addition to becoming the sixth first-time Xfinity winner of 2021, Hemric became the first competitor to record a first career race win and series championship in the same event. The win and the championship occurred in Hemric’s final ride with Joe Gibbs Racing as he will be moving to Kaulig Racing and attempt to defend his series title in 2022.
The Xfinity championship was also the first for veteran crew chief Dave Rogers, who kept Hemric poised and composed to attack late for the win and the title.
Ironically, Hemric and his No. 18 JGR Toyota team rallied from an early scare to the weekend, where his primary hauler that was transporting his car broke down while commuting to Phoenix and had to be transported on an alternate hauler. The hauler was able to arrive with the car as Hemric was able to hit the track for the series’ lone Xfinity practice session on Friday, November 5.
Upon claiming his championship flag and performing a long victorious burnout, Hemric capped off his long-awaited first win in NASCAR by performing a victorious backflip in front of his crew and the Phoenix fans.
Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“[I] Lost my breath! Unbelievable!” Hemric said on NBCSN. “These guys right here, they’ve been asking me all year, ‘How bad do you want it?’ I gave [the win] away here [at Phoenix] in the spring. [I] Felt like we had to give one up last week to get here. We were not going to be denied. Thank you, Dave Rogers, Bill and Cindy Gallaher, everyone at Poppy Bank, Lou Gallaher, Jr., I’m talking to you. Man, they took a chance on me. 2015, some form or fashion. They stuck with me through times. They probably shouldn’t have, to be honest with you. How about those race fans? That backflip good enough for you? I’ve been waiting a long damn time to do that. Thank you Joe Gibbs, everyone at [Toyota Racing Development], Toyota…Everyone here that makes this program what it is. I know I’ve given up a lot. People doubted me. I’ll do it all over again for a night like this. I’m blacked out. Just knew I had to be the first one to the [finish] line…This is what it’s all about. Winning at the second-highest level in all of motorsports. What an honor. Unbelievable! I’ll do it all over again. I’ll take all the heartbreaks again to live this right here. That’s the greatest feeling in the world.”
While on the championship stage and hoisting the trophy, Hemric took a moment to evoke a powerful message about perseverance and emerging victorious amid the struggles in life.
“[This championship] ain’t for all those kids about racing trying to get to a level,” Hemric said. “It’s about people in life. It’s about coming from nothing and making yourself all that you work for. That’s what it’s all about. This is the American dream. I’m living a history of it, living proof of it. Un-be-lievable.”
Cindric, who was trying to become the eighth different competitor to achieve back-to-back Xfinity titles, settled in second place in a season highlighted with five victories and his last in the series as a full-time competitor, where he will be moving up to the NASCAR Cup Series to pilot the No. 2 Ford Mustang for Team Penske in 2022. Despite the result, Cindric, who managed to wrap up the sixth Xfinity Series owner’s title for team owner Roger Penske, kept his head high over the late battle for the driver’s title.
“If everyone in the stands enjoyed it, it’s good racing,” Cindric said. “I’m very appreciative of the opportunity to race on such a big stage, the opportunity to race for Roger Penske, to represent Ford Performance, our companies and all of our sponsors that have helped us this season. It would’ve been awesome to finish this out. I felt like we had a dominant race car. I felt like we did everything right. Come up a little short. Sometimes, it’s like that way. Unfortunately, at the end of both seasonal championships [regular and season] this year, I’m getting moved out of the way and doored, but that’s hard racing. That’s why everyone enjoys watching this series. It’s because there’s a lot on the line. Thankful for the opportunity and pissed to be second for like the third week in a row.”‘
Gragson, meanwhile, never recovered following his late contact into the wall and slipped back to 12th place in the final running order, which left him in a career-best third-place result in the final standings and in a season where he captured three victories. During his post-race interview, Gragson gave props to his crew chief Dave Elenz, who will be moving up to the NASCAR Cup Series in 2022, while the driver will be remaining as a full-time competitor for JR Motorsports for the upcoming season.
“Just disappointed,” Gragson said. “I’m not really sure what happened there on that second-to-last restart. I got just sideways off into [Turn] 1, like there’s oil down or something. I’m kind of mind-blown on what happened. [I] Hit the wall there running third. We rebounded really well, I thought, from pit road, mistake early on in the race. Everybody just dug deep, kept working hard. A lot of big adjustments. We didn’t have the car nearly where we wanted it to be all weekend, practice, qualifying. Those guys, they beat us tonight. Just not enough this weekend. We didn’t bring out best car. Just thankful, really thankful. We’ll go on next year.”
Like Gragson, Allmendinger, who struggled with pace throughout the finale, could not recover from his late spin and ended the season in 14th place on the track and with a career-best fourth-place result in the final standings. Despite the late misfortune during the finale, Allmendinger praised his team, Kaulig Racing, for the season-long performance that included five victories and the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series regular season championship. Like Hemric and Gragson, Allmendinger will be remaining in the Xfinity circuit with Kaulig in 2022.
“I just probably need to be a little better here [at Phoenix] as well to kind of lead us in a better direction,” Allmendinger said. “That’s part of growth here at Kaulig Racing. Of course, you’d like to have at least contended for [the championship]. Then I thought at worst, we’re gonna finish fifth or sixth. Then, the wheel was coming off on the right rear. I apologized to Austin [Cindric] because I think he had the race probably won. I don’t want to be a part of the storyline like that. I’d like to have been a better storyline, but part of the growth. Definitely not what we wanted today, tonight. We’ll come back strong. Thanks to all the men and women at Kaulig Racing, [owner] Matt Kaulig, [team president] Chris Rice for making this such a dream season. We kept making the Hyperice Chevy just a little bit better, but never really had the speed we needed to go run with [Cindric] or [Hemric]…We’ll come do this again next year.”
Harrison Burton, who made his final start with Joe Gibbs Racing before moving up to the Cup circuit to drive for the Wood Brothers Racing team, finished third on the track followed by Riley Herbst and Justin Haley. John Hunter Nemechek, Brandon Jones, Brett Moffitt, Justin Allgaier and Sheldon Creed completed the top 10 in the final running order.
Michael Annett finished 11th in his 436th and final NASCAR national touring series start before retiring from full-time competition.
Despite not competing in the Xfinity finale, Ty Gibbs earned the 2021 Xfinity Series Rookie-of-the-Year title in a season where he won his first four career races in 18 starts.
The 2021 Xfinity finale was the final race aired on NBCSN as USA Network will covering the majority of NASCAR Xfinity and Cup events during the second half of the 2022 season.
There were 16 lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured 10 cautions for 61 laps.
Results.
1. Daniel Hemric, 48 laps led, Stage 2 winner
2. Austin Cindric, 113 laps, Stage 1 winner
3. Harrison Burton
4. Riley Herbst
5. Justin Haley
6. John Hunter Nemechek, 39 laps led
7. Brandon Jones
8. Brett Moffitt
9. Justin Allgaier
10. Sheldon Creed
11. Michael Annett, one lap led
12. Noah Gragson, three laps led
13. Sam Mayer
14. AJ Allmendinger
15. Dylan Lupton
16. Blaine Perkins
17. Ryan Sieg
18. Jeremy Clements
19. Myatt Snider
20. Brandon Brown
21. David Starr
22. JJ Yeley
23. Jeb Burton
24. Tommy Joe Martins
25. Sage Karaam
26. Kyle Weatherman
27. Kyle Sieg
28. Ryan Vargas
29. Matt Mills
30. Alex Labbe, two laps down
31. Bayley Currey, four laps down
32. Josh Williams – OUT, Accident
33. Jade Buford – OUT, Accident
34. Stefan Parsons – OUT, Engine
35. Joe Graf Jr. – OUT, Accident
36. Jeffrey Earnhardt – OUT, Accident
Bold indicates championship finale contenders.
Final standings.
1. Daniel Hemric
2. Austin Cindric
3. Noah Gragson
4. AJ Allmendinger
5. Justin Allgaier
6. Justin Haley
7. Brandon Jones
8. Harrison Burton
9. Myatt Snider
10. Jeb Burton
11. Riley Herbst
12. Jeremy Clements
The NASCAR Xfinity Series’ teams and competitors enters its off-season period before returning to action at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, February 19, to commence the 2022 season. The event is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. ET on FS1.
The conclusion of the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, October 31, saw several competitors left with wrecked race cars and some expressing ill feelings towards others. Among those included several Playoff contenders fighting to remain in contention for the Championship 4 finale and the race winner, who had nothing to lose.
In the midst of the carnage and late chaos, Alex Bowman rallied from a late dust-up with Denny Hamlin to hold off Kyle Busch and claim his first triumph at Martinsville. The Tucson, Arizona, native served as the spoiler on a day where the Championship 4 field was set for next weekend’s finale at Phoenix Raceway.
The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. With that, Kyle Larson, winner of the last three Cup scheduled events in the Playoffs, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Chase Elliott, Larson’s teammate and the reigning Cup Series champion.
Prior to the event, Denny Hamlin, one of the remaining eight Playoff contenders who was scheduled to start in third place, dropped to the rear of the field after his No. 11 FedEx Toyota failed pre-race inspection twice.
When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Larson, who started on the outside lane, jumped ahead with an early advantage and cleared teammate Elliott for the top spot through the first two turns. As he led the first lap, Truex also moved up to second, dropping Elliott to third in front of Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch.
Through the first 10 laps of the event, Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE was out in front by eight-tenths of a second over Truex’s No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry while Elliott, Keselowski and Logano were in the top five. Kyle Busch was in sixth followed by Logano, Kurt Busch, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell and Kevin Harvick. By then, Hamlin was in 29th behind Ryan Newman.
Ten laps later, Larson, who started to encounter lapped traffic, extended his advantage to more than a second over Truex, who had Elliott pressuring him for the runner-up spot. Playoff contenders Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Logano and Blaney were all still in the top 10 while Hamlin was preparing to move into the top 25.
Another 10 laps later, Larson continued to lead by more than a second over Truex and Elliott. With seven of the eight remaining Playoff contenders running first through seventh, Hamlin was mired in 25th behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Matt DiBenedetto.
By Lap 40, Larson was in heavy traffic despite leading by more than a second. Meanwhile, teammate Elliott overtook Truex for second place while Hamlin was still mired outside the top 20 in 23rd behind Cole Custer and within Larson’s sights of being lapped.
Through the first 50 laps of the event, Larson had his advantage decreased to less than half a second amid lapped traffic and with teammate Elliott catching him. While Truex, Keselowski and Kyle Busch were in the top five, Hamlin was in 21st behind Erik Jones. Logano was in sixth and teammate Blaney was in ninth.
Six laps later, Elliott muscled his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE to the lead after overtaking teammate Larson through Turns 3 and 4.
When the competition caution flew on Lap 60, Elliott retained the lead ahead of teammate Larson and Truex while Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Logano, William Byron, Alex Bowman, Blaney and Austin Dillon were in the top 10. By then, Hamlin, who remained on the lead lap, was in 20th behind Erik Jones. In addition, only 22 of 38 competitors were on the lead lap.
Under the competition caution, the leaders pitted and Larson reassumed the lead after exiting his pit stall in first place ahead of teammate Elliott, Truex, Keselowski, Logano and Kyle Busch. Following the pit stops, Hamlin was penalized for speeding on pit road and sent to the rear of the field once again.
Seven laps later, the race restarted under green. At the start, Larson received another strong start on the outside lane to retain the lead through the first two turns and coming back to the start/finish line. Behind, Elliott battled Keselowski for second while Truex battled Byron for fourth. Soon after, Elliott cleared the field to retain second while Truex went to work on Keselowski for third. The following lap, Truex cleared Keselowski to retain third while Logano challenged Byron for fifth.
Just past the Lap 70 mark, the caution returned when Daniel Suarez made contact with Ryan Newman, sending Newman spinning in Turn 4 as he collected Michael McDowell while Hamlin carved his way through the incident.
On Lap 76, the race restarted under green. At the start, Larson again rocketed ahead with a strong start on the outside lane before moving back to the inside lane. Behind, Elliott retained second while Truex challenged Keselowski for third.
A few laps later, Keselowski dropped to fifth as Truex and William Byron moved up the leaderboard. While Kyle Busch and Blaney were in eighth and ninth, Hamlin was in 21st behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
On Lap 85, Elliott returned to the lead after overtaking teammate Larson for the top spot.
By Lap 90, Elliott was leading by eight-tenths of a second over teammate Larson while Truex, Byron and Keselowski remained in the top five. Kyle Busch, Logano and Blaney were in sixth, seventh and eighth while Hamlin was in 20th behind Erik Jones.
A few laps later, Blaney made contact with Austin Dillon entering the frontstretch and while battling in the top 10, which resulted with the left-rear fender of Blaney’s No. 12 Menards/Richmond Ford Mustang sustaining cosmetic damage near the fuel cell.
Through the first 100 laps of the event, Elliott was leading by nearly six-tenths of a second over teammate Larson while Truex, Byron and Keselowski were in the top five. Kyle Busch and Logano were in sixth and seventh while Blaney, who was struggling with he left-rear damage, was back in 11th behind Austin Dillon, Alex Bowman and Christopher Bell. Meanwhile, Hamlin was in 16th behind Kevin Harvick, Bubba Wallace and Stenhouse.
Twenty laps later, Elliott, who was surrounded in lapped traffic, continued to lead by half a second over teammate Larson while Truex, Byron, Keselowski and Kyle Busch were in the top six. Logano was in eighth, Blaney was in 12th and Hamlin was in 14th behind Harvick.
When the first stage concluded on Lap 130, Elliott claimed his fifth stage victory of the season. Teammate Larson settled in second followed by Truex, Byron, Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Bowman, Logano and Aric Almirola. Blaney was in 12th behind Bell and Hamlin remained in 14th behind Harvick.
Under the stage break, the leaders returned to pit road and upon exiting the pits, Larson reassumed the lead followed by teammate Elliott, Truex, Kyle Busch, Keselowski and Byron. However, early disaster struck for Larson, who was busted for speeding on pit road and sent to the rear of the field.
The second stage started on Lap 140 as Elliott and Truex occupied the front row. At the start, Elliott retained the lead over Truex through the first two turns as Kyle Busch battled Keselowski for third.
A few laps later, Keselowski, who was mired on the outside lane, settled in sixth in between Bell and teammate Logano as Elliott led a long single-file line around the circuit.
By Lap 150, Elliott continued to lead by nearly four-tenths of a second over Truex while Kyle Busch, Byron and Bell were in the top five. Keselowski settled in sixth ahead of Bowman, Logano, Harvick and Almirola. Behind, Hamlin was in 11th in front of Bubba Wallace, Blaney was in 18th in between Tyler Reddick and rookie Chase Briscoe, and Larson was in 21st behind Austin Dillon.
Ten laps later, Elliott stabilized his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Truex while Byron was up in third. By then, Hamlin cracked the top 10 in 10th while Logano was back in 12th. In addition, Larson was back up in the top 20 while Blaney was still mired in 18th.
Another 15 laps later, Elliott continued to lead by more than a second over Truex while Byron, Bowman and Kyle Busch were in the top five. Keselowski was in seventh, Hamlin was up in ninth, Logano was back in 13th, Larson was in 15th and Blaney was back in 19th.
Nearing the Lap 200 mark, the caution flew due to an incident involving Austin Dillon in Turn 2, where Dillon lost a right-front tire and smacked the outside wall. At the time of caution, Blaney, who was 19th, was just able to remain ahead of the race leader Elliott and on the lead lap.
Under caution, the leaders pitted and Truex emerged with the lead after exiting the pits in first followed by Elliott, Byron, Bowman and Kyle Busch. Following the event, Tyler Reddick was penalized for speeding on pit road.
When the race restarted on Lap 202, Truex briefly retained the lead through the first two turns until Elliott fought back entering Turn 3 on the outside lane. After remaining dead even through the frontstretch, past the start/finish line and entering the first turn, Elliott muscled his No. 9 Chevrolet back to the lead through the backstretch on Lap 205.
With Elliott leading, Truex retained second ahead of Byron while Kyle Busch was in fourth ahead of Bowman, Bell and Keselowski. Hamlin and Larson were in eighth and ninth while Logano was falling back in 17th ahead of teammate Blaney.
By Lap 225, Elliott was leading by more than a second over teammate Byron while Truex, Bowman and Kyle Busch were in the top five. Bell, Hamlin, Keselowski, Almirola and Larson were in the top 10 while Team Penske’s Blaney and Logano were mired back in 17th and 18th.
Fifteen laps later, three Hendrick Motorsports competitors (Elliott, Bowman and Byron) were leading three Joe Gibbs Racing competitors (Truex, Bell and Hamlin). Keselowski and Larson were in ninth and 11th, Kyle Busch was in eighth behind Aric Almiorla, Blaney was in 14th behind Chris Buescher and Logano was still mired in 18th behind Bubba Wallace and Erik Jones.
At the halfway mark on Lap 250, Elliott continued to lead by more than a second over teammate Bowman while third-place Byron trailed by more less than two seconds. Truex retained fourth while Hamlin cracked the top five in fifth ahead of teammate Bell. Almirola, Kyle Busch, Keselowski and Kurt Busch were in the top 10 while Larson, Blaney and Logano were in 11th, 14th and 18th.
When the second stage concluded on Lap 260, Elliott, who was mired in lapped traffic, captured his sixth stage victory of the season. Teammates Bowman and Byron settled in second and third followed by Truex and Hamlin while Bell, Almirola, Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch rounded out the top 10. Larson ended up 11th, Blaney was in 13th and Logano was mired in 18th. By then, half of the 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.
By virtue of capturing both stage victories of the event and accumulating maximum stage points, Elliott became the second competitor to clinch a spot in the Championship 4 round alongside teammate Larson as he will receive an opportunity to defend his series championship.
Following both stages, teammates Hamlin and Truex were scored inside the top-four cutline to transfer to the Championship 4 finale while Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Blaney and Logano were scored outside the cutline.
Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Elliott, Bowman, Hamlin, Almirola, Byron and Truex. Following the pit stops, Kyle Busch was sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.
With 231 laps remaining, the final stage commenced. At the start, Elliott managed to clear teammate Bowman on the outside lane to retain the lead. Behind, Bowman retained second while Hamlin battled Almirola for third. Behind, Truex battled Larson for sixth as Hamlin took over third ahead of Almirola and Byron.
Ten laps later, Elliott was leading by more than a second over Hamlin, who overtook Bowman for the runner-up spot. Byron and Almirola were in the top five followed by Truex, Bell, Larson, Kurt Busch and Keselowski. Blaney was in 11th behind teammate Keselowski, Logano was in 17th and Kyle Busch was mired back in 20th behind Reddick. By then, Justin Haley pitted under green after experiencing a major left-rear tire rub.
Another 10 laps later, Elliott continued to lead while teammates Bowman and Byron moved up to second and third, dropping Hamlin to fourth.
Down to the final 200 laps of the event, Elliott was leading by nearly two seconds over teammate Bowman while third-place Byron trailed by more than three seconds. Hamlin remained in fourth ahead of Almirola followed by Truex and Larson while Bell, Blaney and Kurt Busch were in the top 10. Keselowski was in 11th, teammate Logano was in 15th and Kyle Busch was in 19th.
Ten laps later, the caution returned when Michael McDowell made contact with Corey LaJoie entering Turn 3, which resulted with LaJoie getting into Josh Bilicki and sending Bilicki sideways and into the outside wall.
Under caution, the leaders returned to pit road and Elliott, Hamlin, Bowman, Byron, Truex and Almirola. Following the pit stops, Wallace was penalized for speeding on pit road.
With 181 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Elliott rocketed away with the lead on the inside lane while Hamlin spun the tires on the topside lane as he was hit in the rear by Byron’s No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE.
While Elliott retained the lead, Bowman also remained in second while Hamlin battled Truex for third. Shortly after, the caution flew due to an incident in Turn 3 involving Bilicki and Quin Houff, who made contact into the outside wall after being bumped by Bilicki. Following the incident, Houff retaliated by turning Bilicki in the backstretch. As a result, Houff was held five seconds in his pit stall as a penalty.
With 171 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Elliott retained the lead following a strong start on the outside lane over teammate Bowman while Hamlin stabilized himself in third ahead of teammate Truex and Byron. Behind, Almirola was in sixth while Larson battled with Bell for seventh.
Under the final 170 laps of the event, more issues came for Blaney, who was inside the top 15 but experiencing a left-rear tire rub near his damaged spot.
With 161 laps remaining, the caution returned when Newman, Cole Custer and Ross Chastain made contact entering Turn 2, which resulted with Newman getting sideways, clipping Chastain and making contact into the outside wall while Chastain went up the track in Turn 3 with a flat right-front tire and damage to the right side of his No. 42 Clover Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. As Chastain was trying to continue, Newman bumped into the side of Chastain’s car to express his displeasure for the contact.
Under caution, the leaders led by Elliott pitted while Joey Logano remained on the track.
With 155 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Logano, faced in a “must-win” situation to retain his title hopes, retained the lead through the backstretch ahead of Elliott. Behind, Bowman was in third while teammate Larson challenged Truex for fourth.
Six laps remaining, Elliott, racing on four fresh tires, reassumed the lead. Not long after, teammates Bowman and Larson methodically overtook Logano’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang for second and third as Truex then issued a challenge on Logano.
With 142 laps remaining, the caution flew when Cole Custer spun in Turn 4. During the caution period, Truex radioed concerns about his car pushing water despite continuing in fourth.
Four laps later, the race restarted under green. At the start, Elliott aced the launch with a strong start on the outside lane, where he was pursued by Bowman, Truex and Larson. Behind, Byron moved into fifth while Hamlin challenged Logano for sixth.
With 122 laps remaining, the caution returned when Daniel Suarez spun in Turn 2.
Under caution, the leaders pitted and Elliott exited as the leader followed by Truex, Hamlin, Byron, Logano and Kyle Busch. Following the pit stops, Larson was nabbed with his second pit road speeding penalty of the day. In addition, Matt DiBenedetto was being held a lap for pitting outside his pit box.
Back on the track, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick remained on the track along with Custer while Elliott, the first competitor on four fresh tires, were in fourth.
With 116 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Austin Dillon briefly retained the lead for a full lap under green before Truex, who was ready to go on the restart and drew himself alongside Dillon, made his way into the lead the following lap. Behind, Hamlin made his way into the runner-up spot over Dillon while Elliott was mired in sixth behind Reddick and Logano.
With 111 laps remaining, Hamlin, following his eventful drive to the front all race long, emerged with the lead.
A few laps later, Elliott made contact with Logano in Turn 1, where he nearly turned Logano before he took over the fourth spot. Meanwhile, Hamlin continued to lead ahead of teammate Truex and Austin Dillon.
Down to the final 100 laps of the event and with the field scrambling around the track, Hamlin was leading by half a second over teammate Truex while Elliott, Austin Dillon and Bowman were in the top five. Logano was in sixth while Kyle Busch, Keselowski and Byron battled for positions. Blaney was in 16th while Larson was in 21st.
Ten laps later, Hamlin stabilized his advantage to half a second over teammate Truex while third-place Elliott continued to trail by more than a second. Logano, Keselowski and Kyle Busch remained in the top 10 while Blaney and Larson remained inside the top 20.
Another 15 laps later, Hamlin continued to lead by more than a second over teammate Truex. Bowman was up in third ahead of teammate Elliott while Keselowski, currently situated on the outside of the top-four cutline, was in fifth. Austin Dillon continued to ride strong in sixth while Logano, Byron, Almirola and Bell were in the top 10. Kyle Busch, who continued to deal with handling issues to his No. 18 M&M’s Halloween Toyota Camry, was in 11th ahead of brother Kurt while Blaney and Larson were in 15th and 16th.
With 64 laps remaining, the caution flew when Austin Dillon blew a right-front tire and made contact with the Turn 2 outside wall for a second time.
Under caution, the leaders returned to pit road and Hamlin exited with the lead followed by Bowman, Elliott, Truex and Keselowski.
With less than 60 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Hamlin retained the lead ahead of Bowman. While Elliott was in third, Truex was in fourth ahead of Byron and Keselowski.
Shortly after, Bowman issued a challenge on Hamlin for the lead. Despite Bowman’s efforts in overtaking Hamlin for the lead, Hamlin retained the lead. Behind, Keselowski, now within striking distance of making the top-four cutline to the finale, was mired in fourth and aggressively racing against Elliott for more. Meanwhile, Truex slipped to sixth in front of teammate Kyle Busch as he started to experience a left-front tire rub to his car.
With 46 laps remaining, the caution flew when Keselowski ran into the side of Elliott as Elliott spun in Turn 3, though he continued and pitted to have the damage repaired on his car. The incident occurred as both Cup champions were repeatedly battling for third place, with Keselowski wasting no time making his way to the front.
Six laps later, the race restarted under green. At the start, Hamlin retained the top spot ahead of Bowman and Keselowski. Not long after, the caution returned when Stenhouse spun in Turn 4 beneath Larson while Wallace sustained heavy damage to the front nose of his No. 23 DoorDash Toyota Camry after running into the rear of Elliott’s car.
Down to the final 34 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Hamlin rocketed away with another strong start while Keselowski battled Bowman for the runner-up spot.
Soon after, Truex, who was running behind Keselowski and Bowman with both making contact and resulting with Bowman getting a left-front tire rub, began to challenge both for second place. He attempted to make a three-wide move on both, but backed out and lost time and a handful of spots outside of the top five.
Then, Almirola made contact with Truex while battling him for sixth in Turn 1, which sent Truex wide. As Truex was trying to come back down to his rhythm, Kurt Busch made contact into him as Truex smacked the outside wall and lost more spots on the track. Soon after, the caution returned when Ryan Preece spun in Turn 2. By then, Truex was scored outside of the top-four cutline along with Keselowski while Kyle Busch found himself inside the cutline by a single point.
With 23 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Hamlin received another strong start on the inside lane to retain the lead while Bowman overtook Keselowski for second. The following lap, Bowman made his way into the lead. Hamlin, however, fought back in Turn 1 and bumped into Bowman to reassume the lead.
Behind Hamlin, Kyle Busch challenged Bowman for second along with Keselowski and Byron. Truex, meanwhile, was in 10th.
With 15 laps remaining, Hamlin continued to lead by a narrow margin over Bowman while Kyle Busch was trying to fend off Keselowski and Byron for third. Truex was in eighth, Logano was in 10th and Blaney was in 12th.
A few laps later, Bowman issued another side-by-side challenge for the lead against Hamlin, but he was unable to seal the deal as Hamlin retained the lead.
Down to the final 10 laps, Hamlin continued to lead by a narrow margin over Bowman. Kyle Busch and Keselowski were in third and fourth while Truex was in eighth while challenging Kurt Busch for a position. Once Truex overtook Kurt Busch for seventh, he moved back into the cutline by a single point over Kyle Busch with Keselowski trailing by six.
Then, the caution returned three laps later when Bowman, following his late intense, repetitive battle with Hamlin, made contact into Hamlin, sending Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota spinning into the Turn 3 outside wall, though Hamlin continued with little left-rear damage. The incident now placed Hamlin, who pitted for repairs, within the bubble zone of remaining inside the top-four cutline.
With the race sent into overtime, Bowman and Kyle Busch occupied the front row ahead of Keselowski and Truex. At the start, Bowman was able to retain the lead ahead of Kyle Busch, Keselowski and the field.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Bowman was still ahead by two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Kyle Busch, who had to win to keep his title hopes alive. While Busch tried to establish a final lap effort, he could not close in to the rear bumper of Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet as Bowman continued to lead through Turn 3. Finally, through Turn 4 and while Busch had to maintain second ahead of Keselowski, Bowman was able to come back around and claim the checkered flag following an eventful turn of events.
The victory at Martinsville was Bowman’s fourth of the season and the sixth of his Cup career despite having his title hopes evaporated following the Round of 12. Bowman’s win was enough for Chevrolet to achieve its 40th Cup manufacturer’s title and first since 2015.
While trying to celebrate on the frontstretch, however, Bowman could not escape controversy as Hamlin, who ended the race in 24th place, pulled his car alongside Bowman’s. While Bowman attempted to pull away and tried to celebrate by looping the car around, Hamlin immediately pulled his car in front of Bowman’s and smoked his tires while pushing against Bowman’s and giving him two obscene gestures before he drove away under orders from his crew. Once Hamlin was gone, Bowman saluted the fans, who greeted him with a chorus of cheers, and claimed the checkered flag.
“I just got loose in,” Bowman said on NBC. “I got in too deep, knocked [Hamlin] out of the way and literally, let him have the lead back. For anybody who wants to think that I was trying to crash him, that obviously wasn’t the case, considering I literally gave up the lead at Martinsville to give it back to him. He’s been on the other side of that. He’s crashed guys here for wins. I hate doing it. Obviously, I don’t want to crash somebody. I just got in, got loose underneath him and spun him out. Regardless, we get a freakin’ Grandfather Clock. It’s pretty special. I’ve struggled here for a long time. I was trying to get the flag, do a backwards victory lap. Obviously, like I said, [I] hate we wrecked [Hamlin], but man, how about that for Chevrolet and Ally and everybody on this No. 48 team. The No. 48 car’s won here a bunch. It’s cool to do it again…Part of short track racing.”
Despite the incident, Hamlin’s 24th-place result was enough for him to earn a spot in the Championship 4 finale, where he will contend for his first NASCAR Cup Series championship. Hamlin, however, did not mince his words or ill feelings to Bowman following the incident and missing an opportunity of winning at his home track.
“[Bowman]’s just a hack,” Hamlin, who received a chorus of boos from the crowd, said. “He’s just an absolute hack. He gets his [expletive] kicked by his teammates every week. He’s [expletive] terrible, just terrible. He sees one opportunity and he takes it. Obviously, he’s got the fastest car every week and he runs 10th. He didn’t want to race us there. We had a good clean race. I moved up as high as I could on the racetrack to give him all the room I could and he still can’t drive. We got in [the Playoffs]. We did what we had to do, but I just wanted to race there at the end. He’s just terrible.”
Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images.
Behind Bowman, Kyle Busch claimed second over Keselowski just before Keselowski, who made contact with Busch prior to the finish line, turned Busch in Turn 1 after the checkered flag. Truex held on for fourth place over Byron and was able to claim the fourth and final transfer spot to the Championship 4 finale by three points, where he will contend for his second Cup title. Busch and Keselowski, however, were eliminated from the Playoffs.
“The Auto-Owners Toyota Camry was good, first of all,” Truex said. “We had a solid day. We weren’t the winning car, but we were a third- or fourth-place car all day long and that’s where we ran. Everything’s going smooth and then, [Keselowski] and [Kyle Busch] came up there at the front kind of out of nowhere. I got some damage running side-by-side with [Keselowski], fell back and then, [Almirola] stuffed me three wide or whatever out of the groove down there in Turn 1 and 2 and then, the marbles and then, [Kurt Busch] come by and clip my left front, drove me into the fence off of [Turn] 2. I was like, ‘Oh damn, we’re in big trouble here.’ Then, [the crew] say we’re out. Just dig deep, fight back and do all we could do after that. [I] Got a little break after that last restart. A bunch of guys went to the bottom [lane] and I’d seen the hole up there and I was like, ‘I gotta go for it.’ That worked out for us. Just thanks to everybody that helps us all year long to get to this point, everybody at the shop…Hopefully, we can go to Phoenix next week and make [my partners] proud. We’re excited. That’s what we do this for. All these guys work so hard all week and all year long to have this opportunity. It’s a dream come true for me. I love racing with these guys. I love having this opportunity. We’ve had it before. We won one [championship] and lost a few really, really close. We’ll see what we can do. We had a great race at Phoenix in the spring and learned a lot about that racetrack. Hopefully, we can duplicate it.”
Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images.
“We just missed last week [at Kansas Speedway],” Kyle Busch said. “That’s where we lost all the ground. Couldn’t come in here with 15 more points and we would’ve been fine on the cut, but it just wasn’t it and wasn’t meant to be. Obviously, it was Truex’s day. We had a Hail Mary opportunity there at the end and just didn’t materialize. All in all, just proud of the effort, for sure. We swung everything and anything at this thing today, and just couldn’t really make it come alive. Great effort. That was there, for sure. We just got to get better, with everybody included, the whole team, in order to be able to go race with the best and race for a championship, and we’re not gonna do that this year. Anytime you go into a season with Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing, this No. 18 M&M’s team, myself, you expect to be in contention and eligible [for the championship]. Anything other than that is a failure. I guess you get an F.”
“Well, at the start of the race, we were OK, and then, we got really tight in the middle of the race, finally got it freed up and the car started rolling,” Keselowski, who missed the cutline by eight points, said. “At the end, it was just super free. I was so loose. I got underneath [Elliott], got loose and spun him out, just all I could do to hold on to the car. We got it better and put ourselves in position. Just wasn’t quite strong enough there at the end. Disappointing. All in all, we gave it a great run here. Wished I could have last week at Kansas back, that’s for sure. I felt like I left the eight points that we were short there with some mistakes I made. All in all, proud of our team, proud of the effort that everybody put in. Disappointed for Team Penske to not get through to the final round, but we gave it our best. Frustrating day…Super proud of everything we’ve done together.”
Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. have made the Championship 4 round and will contend for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series championship. Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano have been eliminated from title contention.
“We’re moving on,” Elliott, who finished 16th, said. “That’s all that matters. I had a really fast NAPA Chevy early. I made a couple of mistakes and think led us down the wrong path for those last couple runs, unfortunately. The pace was certainly in the car. Great day for Hendrick Motorsports. Got two cars going into Phoenix and Alex getting the win. Wished we could’ve won it. I hate to be so fast all day and it not work out, but obviously, next week is what matters. That’s where our heads are at. Excited to get out there and have another shot at it…Really proud of this group to make it for a second consecutive year and being amongst those four cars is a big deal. Very excited to have a shot. I think we can run with the best of them and we’re looking forward to the opportunity.”
“Just a really bad job executing on my part,” Larson, who finished 14th, said. “Just way too aggressive on pit road, but me being locked in to the next round, I could be a little more aggressive. Just too aggressive too many times. My car was pretty decent the first half and I started getting tight in the middle. We adjusted on it. Then, I sped [on pit road] again and I was just stuck in traffic. [I] Knew I wasn’t gonna have a shot to win, so I was just trying not to piss anybody off. Came away with 14th. We’ll go on to Phoenix and try to get a championship.”
“From the get-go, we were struggling to get [the car] turning to two-thirds,” Logano, who finished 10th, said. “We raised the track bar and that made it loose everywhere except where I wanted it to turn. Put that back, tried something else and got at least closer, but all we’re doing is compromising at that point. We weren’t good enough. We didn’t get in, wasn’t close enough, didn’t fire off as fast enough. Now, we’ll got to Phoenix and try to finish as high as we can with the Shell/Pennzoil Mustang and this team. We fought hard this season. We just weren’t fast enough. We’ll fire away next week.”
“Overall, we just kind of missed it,” Blaney, who finished 11th, added. “We weren’t really great from the get-go. Worked hard on it all day. Had one run, I thought, we’d kind of got where we needed to be, drove up to eighth or seventh. I was like, ‘Alright, we got something now we can really work on.’ We made a change. The next run, we were back to where we were…Just wasn’t really the right combination today. Stinks, but appreciate everybody on the No. 12 group for working on it all night. It was wild out there, that’s for sure. Stinks we’re not gonna race for a championship at Phoenix, but I appreciate all the hard work this year…Still got one more race. Hopefully, we can go have a good run and maybe, get [crew chief] Todd [Gordon] one more win before he hangs it up.”
Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch, Erik Jones, Chris Buescher and Logano completed the top 10 on the track at Martinsville.
There were 15 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured 15 cautions for 91 laps.
With the Championship 4 field set, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season is set to conclude next weekend at Phoenix Raceway. The finale is scheduled to occur on Sunday, November 7, at 3 p.m. ET on NBC, where a champion will be crowned.
Given two late opportunities to keep his championship hopes alive and vowing to win entering the weekend, Noah Gragson capitalized on both opportunities through two overtime attempts after beating Austin Cindric in a photo finish to win the Dead On Tools 250 at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday, October 30, and punch his ticket to the Championship 4 finale.
With the victory, Gragson, who was placed in a “must-win” situation following his wreck last weekend at Kansas Speedway, will be one of four competitors who will contend for the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship at Phoenix Raceway scheduled for next Saturday.
The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Xfinity event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Xfinity race. With that, Austin Cindric, the reigning Xfinity Series champion, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Ty Gibbs, the 2021 ARCA Menards Series champion and winner of last weekend’s Xfinity event at Kansas Speedway.
Prior to the event, Stephen Leicht and Joe Graf Jr. started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments along with Mike Harmon, who fell back due to a driver change.
When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Cindric managed to pull ahead and clear Gibbs entering the backstretch to come back around and lead the first lap. Behind, AJ Allmendinger, sporting an orange Halloween scheme on his No. 16 Hyperice Chevrolet Camaro, was in third ahead of teammate Justin Haley, racing in a purple Halloween scheme on his No. 11 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet Camaro, and Justin Allgaier, featuring Hellmann’s on his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro, while Daniel Hemric muscled his way into the top six.
Through the first five laps of the event, the battle for the lead intensified between Cindric and Gibbs, who attempted to take over the top spot over Cindric on the inside lane. Despite Gibbs’ effort, Cindric prevailed once again and cleared Gibbs’ No. 54 Smile Coin Toyota Supra to retain the lead.
By Lap 10, the front-runners settled in a long single-file line as Cindric continued to lead ahead of Gibbs, Allmendinger, Haley, Hemric, Allgaier, Brandon Jones, Harrison Burton, Noah Gragson and rookie Sam Mayer. Behind, Ryan Sieg was in 11th ahead of Jeb Burton, Michael Annett, Brandon Brown, Riley Herbst and Myatt Snider.
Five laps later, the first caution flew when Preston Pardus wheel-hopped and spun in Turn 4. At the time of caution, Allmendinger overtook Gibbs for the runner-up spot while Cindric was ahead by nearly a second. In addition, Hemric and Allgaier moved into the top five while Haley dropped to sixth. During the caution period, the competition caution that was planned on Lap 25 was pushed back to Lap 30.
Another five laps later, the race restarted under green. At the start, Cindric rocketed away in his No. 22 CARQUEST Ford Mustang with the lead followed by Allmendinger. Soon after, Hemric challenged teammate Gibbs for third followed by Allgaier while Haley and Mayer battled for sixth. After battling Gibbs for a full lap on the outside lane, Hemric’s No. 18 Poppy Bank Toyota Supra prevailed entering the backstretch.
By Lap 25, Cindric was ahead by two-tenths of a second over Allmendinger while third-place Hemric trailed by less than a second. Meanwhile, Gibbs and Allgaier battled for fourth.
When the competition caution flew on Lap 30, Cindric was still leading ahead of Allmendinger and Hemric. By then, seven of the eight remaining Playoff contenders were running in the top 10 as Haley was in 10th behind Gragson while Brandon Jones, the eighth postseason contender, was mired in 15th.
Under the competition caution, some like Stephen Leicht, JJ Yeley, David Starr, Colin Garrett, Natalie Decker, Bayley Currey and Spencer Boyd pitted while the rest led by Cindric remained on the track.
Five laps later, the race restarted under green. At the start, Cindric and Allmendinger engaged in a side-by-side battle for three corners until Cindric prevailed on the inside lane. Behind, Hemric challenged Allmendinger for a full lap behind clearing him on Lap 37 in Turn 1. Meanwhile, Haley, who was in 10th, was being shuffled back towards the top 20 in 19th.
Through the first 40 laps of the event, Cindric was ahead by approximately seven-tenths of a second over Hemric while Allmendinger, Allgaier and Gibbs were in the top five. Mayer was in sixth ahead of Sieg, Gragson, Josh Berry and Harrison Burton. Brandon Jones was in 15th behind Jeb Burton while Haley was mired in 20th behind Snider.
On Lap 48, the caution flew when Mayer cut a right-front tire, shredded the right-front fender of his No. 8 John 5 Sinner Chevrolet Camaro and ignited sparks after making contact with Gibbs the previous lap.
Under caution, some like Gibbs, Harrison Burton, Brandon Jones, Gragson and Haley pitted while the rest led by Cindric remained on the track.
With seven laps remaining in the first stage, the race restarted under green. At the start, Cindric retained the lead following another strong start. In addition, Hemric muscled his way back to second followed by Allgaier, Allmendinger, Berry and Sieg as the field scrambled for positions towards the front.
When the first stage concluded on Lap 60, Cindric claimed his 12th stage victory of the season. Hemric settled in second followed by Allgaier, Allmendinger, Berry, Sieg and Gragson, who charged his way towards the front on fresh tires. Annett, Yeley and Moffitt completed the top-10 stage positions while Harrison Burton, Haley and Brandon Jones finished outside of the top 15 and with no early stage points in their quest to remain in the championship battle.
Under the stage break, the leaders led by Cindric pitted while the rest led by Gragson and Gibbs, both of whom pitted prior to the conclusion of the first stage, remained on the track.
When the second stage concluded on Lap 68, Gragson pulled his No. 9 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro ahead of Gibbs through the backstretch to retain the lead as Jeb Burton was in third. Behind, cousin Harrison Burton was in fifth behind Jeremy Clements as Haley moved up to sixth.
By Lap 75, Gragson was out in front by three-tenths of a second over Gibbs while Jeb Burton, Clements and Harrison Burton were in the top five. Meanwhile, Haley retained sixth ahead of Snider, Brandon Jones was in 10th behind Riley Herbst, Hemric was in 13th, Cindric and Allmendinger were in 15th and 16th and Allgaier was in 18th.
Fifteen laps later, Gragson, who was mired in lapped traffic, continued to lead by a narrow margin over Gibbs as Harrison Burton started to close in for the lead. Behind, Haley started to challenged Clements for fifth while Hemric and Cindric were back in the top 10 in ninth and 10th.
Through the first 100 laps of the event, Gragson was leading by three-tenths of a second over Harrison Burton, who moved into the runner-up spot a few laps earlier when Gibbs went up the track in Turn 3. With Gibbs back in third, Jeb Burton and Clements remained in the top five ahead of Haley, Snider, Herbst, Hemric and Cindric. Allmendinger, meanwhile, was in 11th while Brandon Jones and Allgaier were in the top 15.
By Lap 110, Gragson and Harrison Burton, both of whom were placed in a “must-win” situation to advance to the championship finale, were running nose to tail amid lapped traffic as Burton challenged Gragson for the top spot.
When the second stage concluded on Lap 120, Gragson, who was mired behind more lapped traffic and nearly lost the top spot entering Turn 4 as Harrison Burton shoved his No. 20 Dex Imaging Toyota Supra beneath Gragson, edged Harrison Burton to claim his fourth stage victory of the season. Gibbs settled in third followed by Jeb Burton, Cindric, Hemric, Allmendinger, Herbst, Clements and Snider.
By virtue of their top-10 results in the second stage and the overall stage points accumulated, Austin Cindric and AJ Allmendinger secured their spots to the Championship 4 finale at Phoenix Raceway, with Cindric receiving an opportunity to defend his title and Allmendinger receiving his first opportunity to win his first NASCAR national touring series title.
Meanwhile, Haley, Gragson, Brandon Jones and Harrison Burton were scored outside of the top-four cutline to the finale while Hemric and Allgaier were currently scored inside the cutline.
Under the stage break, the leaders pitted as Gragson retained the lead ahead of Harrison Burton, Gibbs and the field. Meanwhile, Haley came to pit road with the left-rear brake caliber and tire of his car on fire. Following several trips to pit road, where several douses from a fire extinguisher and multiple water bottles were made to his car, Haley, ultimately, took his car to the garage to have the right rear inspected. The issue, however, was enough to end his title hopes.
With 120 laps remaining, the final stage started. At the start, Gragson and Harrison Burton engaged in a heated battle for the lead for two laps until Gragson cleared Burton entering the frontstretch.
Not long after, Harrison Burton reignited his challenge for the lead beneath Gragson. Gragson, however, retained the lead as the field settled in a long single-file line.
Nearing the final 100 laps of the event, the caution flew when Bayley Currey cut a right-front tire entering Turn 2. The incident occurred just in front of the leaders. At the time of caution, Gragson was ahead of a hard-challenging Harrison Burton while Gibbs, Jeb Burton and Cindric were in the top five. Herbst was in sixth while Allmendinger, Brandon Jones, Allgiaer and Hemric were in the top 10.
Under caution, some like Brandon Jones pitted while the rest led by Gragson remained on the track.
With 95 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Gragson cleared Gibbs entering the backstretch to retain the lead as Harrison Burton challenged his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate for the runner-up spot.
Five laps later, Gragson extended his advantage to more than half a second over Gibbs, who prevailed in a long side-by-side battle against Harrison Burton. Behind, Cindric was up in fourth in front of Jeb Burton while Hemric and Allmendinger dueled for sixth.
Down to the final 75 laps of the event, Gragson remained as the leader by eight-tenths of a second over Gibbs, who had teammate Harrison Burton and Cindric pressuring him for the runner-up spot. Hemric was up in fifth followed by Allmendinger, Allgaier, Annett, Berry and Jeb Burton. By then, Hemric was holding sole possession of the fourth and final transfer spot to the finale ahead of Allgaier.
Shortly after, the caution returned when Ryan Ellis spun in Turn 2.
Under caution, the leaders pitted and Gibbs emerged with the lead after exiting pit road first followed by teammate Harrison Burton, Gragson, Hemric and Brandon Jones. Following the pit stops, however, Spencer Boyd emerged as the leader after he opted to remain on the track.
With 66 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Gragson made a bold three-wide move to the inside lane and beneath Boyd and Harrison Burton while Gibbs took over the lead. Through the first two turns, Harrison Burton was forced wide while trying to overtake Boyd and he lost his momentum through the backstretch as he fell back into the top 10.
With the field jostling for positions and Harrison Burton mired in the pack, Gibbs was leading ahead of Gragson, Cindric, Hemric and Allgaier.
A few laps later, the caution flew when Snider spun in Turn 2 after being bumped by Sieg. Under the caution laps, Harrison Burton pulled his car alongside Boyd’s to express his displeasure for losing his momentum.
Down to the final 58 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Gibbs and Gragson dueled for the lead through the backstretch. Just then, the caution returned for a multi-car wreck in Turn 2 when Jeb Burton, who was trying to force his way through Boyd entering the backstretch, came back down and ignited calamity with Annett making hard contact into the outside wall while Herbst, Boyd and Moffitt were also involved. The incident was enough to red-flag the event for nearly 11 minutes with fluid leaking out of Annett’s destroyed car.
When the red flag lifted and the race restarted under green with 50 laps remaining, Gibbs and Gragson dueled for the lead until Gibbs cleared the field entering the backstretch. Then in Turn 3, Gragson ran into the rear of Gibbs, which sent Gibbs sideways in front of the field. While most of the field scrambled to avoid Gibbs, Harrison Burton, unfortunately, made contact into his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, damaging the front nose of his Dex Imaging Toyota Supra. In the midst of the incident, Gragson returned to the lead ahead of Cindric, Allgaier, Hemric and Allmendinger.
Under caution, both Harrison Burton and Gibbs pitted, with Gibbs losing a lap in the process while Burton proceeded with a patched nose.
With 43 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Gragson retained the lead while Cindric spun the tires. Cindric’s misfortune allowed Allgaier to moved into second followed by Hemric. Not long after, Brandon Jones made the slightest of contact with Cindric in Turn 3, but Jones and Cindric remained in fourth and fifth while Allmendinger, who tried to move inside the top five, remained in sixth.
Eight laps later, Gragson was leading by nearly six-tenths of a second over Hemric while Allgaier, Brandon Jones and Cindric were in the top five.
Another three laps later, the caution returned due to debris reported in the backstretch and coming off of Harrison Burton’s No. 20 Toyota.
Prior to the restart, a jack coming off of Harrison Burton’s car came to rest on the backstretch, which resulted with Burton being penalized for removing equipment out of his pit box.
Down to the final 26 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Gragson received another strong start to retain the lead and slowly pull away through the backstretch. Meanwhile, teammate Allgaier was overtaken by Hemric as Cindric joined the battle.
Six laps later, Gragson was ahead by two-tenths of a second over Hemric, who started to close in on Gragson for the lead. Cindric trailed the two leaders by more than a second followed by Allgaier, Brandon Jones, Allmendinger, Mayer, Berry, Herbst and Clements.
Two laps later, Hemric, who gained a run through the backstretch, emerged with the lead. Hemric’s move dropped Gragson, who is in a “must-win” situation, below the top-four cutline while Allgaier moved back into the cutline.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Hemric was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Gragson while Cindric, Allgaier, Mayer and Allmendinger were in the top six.
Four laps later, the caution returned when Haley, who was 23 laps behind the leaders, spun in Turn 4, which evaporated Hemric’s stable advantage over Gragson and Cindric. Following his spin, Haley called it a night as he parked his car in the garage and retired, which officially ended his hopes of advancing to the championship finale.
With the race sent into overtime, Hemric and Gragson occupied the front row ahead of Cindric, Allgaier, Mayer and Allmendinger. At the start, Gragson challenged Hemric for the lead on the outside lane. Through the backstretch, Gragson used the outside lane to his advantage as he fought back and cleared Hemric for the top spot entering the frontstretch. Behind, Josh Berry spun and the caution flew just before Gragson could start the final lap of the event, which sent the event into another overtime attempt.
With the race restarting in another overtime attempt, Gragson and Cindric occupied the front row while Hemric elected to restart behind Gragson on the inside lane. At the start, Gragson cleared Cindric entering the backstretch and continued to lead for a full lap.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Gragson was still leading by a mere margin over Cindric while Hemric was being challenged by Mayer and others for third. Through the backstretch, Gragson continued to keep Cindric at bay. Then, Cindric made his move beneath Gragson in an attempt to snatch the win entering Turns 3 and 4. Despite Cindric’s late effort, Gragson fought back on the outside lane and edged Cindric’s No. 22 Ford by 0.064 seconds to win and punch his ticket to the finale.
In addition to locking himself and his No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet team into the finale to battle for the championsip, Gragson captured his fifth NASCAR Xfinity Series career victory, third of 2021 and first at Martinsville in the series. He also clinched the manufacturer’s title for Chevrolet.
The margin of victory between Gragson and Cindric (0.064 seconds) marked the closest finish ever at Martinsville.
“Man, I wanna cry right now,” Gragson said on NBCSN. “It’s been a rough season. We got a couple of wins there at Darlington and Richmond [in September]. I know it wasn’t looking good after last weekend. I was pretty fired up. I told my guys that we got an opportunity and we’re still in it. I’m so thankful. It’s just such an awesome opportunity. This team’s unbelievable. Overall, just an awesome day. I was telling all the guys in the pre-race deal, I said that snow plow’s engaged. We’re gonna be digging, get out of the way. Man, I’m emotional right now. Dude, this is Martinsville, baby! We’re going to the final four, baby! Yeah!”
Cindric, who will attempt to defend his series title next weekend, settled in second place followed by Hemric, who captured the fourth and final spot to the Championship 4 finale. This marks the third season where Hemric will contend for a NASCAR national touring series title while he continues to pursue his first race victory.
“Yeah, there was a lot that went into it,” Cindric said. “I felt like I had a shot as the third-place car. [I] Kept it in third gear, got the momentum, got cleared for second place. I put front bias into it, drove it in as hard as I could into [Turn] 3, but I wasn’t gonna use up Noah. I intend on racing for a championship a certain way. I said it after Bristol. [Gragson] earned that win. Just needed a couple inches, maybe needed above the track a little bit more. Overall, really proud of this season. I’ve been saying it since last season and this year, I feel the same way. I’m not talking about going back to back [in championships]. It’s about making it into the Championship 4. I feel like that’s the hardest thing you can do in a national series is to make it there. What you do with a bonus, you get to go have a great day and try to make the most of the opportunity.”
“I can tell you, I’m just pretty disappointed,” Hemric said. “I had to make a decision there. First caution comes out when you’re checked out, I felt like, first off, what a great Poppy Bank Toyota Supra. Just checked out, biding time, counting the laps down. The caution came out, I knew it wouldn’t be that easy and that’s fine. [Cindric] got into me into [Turns] 1 and 2. He’s also trying to win the race, same as I am, and he got me in a bad angle, let [Gragson] take the lead, the caution comes out again. I wanted to choose the top, race [Gragson]. It’s kind of risk versus reward, right? You start the season off with one goal and that’s to try to do what we officially have a shot to do next week and that’s run for a championship. That is the ultimate goal, but I don’t know. A win would’ve been nice. At least I’d be on the front row and have a shot. Right decision, I don’t know. Right, though, for next week? Of course.”
Mayer rallied from his early on-track issues to finish in fourth place for his first career top-five result in the Xfinity circuit followed by teammate Justin Allgaier, who was the first Xfinity Playoff competitor to miss the top-four cutline to the finale. This marks the second time in four seasons where Allgaier will not advance to the Championship 4 finale.
“It just wasn’t enough,” Allgaier said. “We played the safe strategy. We talked about it before the race and felt like that was the smart strategy. Just gave up too many points. Daniel [Hemric] was, obviously, a lot better that we were tonight and put himself in good position to get the points. Hats off to [Gragson]. At least we got one [JR Motorsports] car going to the Playoffs. It’s super disappointing. Everybody at JR Motorsports works so hard on this No. 7 team. A lot of averages says we’ve been in it the last so many years. At some point, you’re gonna have to have a bad year – by bad, fifth going into the final round – but still just disappointing.”
Brandon Jones, who came into Martinsville in a “must-win” situation, ended his night in sixth place as he also failed to transfer past the Round of 8 for a second consecutive season. He will remain at Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity circuit for the 2022 season.
“I just don’t think that we quite had the balance we did here in the spring,” Jones said. “Similar conditions, so I was expecting to be fairly fast here today. Then there at the end, just kind of fell back away from it. We got to go dissect this a little bit, figure out where we can continue to be better. We can still go to Phoenix and win that race. I truly believe we can do that. That’s still on my mind. It’s still my goal to go win one of these races before the start of next year, to get some momentum built back up here. We kept fighting. Hate that we missed [the Championship 4 round] again. We’ll keep going, man. We’re gonna keep trying to figure out how to do this.”
Allmendinger, who will contend for his first NASCAR national touring series championship, finished seventh followed by Alex Labbe, Clements and Herbst.
“It’s been an amazing year here at Kaulig Racing,” Allmendinger said. “To win five times, win a Cup race. At the end of the day, you just want a chance at Phoenix. We know it’s gonna come down to four really strong cars. We’ve got some work to do. We definitely, I think, lost a little bit of speed over the last couple of months, taking out the Roval. We’ll go to work hard this week. We’ve been planning for this, all the men and women at Kaulig Racing. We’ve been getting our Phoenix car ready for the last five weeks, planning that we’re gonna be there…We did what we had to do. Got a seventh-place finish there. At the end of the day, we’re going for a championship.”
AJ Allmendinger, Austin Cindric, Noah Gragson and Daniel Hemric have made the Championship 4 round and will contend for the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship. Justin Allgaier, Brandon Jones, Harrison Burton and Justin Haley have been eliminated from title contention.
“That sucks, right?” Burton said. “Obviously, we put ourselves in this position and we needed to perform better throughout the year, to not be in this position. The last two weeks, I felt like [I] could’ve won the race. I don’t know. It’s a tough system to win. That’s what makes it fun for the fans, makes it fun for us. We just need to perform better. It’s that simple. We had a winning car today. Just so many things have to go right in racing to win and it makes it challenging to do it at the drop of a dime. We just had a couple things go wrong. Just a bummer deal that we didn’t get to show our speed at the end. Wish we could’ve won this thing. I felt like we were capable of it. I had times better than [Gragson] and really everybody. Just needed to show it.”
“We weren’t very good anyway,” Haley said. “It was inevitable. The brakes just went to the floor. I was either gonna wreck or spin out. That’ll happen. We’ll move on. I’m glad that AJ’s in the final four for Phoenix and go get [team owner] Matt Kaulig that championship trophy.”
To go along with the driver’s championship battle, the following teams will contend for the 2021 Xfinity Series owner’s title: Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 54 Toyota Supra piloted by John Hunter Nemechek, JR Motorsports’ No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro piloted by Gragson, Kaulig Racing’s No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro piloted by Allmendinger and Team Penske’s No. 22 Ford Mustang piloted by Cindric.
There were 13 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured 13 cautions for 75 laps.
Results.
1. Noah Gragson, 153 laps led, Stage 2 winner
2. Austin Cindric, 64 laps led, Stage 1 winner
3. Daniel Hemric, 18 laps led
4. Sam Mayer
5. Justin Allgaier
6. Brandon Jones
7. AJ Allmendinger
8. Alex Labbe
9. Jeremy Clements
10. Riley Herbst
11. Josh Williams
12. Landon Cassill
13. Myatt Snider
14. Colin Garrett
15. Joe Graf Jr.
16. JJ Yeley
17. Jade Buford
18. Preston Pardus
19. Brett Moffitt
20. Harrison Burton, two laps led
21. Stephen Leicht
22. Jeffrey Earnhardt
23. Ryan Ellis
24. David Starr
25. Natalie Decker
26. Akinori Ogata
27. Ty Gibbs, 16 laps led
28. Josh Berry, one lap down
29. Matt Mills, two laps down
30. Spencer Boyd, three laps down
31. Ryan Sieg, four laps down
32. Ryan Vargas, eight laps down
33. Justin Haley – OUT, Brakes
34. Kyle Weatherman, 36 laps down
35. Bayley Currey, 45 laps down
36. Brandon Brown – OUT, Accident
37. Jeb Burton – OUT, Accident
38. Michael Annett – OUT, Accident
39. Mike Harmon – OUT, Overheating
40. Tommy Joe Martins – OUT, Rear gear
Bold indicates Playoff contenders.
Playoff standings.
1. Noah Gragson – Advanced
2. Austin Cindric – Advanced
3. Daniel Hemric – Advanced
4. AJ Allmendinger – Advanced
5. Justin Allgaier – Eliminated
6. Justin Haley – Eliminated
7. Brandon Jones – Eliminated
8. Harrison Burton – Eliminated
With the championship field set, the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series is set to conclude at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, November 6, at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, where a champion will be crowned.
Martinsville Speedway was the host for the penultimate race of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoffs in the Round of 6. Four drivers below the cut line were racing for a chance at the championship, but only one of those of four could advance with the win.
As the checkered flag flew at the end of the United Rentals 200, Zane Smith was in the right place at the right time and captured the victory to advance to the Championship 4 next weekend at Phoenix Raceway. Prior to the race, he was below the cut line but on the white flag lap, race leaders Stewart Friesen, Todd Gilliland and Smith were side-by-side, fighting for the lead. All three made contact with Friesen turning then race leader Gilliland, which allowed Smith to drive right on by. When Smith assumed the lead, more contact occurred behind the leaders and the race ultimately ended under yellow giving the win to Smith.
“It (those final laps) was definitely wild to say the least,” Smith said about the win. “I knew with me being third, I was in a really good spot. Speed-wise, I don’t think we had anything for the 38 (Gilliland), I think he had fresher tires than us. I was worried with it staying green. For the final restart, I had the 16 (Austin Hill) behind me and kind of got him upset at the start of the race and I got flipped off on Lap 2.”
“I got shoved into the corner and luckily, I came out three wide (on the) bottom and pretty much just white-knuckled it in the end.”
Coming into the Round of 6 at Martinsville, none of the drivers were locked into the Championship 4 but the top two drivers, John Hunter Nemechek and Ben Rhodes, had a more than 30 point lead over anyone else. Via the metric system, Nemechek was awarded the pole once again and started on the front row with Todd Gilliland beside him.
There were some notable moments during the first two stages. The first caution came out on Lap 46 when Cory Roper spun in Turn 4 and there was a big pileup wreck on Lap 87 on the frontstretch. Second place starter Gilliland swept both stages by leading nearly every lap. Nemechek finished third in the first stage and second in the second stage. However, things began to worsen for Nemechek and some of the other playoff drivers during the final stage.
With 70 laps to go, Nemechek was running in the back as other drivers used a different strategy and stayed out to assume the top spots. Those drivers included Zane Smith, Carson Hocevar and Stewart Friesen. Nemechek was looking to make his way back up toward the frontrunners. Unfortunately for the No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports team, they found themselves in a losing battle with the No. 22 of Austin Wayne Self. Going into Turns 3 and 4, Nemechek attempted to make a pass on Wayne Self, but Self made contact with the No. 4 and sent Nemechek up into the wall and he was eventually out of the race with a 39th place finish.
Now, all Nemechek could do was sit and watch and hope for some good luck for the rest of the way in order to have a chance to race for the championship. More and more yellows fell late in the going and Smith continued to maintain the lead. However, right around 27 to go, Gilliland inched his way back to the lead and tapped Smith out of the way. As a result, Smith moved back into second and was -41 below the cut line.
Fortunately for Smith, he caught a break with a late-race caution due to the No. 51 of Corey Heim and the No. 41 of Dawson Cram who spun in Turn 4. Playoff driver, Matt Crafton, was caught up in the incident and Crafton spun around as well but made it through the melee with no contact to his No. 88 truck.
The contact set up a late-race overtime restart. Gilliland chose the inside lane as did Smith. Friesen chose the outside lane and was the first driver to line up right beside Smith. During the final laps, there was numerous contact between the leaders. Gilliland was seeking his first win since Circuit of the Americus back in May and seemed poised to do so until he was turned by Friesen. Going into Turn 1, Friesen had one last shot to make a move on Smith but ended up spinning which allowed Smith to claim the checkered flag and a Championship 4 spot at Phoenix next weekend. Among the others fighting for a championship are Matt Crafton, Ben Rhodes, and Nemechek.
There were 14 cautions for 89 laps and 10 lead changes among four different leaders.
Smith led four times for 65 laps en route to the checkered flag.
Championship 4:
Zane Smith Matt Crafton Ben Rhodes John Hunter Nemechek
Official Results following the United Rentals 200 at Martinsville Speedway:
Zane Smith, led 65 laps
Austin Hill
Tanner Gray
Chandler Smith
Matt Crafton
Parker Kligerman
Ben Rhodes
Taylor Gray
Sheldon Creed
Timmy Hill
Corey Heim
Carson Hocevar, led four laps
Kris Wright
Danny Bohn
Spencer Boyd
Chris Hacker
Stewart Friesen
Tate Fogleman
Hailie Deegan
Austin Wayne Self
Grant Enfinger
Bret Holmes
Dawson Cram
Derek Kraus
Todd Gilliland, led 133 laps, won both stages, 1 lap down
Tyler Ankrum, 1 lap down
Jack Wood, 1 lap down
Josh Berry, 1 lap down
Spencer Davis, 2 laps down
Jesse Iwuji, 2 laps down
Johnny Sauter, 3 laps down
Sage Karam, 4 laps down
Ryan Truex, 6 laps down
Josh Reaume, 6 laps down
Roger Reuse, 11 laps down
Jennifer Jo Cobb, 14 laps down
Cory Roper, 16 laps down
Colby Howard, 30 laps down
John Hunter Nemechek, led two laps, OUT, Crash
Chase Purdy, OUT, Rear Gear
Up Next: The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will head out west to Phoenix Raceway for the final race of the season on Friday, Nov. 6, live on Fox Sports 1 and MRN Radio at 8 p.m. ET.
Kansas City, KS – On what has already been a dominant season for Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team, Larson entered Kansas Speedway looking for his ninth win of the year.
The California native started on the pole and led a race high 130 laps, then lost the lead temporarily before regaining the top spot with 39 laps to go. He eventually went on to win for the first time at Kansas.
The victory was special for Larson and his team as 17 years ago to the day, Hendrick Motorsports lost 10 people, including Rick Hendricks’s son Ricky and his brother John, in a tragic plane crash while on their way to the Martinsville Speedway fall race in 2004.
“Yes, I want to dedicate this win to Rick and Linda (Hendrick),” Larson said. I didn’t ever get to meet Ricky (Hendrick) or the other men and women who lost their lives that day, but I felt the importance of this race, no doubt. It’s crazy how it kind of all worked out there for me to win. I know they were all looking down and helping me out there with all the restarts and stuff after getting into the wall.
“Again, thank you to Rick Hendrick. I know this means a lot to you and I’m glad I could get it done. It’s cool to get another win and I don’t really know how that happened but, our HendrickCars.com Chevy was really fast. I thought we were like a third-place car, really. William (Byron) was really good. I hate to see that unfortunate luck there again for that team. They’ve been really, really strong. I’m glad we could capitalize and get another win. I hope we can go to Martinsville and get a clock.”
Thanks to the qualifying metric system, Larson started the race from the pole position. Stages of 80-80-107 laps made up the 267-lap race.
During the first stage, there was inclement weather impacting the area. The race was able to start on time but was red flagged just 10 laps in due to a rain shower. Thankfully, the shower was brief as the event was halted for 15 minutes and 46 seconds. The green flag came back out on Lap 15 with Larson up front, but the first race caution occurred shortly when the No. 18 of Kyle Busch blew a right-front tire.
Afterward, the Hendrick Motorsports teammates traded the top spot as Chase Elliott assumed the lead from Larson on Lap 33. Soon after Elliott took over the lead, he made his scheduled green-flag pit stop right before the halfway mark in the stage. Byron also took the lead momentarily, but Larson cycled back into the lead and led the final 51 laps in Stage 1 to take home the stage victory. Byron, Elliott, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch and Tyler Reddick rounded out the Top 10 finishers.
When Stage 2 began on Lap 87, there was a 75-lap green flag run toward the conclusion of the second stage. The only major incident of note was when Kyle Busch got into the wall again after a right-rear tire went down in Turns 1 and 2. Meanwhile, playoff driver Joey Logano was using a different strategy in hopes of catching a caution and led 22 laps out front before coming down pit road for a Lap 146 pit stop. As Logano surrendered the lead, Larson’s teammate William Byron led 18 laps in the top position and went on to claim the second stage. Elliott, Larson, Kurt Busch, Harvick, Reddick, Bowman, Hamlin, Bubba Wallace and Chastain completed the Top 10.
Even though the first two stages were quiet, there were three cautions during the final stage. Quite possibly one of the most biggest impacts of the race was due to the final caution when the No. 3 of Austin Dillon accidentally spun the No. 12 of Ryan Blaney in Turn 2 on Lap 225. The accident was severe enough that Blaney was unable to continue in the race, relegating him to a 37th place finish. He now faces a must-win situation entering Martinsville.
The final restart came with 39 laps to go with Larson, Elliott and Harvick up front. The lead was split in a fierce battle in hopes of stopping Larson from winning the race. Larson pulled away in the remaining laps with Harvick and Elliott trailing behind in his tire tracks. Elliott was able to make the pass for Harvick on second, but in the end, Elliott’s rally was too late as Larson went on to win for the 15th time of his career. Elliott, Harvick, Kurt Busch and Hamlin rounded out the top five finishers.
“Really proud of the effort,” Elliott said. “Our entire NAPA Chevrolet team did a great job today and I felt like we had something for Kyle (Larson) there. Just got the wall there off of (turn) two. It’s so hard to get up to him when you are running the fence like that. It’s just tough because every few feet you get closer, the harder it gets. It was a lot of fun. I’m really proud of the way we ran today. I feel like it was a really nice step in the right direction.”
“More importantly, just thinking about Hendrick Motorsports and the family that is Hendrick Motorsports. Obviously, this is a day that nobody is ever going to forget. Just thinking about Mr. Hendrick and all the families that were affected 17 years ago today. Just proud to be a part of their family and hope we can make them proud these next two weeks.”
Larson led nine times for 130 laps en route to his ninth victory of the 2021 season.
There were seven cautions for 33 laps and 23 lead changes among eight different drivers.
Official Playoff Standings heading into the elimination race at Martinsville Speedway:
Kyle Larson, clinched Championship 4 spot
Chase Elliott, +34
Denny Hamlin, +32
Kyle Busch, +1 Below the cut line
Ryan Blaney, -1
Martin Truex Jr, -3
Brad Keselowski, -6
Joey Logano, -26
Official Race Results following the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.
Kyle Larson, led 130 laps, won Stage 1
Chase Elliott, led 42 laps
Kevin Harvick
Kurt Busch, led four laps
Denny Hamlin
William Byron, led 57 laps
Martin Truex Jr
Christopher Bell
Joey Logano, led 22 laps
Austin Dillon
Alex Bowman
Chris Buescher
Ross Chastain
Bubba Wallace
Daniel Suarez
Michael McDowell, 1 lap down
Brad Keselowski, led two laps, 1 lap down
Cole Custer, 1 lap down
Chase Briscoe, 1 lap down
Parker Kligerman, 1 lap down
Ryan Preece, 2 laps down
Tyler Reddick, led six laps, 2 laps down
Matt DiBenedetto, led four laps, 2 laps down
Ricky Stenhouse Jr, 2 laps down
Corey LaJoie, 4 laps down
Aric Almirola, 4 laps down
Ryan Newman, 4 laps down
Kyle Busch, 6 laps down
Erik Jones, 7 laps down
B.J. McLeod, 8 laps down
Cody Ware, 9 laps down
Joey Gase, 11 laps down
Josh Bilicki, 11 laps down
David Starr, 12 laps down
Quin Houff, 12 laps down
Ryan Ellis, 13 laps down
Ryan Blaney, OUT, Crash
Anthony Alfredo, OUT, Crash
Justin Haley, OUT, Engine
Chad Finchum, OUT, Handling
Up Next: The NASCAR Cup Series will head to Martinsville Speedway Sunday, Oct. 31 for the conclusion of the Round of 8, live on NBC at 2 p.m. ET.
The 2021 comeback, dream season for Kyle Larson became even brighter as the California kid dominated and fended off the field through four restarts under the final 25 laps to win the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, October 17.
By winning the Playoff’s Round of 8 opener at the Lone Star state for his eighth victory of the season, Larson punched his ticket to the Championship 4 Round at Phoenix Raceway scheduled in early November as he will contend for his first NASCAR Cup Series championship.
The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. With that, Kyle Larson, winner of last weekend’s Playoff event at the Charlotte Roval, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Denny Hamlin.
Prior to the event, Playoff contender Chase Elliott started at the rear of the field due to his No. 9 Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE failing pre-race inspection twice. Other competitors who started at the rear of the field due to two inspection failures included Corey LaJoie, rookie Chase Briscoe, Garrett Smithley and David Starr. Prior to the start, Alex Bowman, who was recently eliminated from the Playoffs, and Justin Haley also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective machines.
When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Larson received a push from Kyle Busch to jump to an early advantage for a full lap. With Larson leading the first lap, he had the green No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry piloted by Kyle Busch close in his rearview mirrors while the No. 22 AAA Insurance Ford Mustang driven by Joey Logano started to close in. Denny Hamlin maintained fourth while Martin Truex Jr. was challenged by Tyler Reddick and others for more.
By the fifth lap, Larson was out in front by nearly half a second over Kyle Busch. While Hamlin started to challenge Logano for third, Ryan Blaney moved up to fifth followed by teammate Brad Keselowski.
Through the first 10 laps of the event, Larson stabilized his advantage to nearly half a second over Kyle Busch while Logano, Blaney and Hamlin were in the top five. William Byron, following his elimination from the Playoffs, was up in sixth followed by Keselowski, Truex, Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher. Meanwhile, Chase Elliott was up in 18th.
Ten laps later, Larson extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Logano, who overtook Kyle Busch earlier. Blaney, meanwhile, started to close in on Logano and Busch for more while Byron was up in fifth ahead of Hamlin’s No. 11 Craftsman Toyota Camry.
When the competition caution flew on Lap 25, Larson was leading by more than three seconds over Logano, who had teammate Blaney starting to challenge him for the runner-up spot. Behind, Byron moved his No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE ahead of Kyle Busch. While seven Playoff contenders were in the top 10, Elliott, the eighth and final title contender, was up in 13th in between Buescher and Bubba Wallace.
Under the competition caution, the leaders pitted and Byron, who opted for a two-tire pit stop, leapfrogged from fourth to the lead followed by Truex, Kyle Busch, Reddick, Christopher Bell and Logano, who made light contact with Justin Haley’s Spire Motorsports car while exiting his pit stall. Following the pit stops, however, Kyle Busch was sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.
When the race restarted on Lap 30, Byron maintained the lead ahead of Truex and Reddick as the field fanned out to multiple lanes entering the first two turns. Just then, the caution returned for a 10-car wreck that started when Bubba Wallace, who was in between Kurt Busch and Keselowski, got loose underneath Busch, clipped Michael McDowell and was hit by Ross Chastain while Alex Bowman got turned after being hit by Cole Custer, Aric Almirola and Ryan Newman. Also involved were Ricky Stenhouse Jr., teammate Ryan Preece, Haley, Cody Ware and Joey Gase as many were taken out of contention.
In the midst of the carnage, Kyle Busch, who sustained minimal rear-end damage but managed to dodge most of the carnage, pitted for fresh tires along with Keselowski and Blaney.
Following an extensive cleanup, the race restarted on Lap 39. At the start, Truex engaged in a heated side-by-side battle with Byron as the field again fanned out while jostling for positions. Truex managed to lead the following lap by a nose before Byron fought back on the inside lane and cleared Truex entering the backstretch. Behind was Matt DiBenedetto along with Logano and Bell while Hamlin was in sixth. Meanwhile, Elliott was left in a battle with Austin Dillon and Larson for eighth.
On Lap 43, Reddick made the slightest of air contact with Truex entering Turn 3, which wiggled Truex’s car up the track and dropped him from second to fifth as Reddick, DiBenedetto and Logano took advantage of Truex’s misfortune.
Through the first 50 laps of the event, Byron was leading by six-tenths of a second over Reddick while third-place DiBenedetto trailed by more than two seconds. Teammates Hamlin and Truex were in the top five ahead of Elliott. Bell, Larson, Blaney and Logano were in the top 10 followed by Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch and Daniel Suarez. Kyle Busch, meanwhile, was in 16th ahead of Keselowski, Chris Buescher, Chase Briscoe and Corey LaJoie.
Ten laps later, Byron continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over Reddick while third-place Hamlin trailed by more than four seconds. Behind, teammates Larson and Elliott moved in the top five ahead of Blaney, DiBenedetto, Bell, Truex and Erik Jones. Kyle Busch was in 11th, Logano was back in 12th and Keselowski was mired in 17th.
Another 10 laps later, Byron stretched his advantage to more than a second over Reddick. Meanwhile, Larson flew his way to third place ahead of Hamlin, Elliott and Blaney while Kyle Busch worked his way up to seventh. Truex, however, slipped back to 10th in between DiBenedetto and Kurt Busch while Logano and Keselowski were in 13th and 17th.
On Lap 82, Larson returned to the lead after gaining a huge momentum entering the backstretch and overtaking teammate Byron on four fresh tires compared to no fresh tires to Byron.
Three laps later, Larson slowly started to extend his advantage to nearly seven-tenths of a second over teammate Byron while Reddick, Hamlin and Elliott remained in the top five.
Another five laps later, Larson’s advantage grew to more than a second over teammate Byron.
On Lap 95, Larson pitted under green along with Byron, Reddick, DiBenedetto, Logano and others. Soon after, names like Elliott, Harvick and Hamlin, who led two laps, pitted. In the midst of the pit stops, Kyle Busch, racing with race engineer Seth Chavka serving as an interim crew chief, was leading with plans on winning the stage after pitting under the previous caution for the multi-car wreck.
At the Lap 100 mark, Kyle Busch was leading by three-tenths of a second over teammate Bell while Blaney, Kurt Busch and Buescher were in the top five. By then, Truex pitted under green. Soon after, Bell surrendered the runner-up spot to pit.
When the first stage concluded on Lap 105, Kyle Busch claimed his seventh stage victory of the season. Blaney settled in second ahead of Larson, Kurt Busch, Byron, Briscoe, Hamlin, Elliott, Reddick and Keselowski. By then, 12 competitors were scored on the lead lap while names like Truex and Logano were behind a lap.
Under the stage break, the lead lap competitors pitted as Kyle Busch retained the lead ahead of Larson, Kurt Busch, Truex, Blaney and Byron.
The second stage started on Lap 112. At the start, Kyle Busch received a push from Byron to clear Larson entering the first turn and maintain the lead.
The following lap, Briscoe nearly made contact with Blaney entering Turn 3, but both competitors kept their cars straight as Briscoe moved up to sixth behind teammate Harvick. Meanwhile, Larson challenged Kyle Busch for the lead while Byron and Elliott were in third and fourth.
After battling Busch side-by-side for a full lap, Larson reassumed the lead approaching Lap 117 ahead of Kyle Busch while Harvick challenged Byron for third ahead of Reddick, Elliott and Briscoe.
By Lap 120, Larson was out in front by nearly half a second over teammate Byron while Kyle Busch settled in third ahead of Reddick, Harvick and Elliott. Logano made his way up to seventh ahead of teammate Keselowski, Briscoe and Blaney while Hamlin and Truex were in 11th and 12th.
Through the first 150 laps of the event, Larson, racing in his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, stabilized his advantage to nearly three seconds over teammate Byron while Kyle Busch, Reddick and Harvick were in the top five. Blaney and Elliott were in sixth and seventh followed by Keselowski, Keselowski and Hamlin while Truex was in 11th.
Nearly five laps later, green flag pit stops occurred as Elliott pitted his No. 9 Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. Soon after, Austin Dillon pitted along with Logano, Reddick, Erik Jones, DiBenedetto.
Just three laps shy of the halfway mark scheduled on Lap 167, the fourth caution of the event flew due to debris reported on the backstretch.
Under caution, the leaders pitted and Larson retained the lead upon exiting his pit stall followed by Kyle Busch, Byron, Keselowski, Harvick and Blaney.
When the race restarted on Lap 170, Larson received a push from teammate Byron to maintain the lead ahead of Kyle Busch and clear the field. While Byron and Kyle Busch battled for second, Penske teammates Blaney and Keselowski dueled for fourth and more while Harvick was in sixth.
By Lap 180, Larson was leading by three-tenths of a second over teammate Byron while Blaney, Keselowski and Harvick were in the top five. While Kurt Busch was up in sixth, brother Kyle was back in seventh ahead of Hamlin, Briscoe and Truex.
At the Lap 200 mark, Larson continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over teammate Byron while Blaney, Harvick and Keselowski remained in the top five. Kurt Busch, Briscoe, Hamlin and Reddick were running sixth through ninth while Kyle Busch was mired back in 10th ahead of Truex and Logano.
When the second stage concluded on Lap 210, Larson, who encountered brief lapped traffic, fended off a hard-charging, teammate Byron and notched his 16th stage victory of the season. Blaney fended off Harvick to finish behind the two Hendrick Motorsports teammates while Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Hamlin, Briscoe, Reddick and Kyle Busch were scored in the top 10. The Playoff contenders finishing outside of the top-10 stage points spots were Truex (11th), Logano, (12th) and Elliott (15th).
Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Larson retained the lead following his service and after beating teammate Byron back to the pit exit line. Keselowski followed suit along with Blaney, Kurt Busch and Harvick. Following the pit stops, Daniel Suarez was penalized for speeding on pit road.
With 118 laps remaining, the final stage commenced. At the start, Larson was being pushed by Blaney on the inside lane while Byron was being pushed by Keselowski on the outside lane. Entering the backstretch, however, Larson persevered for the lead while Blaney challenged Byron for second.
The following lap, Kurt Busch, who was in sixth, dropped off the pace through the backstretch and made his way to pit road under green for two fresh left-side tires.
Back at the front, Larson was leading by a narrow margin over teammate Byron while Harvick was in third along with Keselowski, Blaney, Hamlin, Logano, Kyle Busch, Briscoe and Reddick.
With 110 laps remaining, Larson slowly started to pull away with the lead while Harvick and Byron battled for second ahead of Keselowski and Blaney.
Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Larson stretched his advantage to more than a second over teammate Byron while Keselowski, Blaney and Harvick were in the top five. Reddick was up in sixth followed by Briscoe, Hamlin, Logano and Kyle Busch while Elliott and Truex were in 11th and 12th.
With 75 laps remaining, teammates Larson and Byron remained in first and second despite both battling vibration issues to their respective Chevrolets. Keselowski was in third, trailing by three seconds, while Blaney and Reddick remained in the top five. By then, Kyle Busch was outside of the top 10 in 11th while Elliott occupied 10th place. Not long after, Bell pitted under green.
Fifteen laps later, the caution flew when Briscoe, who was having a strong run in the top 10 and was battling Hamlin earlier before making contact with Hamlin and touching the Turn 4 outside wall, cut a right-rear tire and shredded debris through the backstretch.
Under caution, the leaders pitted and Larson retained the lead followed by Byron, Keselowski, Reddick, Hamlin and Blaney.
With 54 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Larson received a push from Keselowski to clear teammate Byron and remain as the leader ahead of the field.
Four laps later, the battle for the lead started to ignite as Byron challenged Larson for the lead. Despite keeping his leader and teammate within his sights, Byron still could not gain a run to seal the deal over Larson.
Another 10 laps later, Larson stabilized his advantage to three-tenths of a second over teammate Byron and six-tenths of a second over Keselowski while Reddick trailed by less than a second. Blaney was in fifth ahead of Hamlin, who had Daniel Suarez and Elliott closing in. Harvick and Logano were in the top 10 just ahead of Kyle Busch and Truex.
With 36 laps remaining, the seventh caution of the event flew when the motor on Logano’s No. 22 AAA Ford Mustang blew up through the backstretch, which forced the 2018 Cup champion to end his race in the garage and place an early blow to start the Round of 8.
Under caution, some led by Elliott pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.
Down to the final 30 laps of the event, the race restarted under green as Larson and Byron dueled for the lead followed by Reddick and Keselowski. Just then, the caution returned as Kyle Busch got Buescher sideways while rookie Anthony Alfredo, who made contact with teammate Michael McDowell, spun and backed his car into the outside wall in Turn 1. As Alfredo’s car slid down the track, fire then erupted beneath Alfredo’s car and the Turn 1 surface, though Alfredo was able to safely exit out of his car. The incident was enough for the event to be red-flagged for 11 minutes.
When the red flag was lifted and the race restarted with 25 laps remaining, Larson received a push from Reddick to remain as the leader while Reddick challenged Byron for second. Behind, Hamlin made his way into fourth place ahead of Blaney while Keselowski slipped to sixth ahead of Harvick.
The following lap, a three-wide action occurred between Hamlin, Blaney and Harvick as they battled for fourth for a full lap in front of Truex and Kyle Busch. Then, Blaney made contact with Hamlin entering the frontstretch, which resulted in a tire rub and smoke coming out of Hamlin’s No. 11 Craftsman Toyota. Despite the contact, Hamlin, for the moment, continued in seventh behind Keselowski, Harvick and Blaney.
Back at the front, Larson continued to lead ahead Reddick, who overtook Byron for second as Keselowski remained in the hunt.
Then nearing the final 20 laps of the event, the caution returned when Hamlin spun through the backstretch after cutting the left-rear tire, which came from the contact with Blaney. Despite having minimum damage to his car, Hamlin, who also had a flat right-front tire, pitted and continued.
Down to the final 16 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Byron shoved teammate Larson to the lead before trying to fend off Reddick and Harvick for second.
Shortly after, the 10th caution of the event flew when Truex, who was bumped by Suarez, made hard contact into the Turn 3 outside wall before limping his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry to his pit stall with significant right-side damage. The damage was enough to knock Truex out of contention in the closing stages of the event.
With nine laps remaining, the race restarted as teammates Larson and Byron retained the front row. At the start, Larson received another strong shove on the inside lane from Reddick to retain the lead. While Byron retained second, Reddick also fended off Keselowski, Blaney, Bell and Harvick to settle in third while challenging Byron for more.
With seven laps remaining, Reddick slipped beneath Byron in Turn 3 while trying to take second, which resulted with Reddick slipping out of the top five as Larson ran away with the lead.
Just then, the 11th caution flew when Briscoe and Buescher made contact entering the backstretch, which resulted with Buescher spinning and getting hit by Hamlin before making hard contact with the inside wall and ending his race with a wrecked race car.
With the race set to a two-lap shootout, the green flag waved as teammates Larson and Byron occupied the front row once again. At the start, Larson was able to clear Byron entering the first two turns to keep the lead as the field battled and fanned out behind.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson continued to lead while Keselowski challenged Byron for second. With the side-by-side battles occurring behind him, Larson streaked away from the field and came back around to claim his eighth checkered flag of the 2021 season.
By claiming his 14th NASCAR Cup Series career win and sweeping both Texas Motor Speedway Cup events of this season (he won the All-Star Race at Texas in June), Larson will make his first appearance in the Championship 4 Round as a title contender as he looks to deliver a second consecutive title for Hendrick Motorsports.
“This is unreal,” Larson said on NBC. “I knew we’d have a good shot to win today and our car was amazing. That’s probably the best 550 [mph] package, intermediate car we’ve had all year. Thanks to everybody on this No. 5 team, HendrickCars.com, [owner] Rick Hendrick. This is so cool. We get to go race for a championship in a few weeks. This is crazy. I just got good pushes from behind me, really. I tried to stay patient on the throttle, to keep them to my back bumper and thankfully, I was able to just barely clear them every time into [Turn] 1 and not have to fight them off of [Turn] 2. Thanks to William [Byron], Tyler [Reddick], Brad Keselowski, anybody who was ever behind me, especially Brad there that last restart. Just awesome to win and hope we can get some more wins throughout the rest of the year.”
“I don’t think we’re gonna lose focus on Kansas [Speedway] or Martinsville [Speedway], but I definitely think we can shift a little bit more to Phoenix [Raceway] car,” Larson added. “Really look forward to that. I love the West Coast. I love Phoenix. We’ve always been fast there. I think we should have a good shot. Our team’s been so strong all year long and might as well close it out now.”
Byron received a push from Bell through the frontstretch to claim the runner-up spot, which moved Bell up to third and dropped Keselowski to fourth while Harvick finished in the top five.
“It’s all about the push,” Byron said. “I think here at Texas, the shortest lane kind of wins out because of the way the track kind of separates into Turn 1. The AXALTA Chevy was fast all day. We just never quite got control. I think [Larson] was definitely better than us that first stage and then, I was right there with him the rest of the time and it was just clean air, basically. Congrats to [Larson]. Kyle really deserves it. They’ve been awesome all year, flawless on pit road, pit calls and everything. Our team’s right there and I think we’re building something really good for years to come.”
“The last few times we’ve been here, you get 40-, 50-, 100-lap runs in the end and jeez, we didn’t run more than two laps at the time for the last 45, 50 laps,” Keselowski said. “That’s not what we needed. We needed the long runs to be able to keep them honest. We had the long-run speed. Those guys were just blistering fast, [Larson] and [Byron]. Every restart, they just drove away from me. It’s kind of like, ‘Come on, give me some laps and let their stuff wear down!’ Just wasn’t the way it played out. We gained a point, but we moved up from eighth to sixth [in the standings], so that’s a nice little win for us. If you keep running like that, scoring high 30s, low 40s in points, we’ll transfer in.”
Finishing in the top 10 were Blaney, Elliott, Kyle Busch, Reddick and Suarez. Hamlin, meanwhile, limped across the finish line in 11th place and with damage to the front nose of his car following his involvement in the previous caution.
“It just gets wild and crazy,” Blaney said. “There’s not a ton of room here to kind of go on restarts and then, just trying to help each lane kind of move forward. You hope the lane you pick moves forward and I thought we could run third or fourth. I thought the top two, [Larson] and [Byron], were pretty spectacular. I thought we could run third or fourth and just lost a couple of spots here and there on each restart. Gained one, lose one and then, we ended up sixth. Proud of the Dex Imaging Ford Mustang team today. Good stage points. We got a good finish out of it. Go on to Kansas and keep on at it…Just gotta keep doing what you’re doing. I don’t think you can ever get comfortable unless you’re [Larson] right now for the next two races. You just have to keep racing like you have been. We did a good job on pit road and didn’t make any mistakes today. Had a fast enough car to run up at the front. You hope to bring that every single week. We’ll keep on focusing on one race at a time.”
“I thought by the end, we were decent,” Elliott said. “Just by that point, obviously, too late…Congrats to Kyle. Hopefully, we can join those guys in Phoenix. I’m looking forward to these next two weeks. I think we can run good at the next couple [races]. We all got to be super close in points. I feel like we just go do our jobs these next two weeks and control what’s in our hands. and we’ll be alright. “
“We probably missed four or five points there at the end of the day, but we missed four or five points at the stage as well, too” Kyle Busch said. “That’s about all we missed out on. We just didn’t have it. Certainly, [Larson] and [Byron] were the class of the field again. We were just slow. I found some laps where I could run wide open and I was able to just barely, barely, barely make the same time as them. Anytime I had to get out of the gas, they would just drive away. Got to go back to the drawing board for next week. Try to figure out some better stuff for Kansas. We’ll go get’em next week.”
“We just didn’t have quite a fast-enough car,” Hamlin said. “I thought we were fifth at best, honestly. Two wrecks at the end. [Blaney] just got bounced up into us there. We got our tire cut, hit the wall and then, [Buescher] and [Briscoe] got into it there and came across the nose. The fact that there was that much attrition was a good thing for us because we were able to rally on that green-white-checkered to get to 11th…I’m pretty optimistic about next week at Kansas. We need some tools to fix this car because it is destroyed.”
There were eight lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured 11 cautions for 55 laps. Only 15 of 39 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Kyle Larson, 256 laps led, Stage 2 winner
2. William Byron, 55 laps led
3. Christopher Bell
4. BradKeselowski
5. Kevin Harvick
6. Ryan Blaney
7. Chase Elliott
8. Kyle Busch, 20 laps led, Stage 1 winner
9. Tyler Reddick
10. Daniel Suarez
11. Denny Hamlin, two laps led
12. Erik Jones
13. Matt DiBenedetto
14. Austin Dillon
15. Chase Briscoe
16. Kurt Busch, two laps down
17. Michael McDowell, two laps down
18. Aric Almirola, three laps down
19. Cole Custer, four laps down
20. Corey LaJoie, five laps down
21. Chris Buescher – OUT, Accident
22. BJ McLeod, 10 laps down
23. David Starr, 11 laps down
24. Garrett Smithley, 13 laps down
25. Martin Truex Jr. – OUT, Accident, one lap led
26. Josh Bilicki, 15 laps down
27. Timmy Hill, 17 laps down
28. Ross Chastain, 23 laps down
29. Anthony Alfredo – OUT, Accident
30. Joey Logano – OUT, Engine
31. Quin Houff – OUT, Suspension
32. Bubba Wallace – OUT, Accident
33. Alex Bowman – OUT, Accident
34. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Accident
35. Ryan Newman – OUT, Accident
36. Ryan Preece – OUT, Accident
37. Justin Haley – OUT, Accident
38. Cody Ware – OUT, Accident
39. Joey Gase – OUT, Accident
Bold indicates Playoff contenders.
Playoff standings.
1. Kyle Larson – Advanced
2. Ryan Blaney, +17
3. Denny Hamlin, +9
4. Kyle Busch, +8
5. Chase Elliott, -8
6. Brad Keselowski, -15
7. Martin Truex Jr., -22
8. Joey Logano, -43
The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs will continue next weekend at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, October 24, which will occur at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN.
With a championship spot on the line for eight Playoff contenders, including runner-up Daniel Hemric, John Hunter Nemechek, a part-time Xfinity Series competitor, had other plans and stole the spotlight after rallying from a late pit road penalty to win the Andy’s Frozen Custard 335 at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday, October 16, while on two fresh tires.
Nemechek, who currently competes as a full-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship competitor for Kyle Busch Motorsports, led three times for a race-high 92 of 200 laps as he fended off Hemric by more than a second to deny Hemric and seven other Playoff contenders an early automatic spot to the Championship Round at Phoenix Raceway scheduled in early November.
The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Xfinity event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Xfinity race. With that, AJ Allmendinger, winner of last weekend’s Playoff event at the Charlotte Roval, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with Austin Cindric.
When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Allmendinger got off to a strong start as he cleared his No. 16 Andy’s Frozen Custard Chevrolet Camaro through the field through the first turn and led the first lap ahead of Cindric and Daniel Hemric. Behind, Noah Gragson was in fourth ahead of Justin Haley and Brandon Jones.
The following lap, Hemric, who was running on the outside lane, slipped from second to fifth as Cindric, Gragson and Haley muscled their way to the front on the inside lane.
By the fifth lap, Allmendinger was leading by nearly a second over Cindric while the field continued to jostle for positions towards the front.
Through the first 13 laps, Allmendinger continued to lead the field. Then, Cindric emerged with the top spot in his No. 22 Snap-On Ford Mustang on Lap 14.
When the competition caution flew on Lap 20, Cindric remained out in front. During the competition caution, the front-runners led by Cindric elected to remain on the track.
When the race restarted on Lap 25, Cindric and Allmendinger engaged in a tight side-by-side battle through Turn 1 and ahead of the field until Cindric squeaked ahead entering the backstretch. Then, the caution returned when Landon Cassill stalled his car in Turn 4.
Under caution, Jeb Burton and rookie Sam Mayer, both of whom made contact on the track, pitted for repairs.
Six laps later, the race restarted under green. At the start, Cindric received a strong start on the inside lane after receiving a push from Hemric, which allowed him to clear Allmendinger entering Turn 1 as Hemric also moved up to second place.
On Lap 33, Gragson made the slightest on contact to the rear bumper of Allmendinger’s car, which sent Allmendinger up the track and down from fourth to sixth while Gragson and Brandon Jones moved up. By then, Cindric continued to lead by a decent margin over Hemric.
In the closing laps of the first stage, the third caution of the event flew when JJ Yeley stalled in Turn 4. Under caution, some like John Hunter Nemechek, Myatt Snider, Ryan Sieg, Daniel Hemric, Brandon Jones, rookie Sam Mayer, and Riley Herbst pitted while the rest led by Cindric remained on the track.
Following a one-lap shootout to conclude the first stage on Lap 45, Cindric, who retained the lead, claimed his 10th stage victory of the season. Gragson settled in second followed by Allmendinger, Justin Allgaier, Michael Annett, Haley, Harrison Burton, Jeremy Clements, Brett Moffitt and Brandon Brown.
Under the stage break, some led by Cindric pitted while the rest led by Hemric, who pitted under the previous caution, remained on the track.
The second stage started on Lap 51. At the start, Hemric pulled his No. 18 Craftsman Toyota Supra away from teammate Nemechek following a strong start on the inside lane while Mayer and Brandon Jones battled for third. In addition, Riley Herbst and Austin Hill overtook Myatt Snider through three lanes to move up to fifth and sixth.
Three laps later, the caution returned due to debris reported on the track. In the midst of the battles occurring towards the front and around the track, Hemric was out in front by a narrow margin over Nemechek.
When the race restarted on Lap 61, Hemric and Nemechek were locked in a heated, side-by-side lead for a full lap before Hemric cleared Nemechek entering Turn 2. By then, Nemechek slipped entering the backstretch, which allowed Sam Mayer to move into the runner-up spot.
Shortly after, the sixth caution flew when Ryan Sieg spun his No. 39 CMR Chevrolet Camaro in Turn 2.
When the race restarted on Lap 68, Hemric retained the lead on the inside lane while Mayer slipped after having brief issues getting going on the outside lane, which allowed Nemechek to reassume the runner-up spot.
Four laps later, Nemechek, making his second Xfinity Series start in Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 54 Romco Toyota Supra, peaked ahead of Hemric to lead for the first time, but Hemric fought back through the backstretch. Then in Turn 3, Hemric slipped up the track and nearly wrecked with Nemechek, but both Joe Gibbs Racing competitors kept their cars straight as they continued to battle for the lead through the frontstretch. By the time the leaders entered the backstretch, Nemechek cleared Hemric to retain the lead.
By Lap 75, Nemechek was leading by half a second over Hemric while Mayer, Jeb Burton and Riley Herbst were in the top 10. Haley was in sixth ahead of Michael Annett, Justin Allgaier, Brandon Jones and Cindric. Allmendinger, meanwhile, was in 11th ahead of Gragson and Harrison Burton.
With less than 10 laps remaining in the second stage, Nemechek extended his advantage to a full second over teammate Hemric while third-place Mayer trailed by more than six seconds. By then, Cindric slipped back to 12th behind Allmendinger while Gragson moved up to ninth. In addition, Haley overtook Herbst to move in the top five behind teammate Jeb Burton.
Having no competition lingering or closing towards him, Nemechek, who made his way through lapped traffic, came back around to claim the second stage victory on Lap 90, which marked his second stage victory of the season. Hemric settled in second, trailing by a second, followed by Mayer, Jeb Burton, Haley, Herbst, Annett, Allgaier, Gragson and Allmendinger.
Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Nemechek retained the lead ahead of Hemric, Mayer, Jeb Burton and Haley. During the pit stops, Allmendinger nearly left his pit stall without a left-front tire after his jackman dropped the jack early while the crew members were changing the tires on the left side. In addition, Allmendinger’s service was slow for repairs due to hitting a tire being held by Gragson’s crew member during Gragson’s service. Both returned to pit road to have the lug nuts on their respective machines secured. Soon after, Haley dropped to the rear of the field due to an uncontrolled tire violation.
With 103 laps remaining, the final stage started. At the start, Nemechek jumped ahead following a strong start while Mayer issued a challenge on Hemric for the runner-up spot. Behind, Jeb Burton and Allgaier battled for fourth in front of Cindric.
Just shy of the halfway mark scheduled on Lap 100, the eighth caution flew for a heavy multi-car wreck involving Dylan Lupton, Tanner Berryhill and Jade Buford, who slammed into Lupton after nearly having the incident dodged.
Down to the final 92 laps, the race restarted under green. At the start, Nemechek launched ahead following another strong start while Hemric and Mayer battled again side-by-side for second. Then through the backstretch, Allgaier made a bold three-wide move to take over the runner-up spot entering Turn 3. Hemric, however, fought back and took over second place through the frontstretch as the field behind fanned out to multiple lanes while jostling for positions.
At the front, Nemechek extended his advantage to more than a second over Hemric and Allgaier while Mayer settled in fourth ahead of Jeb Burton and Cindric. Brandon Jones was in eighth, Harrison Burton was in 10th and Allmendinger was mired in 12th behind Herbst while ahead of Gragson and Haley. Meanwhile, Kyle Weatherman was penalized for a restart violation.
With 80 laps remaining, Nemechek stabilized his advantage to nearly two seconds over teammate Hemric while Allgaier remained in third ahead of Cindric and Jeb Burton. Annett was in sixth ahead of Brandon Jones, Gragson, Brandon Brown and Allmendinger. By then, Mayer had fallen back to 12th behind Haley, Harrison Burton was mired in the top 15.
Ten laps later, Nemechek remained as the leader by less than two seconds over Hemric while third-place Allgaier trailed by more than three seconds. Cindric remained in fourth ahead of Annett, Jeb Burton and Gragson, who recovered from his pit road issue following the second stage but was now under surveillance by NASCAR for possibly leaking fluid on the track.
Another 10 laps later, Nemechek, who was making his way through lapped traffic, continued to lead by two seconds over teammate Hemric as Allgaier, Cindric and Annett remained in the top five. Gragson also remained in sixth ahead of Allmendinger, Brandon Jones, Haley and Jeb Burton. Harrison Burton, meanwhile, remained as the lowest-running Playoff contender in 12th.
Two laps later, the ninth caution of the event flew when CJ McLaughlin spun in Turn 4. Under caution, the leaders returned to pit road and Nemechek exited the pits with the lead ahead of Hemric, Allgaier, Cindric, Annett and Gragson. During the pit stops, Nemechek dropped out of the lead after being penalized for having too many crew members over the wall. In addition, Brandon Brown was penalized for speeding on pit road.
Down to the final 51 laps of the event, the race restarted as Hemric and Allgaier occupied the front row. At the start, Cindric shoved Hemric clear of Allgaier through the first turn as he challenged Allgaier for second place. Meanwhile, Hemric was clear out in front while Annett overtook teammate Gragson for fourth. Behind, Allmendinger battled Brandon Jones for sixth.
With 40 laps remaining, Hemric was out in front by more than a second over Allgaier while third-place Cindric trailed by more than two seconds. Gragson and Allmendinger were in fourth and fifth while Annett, Haley, Jeb Burton, Brandon Jones and Herbst were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Nemechek was in 12th before he made a bold move through the backstretch to overtake Jones, Harrison Burton and Herbst for eighth place.
Down to the final 30 laps of the event, Hemric stretched his advantage to more than two seconds over Allgaier while third-place Gragson trailed by nearly four seconds. Allmendinger and Cindric were in the top five ahead of Annett and Nemechek, who continued to methodically make his way to the front with a fast car. Haley, Harrison Burton and Brandon Jones were in the top 10.
Just then, the 10th caution flew when Brandon Brown, winner at Talladega Superspeedway earlier this month, wrecked in the backstretch and retired due to heavy damage on his No. 68 Brandonbilt Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro.
Under caution, the leaders pitted and Nemechek leap-frogged back to the lead following a two-tire stop ahead of Hemric, Allgaier, Gragson, Annett and Allmendinger. Meanwhile, Harrison Burton remained on the track to inherit the lead.
Down to the final 21 laps of the event, the race restarted. At the start, teammates Harrison Burton and Nemechek battled dead even for a full lap until Burton cleared Nemechek returning to the frontstretch.
The following lap, however, Nemechek returned to the lead for the first time since Lap 144 as Hemric joined the battle involving his two JGR teammates. Allgaier and Gragson were in the top five ahead of Allmendinger, Cindric, Haley, Annett and Brandon Jones.
With 15 laps remaining, Nemechek, racing on two fresh tires, was leading by less than seven-tenths of a second over teammate Hemric, who was trying to close in on four fresh tires, while third-place Harrison Burton, racing on four worn tires in his No. 20 Dex Imaging Toyota Supra, trailed by a second.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Nemechek stabilized his advantage to more than a second over teammate Hemric while Gragson was up in third, trailing in his No. 9 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro by less than three seconds. Behind, Allgaier and Allmendinger were up in fourth and fifth followed by Cindric and Harrison Burton, who continued to hold strong on worn tires. Haley, Annett and Jones were in the top 10.
With five laps remaining, Nemechek, who started to make his way through lapped traffic, had his advantage decreased to less than a second as Hemric tried to close in for his first win and a championship finale spot.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Nemechek remained as the leader by more than a second over teammate Hemric. With a clear race track in front of him and his teammate unable to narrow the deficit, Nemechek, whose late strategy for only two fresh tires paid off, was able to come back around and claim his first checkered flag in this year’s Xfinity season.
With the victory, Nemechek collected his second Xfinity Series career win in his 55th series start, fourth of the season, and since winning his first at Kansas Speedway in October 2018. The victory was also the 10th of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 54 Toyota Supra led by crew chief Chris Gayle. Nemechek’s win also comes two days after announcing that he will be remaining with Kyle Busch Motorsports for the 2022 Truck Series season.
This also marked the third time through the first four Playoff races where the events were won by non-Playoff Xfinity Series competitors.
“[Spotter] Stevie Reeves and Chris Gayle kept me calm [after the pit road penalty],” Nemechek said on NBC. “I think this year, I’ve grown a lot as a driver. I’ve been put in positions like that in the Truck Series as well. Man, I can’t say enough about this whole team. The No. 54 [car] has been fast every single week. My goal coming in was to win. I had to win to prove to myself that I can do this and it’s just like taking a step back to the Truck Series. I wanted to get back to Victory Lane. Thank you to all the fans that are out here. It’s an amazing accomplishment to get this one done, beating my teammate as well. We’re racing for an owner’s championship, so I’m back in the No. 54 [car] at Phoenix. Going for double championships there when we go.”
Behind Nemechek was Daniel Hemric, who led 54 laps but finished in second place for the 10th time in his career as he continues to pursue his first win across NASCAR’s top three national touring series. Ironically, Hemric also finished second to Nemechek during Nemechek’s first Xfinity career win in 2018.
“[Nemechek] just made a really good call to take two [tires] there,” Hemric, who was left dejected, said. “Obviously, clean air was so big. When we had clean air with our Craftsman Toyota Supra there at one point, it was really good. We were on the tighter side all day. Even earlier when [Nemechek] was better than us, he was just a little freer. I just couldn’t quite carry the same mid-quarter exit speed. [Crew chief] Dave Rogers made good adjustments all day, getting it better. Once we got that clean air, we were pretty well checked out. The caution came out and [Nemechek] just made a good call there to take two [tires]. It’s ‘Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.’ It just didn’t work out. I was just too tight there. It never got far into the run where our tires could make a difference. With 20 laps to go, you’re not going to overcome the gap I needed to make up. Too tight. I was whipping it for all I had. [I] About pounded the fence there three or four times trying to catch [Nemechek]. Great job to those guys, congrats to those guys. Really fast JGR Supras. Just not quite good enough.”
Gragson rallied from his early pit road issue and damage to finish in third place followed by teammate Allgaier and Cindric.
Meanwhile, Allmendinger ended up in sixth place followed by teammate Haley, Harrison Burton, Annett and Brandon Jones, with the remaining eight Xfinity Playoff contenders finishing in the top 10.
There were eight lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured 10 cautions for 54 laps.
Results.
1. John Hunter Nemechek, 92 laps led, Stage 2 winner
2. Daniel Hemric, 55 laps led
3. Noah Gragson
4. Justin Allgaier
5. Austin Cindric, 34 laps led
6. AJ Allmendinger, 13 laps led, Stage 1 winner
7. Justin Haley
8. Harrison Burton, six laps led
9. Michael Annett
10. Brandon Jones
11. Jeb Burton
12. Riley Herbst
13. Sam Mayer
14. Ryan Sieg
15. Kaz Grala
16. Brett Moffitt
17. Bayley Currey
18. Tommy Joe Martins
19. Josh Williams
20. Austin Hill, one lap down
21. Myatt Snider, one lap down
22. Ryan Vargas, one lap down
23. Jeffrey Earnhardt, one lap down
24. Alex Labbe, one lap down
25. Kyle Weatherman, one lap down
26. Joe Graf Jr., two laps down
27. Mason Massey, four laps down
28. Spencer Boyd, four laps down
29. Jeremy Clements, four laps down
30. Joey Gase, five laps down
31. Jesse Little, five laps down
32. Matt Mills, seven laps down
33. Brandon Brown – OUT, Accident
34. David Starr – OUT, Engine
35. CJ McLaughlin – OUT, Suspension
36. Landon Cassill – OUT, Electrical
37. Tanner Berryhill – OUT, Accident
38. Dylan Lupton – OUT, Accident
39. Jade Buford – OUT, Accident
40. JJ Yeley – OUT, Engine
Bold indicates Playoff contenders.
Playoff standings.
1. AJ Allmendinger, +30
2. Austin Cindric, +26
3. Justin Allgaier, +4
4. Noah Gragson, +2
5. Daniel Hemric, -2
6. Justin Haley, -6
7. Harrison Burton, -21
8. Brandon Jones, -32
The 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs will continue next weekend at Kansas Speedway on Saturday, October 23, with the race scheduled to start at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.
