NASCAR released the penalty report following this past weekend’s Xfinity-Cup Series events at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course that occurred between October 12-13, 2024.
In the Cup Series, Joshua Thomas (front-tire changer) and Nick Covey (jackman), both of whom work in the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team piloted by Austin Dillon, have been issued a two-race suspension due to a left-front wheel that detached from Dillon’s car on Lap 80 of 109 during Sunday’s event. The incident occurred after Dillon had made a green-flag pit stop and left his pit box despite the tire changer unable to tighten the left-front tire’s single lug nut before the car departed. Dillon would proceed to finish in 32nd place at Charlotte in an event that determined the Playoff’s Round of 8 field and was won by Playoff contender Kyle Larson.
With the suspensions, Thomas and Covey will not be present for the upcoming Cup Series Playoff events at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and at Homestead-Miami Speedway, respectively.
In the Xfinity Series, four crew chiefs were each fined $5,000 apiece due to their respective entries having a single lug nut unsecured during the post-race inspection process following Saturday’s event that also determined the series’ Round of 8 field and was won by Playoff contender Sam Mayer.
The crew chiefs that were penalized include Philip Bell, crew chief for Sammy Smith and the No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet team; Jeff Meendering, crew chief for Chandler Smith and the No. 81 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team; James Pohlman, crew chief for Justin Allgaier and the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet team; and Andy Street, crew chief for Austin Hill and the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet team.
Ironically, each of the crew chiefs’ respective competitors represent half of the current eight Playoff contenders who remain in championship contention as the series transitions to the Round of 8 that begins this upcoming weekend at Las Vegas.
Tuesday’s penalty report comes a day after Hendrick Motorsports opted to not appeal the disqualification of Alex Bowman from the Round of 8 due to Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet entry not meeting the minimum weight requirements following Sunday’s event, where Bowman had initially transferred after finishing in 18th place and winning the event’s second stage period.
Bowman’s disqualification allowed Joey Logano, who initially missed the Round of 8 cutline by four points, to claim the round’s final transfer berth.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
The NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series’ teams return to action this upcoming weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where the Playoff’s Round of 8 also commences for both series. The Xfinity’s Round of 8 event at Vegas will occur on Saturday, October 19, and air at 7 p.m. ET on the CW Network. The Cup’s Round of 8 event will follow suit on Sunday, October 20, and air at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
Alex Bowman has been disqualified from advancing into the Round of 8 in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs due to a post-race infraction that was discovered at the conclusion of the Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on Sunday, October 13.
During the post-race inspection process, Bowman’s No. 48 Ally/Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry was found to be too light and not meeting the minimum weight specifications.
As a result, Bowman, who finished 18th during the Round of 12 finale at the Charlotte Roval, was demoted to 38th place, dead last, in the final running order. By being demoted to the last car in the running order, Bowman, who initially transferred into the Round of 8 by nine points after he won the second stage period and accumulated 10 stage points, ended up 20 points below the top-eight cutline.
Following the announcement, Brad Moran, managing director of the NASCAR Cup Series division, disclosed the ruling behind Bowman’s disqualification.
“So unfortunately, when we were running the No. 48 [car] through, it didn’t pass the minimum weight specs. So we pulled the car off to the side and we allowed [the No. 48 team] to fuel it, which they already did. We let them fuel it again. We let them run the pumps to make sure all the pickup boxes were full. We give the teams every opportunity to try to meet a minimum weight…We rescaled [the car]. It still didn’t meet the weight. We backed it off and we run it across one more time to confirm the weights were accurate and unfortunately, they did not meet the minimum weight. They are allowed half a percent of a weight break, which is about 17 lbs, give or take. That is what they’re allowed and it was more than that.”
With Bowman being disqualified from the Playoffs, he joins Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez and Chase Briscoe as the bottom four competitors in the revised Playoff standings to not transfer into the Round of 8.
As a result, Joey Logano, who initially missed the Round of 8 cutline by four points, was awarded the final transfer spot into the Round of 8 as he continues his pursuit of his third Cup Series championship. Logano also caps off the Round of 8 field that includes teammate Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, William Byron, Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick, the latter of whom was battling Logano for a final transfer berth to the Round of 8.
Amid Bowman’s disqualification from the Playoffs, Hendrick Motorsports has yet to determine if the organization will appeal the penalty. Should the penalty stand, the 2024 season would mark the fifth time that Bowman has been eliminated from the Playoffs following the Round of 12.
The Round of 8 in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to occur next Sunday, October 20, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the South Point 400. The event’s broadcast time is slated to occur at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
With no points pressure mounted up his sleeves, Kyle Larson cruised to a dominant victory in the seventh annual running of the Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on Sunday, October 13.
The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, led a race-high 62 of 109-scheduled laps in an event where he started in sixth place and ran a consistent event while executing his pit strategy to perfection that kept him racing towards the front and also keeping his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet intact through every turn, straightaway, chicane and curbs.
After clinching his way into the Playoff’s Round of 8 by accumulating seven stage points between the event’s first two stage periods, Larson, who led twice earlier in the event, assumed the lead for the third and final time with 33 laps remaining during a late cycle of green flag pit stops. Then after muscling away from the field during a late-race restart with 26 laps remaining, the Californian maintained a reasonable advantage over the field and fellow Playoff rivals for the remainder of the event as he raced his way to his sixth Cup victory of the 2024 season.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, October 12, Shane van Gisbergen notched his first Cup Series career pole position with a pole-winning lap at 99.246 mph in 82.704 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Tyler Reddick, who posted his best qualifying lap at 99.177 mph in 82.761 seconds.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Shane van Gisbergen muscled his No. 13 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ahead with the lead from the outside lane and he led the field through the infield turns, starting from Turn 1 to the newly configured Turns 5 and 6 zones that led to the new sharp left-hand turn to Turn 7 and back on Charlotte’s oval course. With the field navigating cleanly through the infield turns, van Gisbergen retained the lead through the oval turns and the chicane areas, from the backstretch to the frontstretch, as he led the first lap ahead of Playoff contenders Joey Logano and Kyle Larson while AJ Allmendinger and Playoff contender Tyler Reddick followed suit.
During the second lap, Logano was overtaken by Larson, Reddick and Allmendinger on the track, which dropped Logano to fifth place on the course. Behind Logano, Playoff teammate Austin Cindric followed suit in sixth place as he was ahead of Brad Keselowski, Playoff contender Chase Elliott and Bubba Wallace while William Byron, who is already guaranteed a spot in the Round of 8, was in 10th place ahead of Playoff rivals Christopher Bell, Daniel Suarez and Ryan Blaney. As Playoff contenders Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe were trying to navigate their way up the leaderboard while being mired outside the top-20 mark on the track, van Gisbergen stretched his advantage to over one second on Larson by the fifth lap mark. Meanwhile, Playoff contender Alex Bowman, whose No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 briefly came off the ground after he ran over the frontstretch’s chicane curbs earlier, was mired in 19th place ahead of rookie Carson Hocevar.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, van Gisbergen stabilized his advantage to more than one second ahead of Larson while Reddick, Allmendinger and Logano followed suit in the top five. Behind, Cindric and Elliott battled fiercely for sixth place ahead of Keselowski, Wallace and Byron while Bell, Blaney, Suarez, Kyle Busch and Todd Gilliland trailed in the top 15 ahead of Ross Chastain, Michael McDowell, Ty Gibbs, Alex Bowman and Carson Hocevar. Meanwhile, Hamlin was mired in 24th place behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr. while Briscoe was back in 26th place in between Martin Truex Jr. and Chris Buescher.
Another lap later, Ryan Preece spun his No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang Dark Horse in the backstretch chicane while running in the top-30 mark, which dropped him below the leaderboard. Then during the following lap, Wallace was penalized for cutting the course while navigating his No. 23 Leidos Toyota Camry XSE through the frontstretch chicane. This resulted in Wallace serving a “stop-and-go” penalty through the backstretch chicane, which dropped Wallace from eighth to 12th on the course. Martin Truex Jr., who was running within the top-25 mark, would also be penalized for cutting the frontstretch chicane by Lap 13, which dropped him towards the top-30 mark. With the race remaining under green flag conditions, van Gisbergen stretched his advantage to nearly two seconds over Larson while Reddick, Allmendinger and Logano continued to trail in the top five.
On Lap 18, the event’s first cycle of green flag pit stops slowly started to commence as Allmendinger pitted his No. 16 Celsius Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 from the top five. By then, Austin Dillon had pitted a lap earlier. Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain and Chris Buescher would all pit by the Lap 19 mark before Cindric, Keselowski, Byron, Bell, Wallace, Hamlin, Briscoe and Truex pitted during the following lap. Larson would then pit his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 from the runner-up spot on Lap 21 along with Todd Gilliland, Hocevar, Bowman, rookie Zane Smith, Stenhouse, Daniel Hemric, Noah Gragson, Harrison Burton before the leader van Gisbergen pitted during the next lap along with Daniel Suarez. With pit road closed on Lap 23 as the first stage period was coming to a conclusion, Reddick, who remained on the course, cycled his No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE into the lead.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 25, Reddick, who came into the event 14 points above the top-eight cutline in his hopes to advance into the Playoff’s Round of 8, recorded his fourth Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Playoff contenders Logano, Elliott, Blaney and Larson followed suit in the top five while van Gisbergen, Ty Gibbs, Allmendinger, Keselowski and Playoff contender Cindric were scored in the top 10. With half of the 12 Playoff contenders racking up the event’s first round of stage points, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Bell, Byron, Suarez, Bowman, Briscoe and Hamlin were scored in 11th, 13th, 19th, 22nd, 23rd and 27, respectively.
Under the stage break, some led by Reddick and including Logano, Elliott and Blaney pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.
The second stage period started on Lap 29 as Larson and van Gisbergen occupied the front row. At the start, Larson muscled ahead of Kaulig Racing’s van Gisbergen and Allmendinger through the frontstretch and he retained the lead through the infield turns while van Gisbergen fended off Allmendinger for the runner-up spot. As the field navigated through the infield road course turns and the sharp left-hand turn from Turn 7 back on the oval turns, Larson retained the lead for the remaining turns and led the following lap while Playoff contenders Briscoe, Hamlin, Reddick, Logano, Elliott and Blaney were mired within a series of on-track bumps and contacts while stuck in the middle of the field.
Shortly after and during the Lap 30 mark, Reddick was collected in a jam-up and came to a full stop to avoid hitting Austin Dillon, who was sent for a spin in Turn 7 after he got bumped by Bowman. Despite sustaining little cosmetic damage to his car, Reddick, whose car briefly came off the ground after he hit both the Turn 7 curb and into team owner Denny Hamlin prior to avoiding Dillon, pitted under green to address a potential broken toe link to his No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE. With Hamlin remaining on the track despite getting hit in the left-side area and having a bent toe link to the rear end of his No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota Camry XSE, Larson retained the lead by nearly a second over van Gisbergen while Allmendinger, Bell and Keselowski were scored in the top five.
At the Lap 35 mark, Larson stretched his advantage to more than a second over van Gisbergen as both were followed by Allmendinger, Bell and Keselowski. With Cindric, Byron, Chastain, Suarez and Wallace following suit in the top 10, Bowman, Hocevar, Buescher, Stenhouse and Kyle Busch were mired in the top 15 ahead of Logano, Zane Smith, Justin Haley, Ty Gibbs and Elliott while Hamlin, Blaney, Truex, Gilliland and Harrison Burton were scored in the top 25.
Then while still on the Lap 35 mark, the caution returned due to Playoff contender Briscoe losing a right-rear tire as the tire came off of Briscoe’s No. 14 Ford Performance Racing School Mustang Dark Horse in Turn 14 just as Briscoe was pitting. During the caution period, Reddick and Gragson pitted, with the former having his bent right-rear toe link addressed. Soon after, more names led by Allmendinger and including Hamlin and Cindric pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.
The start of the next restart period on Lap 38 featured Larson and van Gisbergen dueling for the lead through the first four turns until Larson muscled ahead. With Bell overtaking van Gisbergen for the runner-up spot entering Turn 5, a traffic jam ensued as Keselowski was bumped and sent for a spin by Suarez in Turn 7 while the field fanned out. With the race remaining under green flag conditions, Larson retained the lead for the following lap ahead of Bell, van Gisbergen, Byron and Bowman as Austin Dillon, who was running in 28th place, was penalized for cutting the frontstretch chicane despite getting hit by Briscoe before driving off the course.
Just past the Lap 40 mark, eight of 12 Playoff contenders were racing inside the top 10 on the track as Larson retained the lead ahead of Bell while Byron, Bowman, Suarez, Logano and Elliott followed suit from fourth to eighth, respectively, as Blaney was in 10th place. Meanwhile, Cindric and Hamlin were back in 17th and 19th, respectively, while Briscoe and Reddick were mired in 36th and 37th, respectively, with the former pitting multiple times for repairs following an on-track contact. As Erik Jones bumped Kaz Grala off the course through the frontstretch chicane as payback from an earlier contact that occurred in the backstretch chicane, Chastain was sent for a spin in Turn 7 after he got hit by Truex. Through both incidents, the race remained under green flag conditions.
By Lap 45, Larson retained the lead by more than a second over Bell as van Gisbergen, Byron, Bowman, Suarez, Logano, Allmendinger, Elliott and Blaney followed suit in the top 10 ahead of Wallace, McDowell, Cindric, Kyle Busch and Hamlin. With Reddick mired in 36th place, Briscoe’s Playoff run in 2024 came to an end as he took his car to the garage and retired in 37th place. Briscoe’s DNF also ended the final Cup Series Playoff run for Stewart-Haas Racing.
“It’s tough,” Briscoe said after being released from the infield care center. “To have all that momentum that we had to come to an end and to have it come to an end like it did is definitely unfortunate. [I] Wish we could have kept going for [the title]. Just unfortunate. We still have a lot to race for. We still can go win four more races and that’s what we’re certainly trying to do.”
Two laps later, Byron pitted from inside the top five under green along with Ty Gibbs, Hemric, Chastain, Austin Dillon, Keselowski and Justin Haley. By then, Zane Smith, Truex, Stenhouse, Harrison Burton and John Hunter Nemechek had pitted. The leader Larson along with Bell and van Gisbergen would pit during the following lap as Bowman cycled into the lead.
Amid the pit stops, Suarez, who was engaged in a fierce battle that included bumps with Logano a few laps earlier, was forced off the course in the backstretch chicane after being bumped by Wallace, where Suarez came to a full stop before continuing. In addition, Zane Smith was spared from being penalized for cutting the frontstretch chicane earlier after he got bumped by Buescher.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 50, Bowman, who came into the Roval 26 points above the top-eight cutline, notched his second Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Allmendinger followed suit along with Logano, Elliott and Wallace while Blaney, Cindric, Michael McDowell, Kyle Busch and Larson, who clinched his way into the Round of 8 by points, were scored in the top 10. With half of the remaining 11 Playoff contenders on the track racking up the second round of stage points, the remaining contenders including Hamlin, Bell, Suarez, Byron and Reddick were mired in 11th, 12th, 14th, 16th and 36th, respectively.
During the stage break, some led by Bowman and including teammate Elliott, Blaney and Suarez pitted while the rest led by Allmendinger remained on the track.
With 55 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced under green as Allmendinger and Logano occupied the front row. At the start, Allmendinger muscled ahead with the lead from the outside lane and led the field through the infield turns while Wallace overtook Logano for the runner-up spot. Cindric would track teammate Logano for third place as the field fanned out while navigating through Turn 7.
With the field navigating cleanly through the backstretch chicane, trouble occurred in the frontstretch chicane as Chastain, who was mired in the top 20, was hit by Keselowski as he spun his No. 1 Busch Light Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for a second time and collected Legacy Motor Club’s Nemechek and Erik Jones. Then as Ty Gibbs retired due to a transmission issue to his No. 54 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry XSE, the caution returned during the following lap due to debris that came off of Nemechek’s damaged No. 42 Mobil 1 Toyota Camry XSE in Turn 2.
During the caution period, Suarez, who was placed in a “must-win” situation to keep his Playoff hopes alive, pitted and the hood of his No. 99 Choice Privileges Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was lifted as his crew went to work to diagnose a brake issue. By then, Bell was officially ruled to be clinched into the Round of 8 based on points.
As the event restarted under green with 50 laps remaining, Allmendinger rocketed away from Wallace and Logano to retain the lead entering the first turn and through the infield turns. As Larson used the fresh tires to battle Cindric for fourth place, the field fanned out and was able to navigate through Turn 7 cleanly as Allmendinger maintained a reasonable gap between himself and Wallace through the oval turns and the backstretch chicane.
Allmendinger would proceed to lead the following lap while Reddick and Elliott battled for 23rd place and a spot into the Round of 8. Meanwhile, Hamlin, who struggled earlier in the event, was up to seventh place behind Playoff contenders Larson, Logano, Bell and Cindric as Reddick, who was in 23rd place, was tracking Elliott by five points in the current Playoff standings. As both Buescher and van Gisbergen were sent spinning separately in Turn 7 during the next lap, Allmendinger stretched his advantage to more than a second over Wallace before Larson overtook the latter with 47 laps remaining.
With 45 laps remaining, Allmendinger stabilized his advantage to a second over Larson as Bell trailed in third place by two seconds. With Wallace leading Playoff contenders Logano, Cindric, Byron and Hamlin on the track, McDowell and Kyle Busch rounded out the top 10 ahead of Hocevar, Truex, Keselowski, Gilliland and Stenhouse. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Bowman, Blaney, Elliott, Reddick and Suarez were mired in 17th, 18th, 19th, 21st and 32nd, respectively, as Larson proceeded to cut Allmendinger’s advantage to four-tenths of a second during the next lap.
Then with 43 laps remaining, Larson used a bold move beneath Allmendinger while nearly getting sideways to move into the lead in Turn 7. Larson would proceed to lead Allmendinger through the ensuing oval turns, the backstretch chicane and the frontstretch chicane while Bell started to close in on Allmendinger from third place. Meanwhile, Reddick, who had regained his racing rhythm and was trying to carve his way back up the leaderboard since having his car repaired in the pits following his second stage incident in Turn 7, continued to trail Elliott in the Playoff standings by five points as he was mired in 19th place in front of Bowman while Elliott was just ahead of Reddick in 18th place.
With 38 laps remaining, Allmendinger pitted from the runner-up spot under green as he was followed by Cindric, Logano, Kyle Busch and Buescher. By then, McDowell had pitted a lap earlier as Larson was leading by more than three seconds over Bell. Wallace and his 23XI Racing teammate Reddick would then pit during the following lap along with Gragson before Byron, Hocevar, Elliott and Bowman pitted with 36 laps remaining. Despite enduring a slow pit service, Elliott managed to blend back on the track in front of Reddick as Reddick was separated from Elliott by four competitors.
As the field reached its final 34-lap mark, the leader Larson pitted under green along with Bell and Blaney. By then, Hamlin had pitted earlier as Larson exited pit road ahead of Bell, who endured a slow service. With nearly every competitor in the field having made a pit stop, Keselowski, who has yet to pit, was leading. Keselowski, however, would pit shortly after, which handed the lead back to Larson.
With 30 laps remaining, Larson was leading by more than six seconds over Austin Dillon as Bell, van Gisbergen and Allmendinger trailed in the top five. Meanwhile, Reddick, who was scored in 20th place, trailed the top-eight cutline by five points while Logano, who was in eighth place, occupied the final transfer spot. Meanwhile, Elliott was 12 points above the cutline as he was in 13th place while Hamlin, who was in 17th place, was ahead by nine points.
The following lap, the caution flew due to the left front wheel rolling off of Austin Dillon’s No. 3 BetMGM Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 just past Turn 4 and right after Dillon had pitted under green, which resulted in Dillon being assessed a two-lap penalty. By then, Reddick trailed Logano in the standings by four points while Larson was leading by six seconds over Bell. During the caution period, some including Allmendinger, van Gisbergen, Reddick, Haley and Buescher pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.
The start of the following restart period with 26 laps remaining featured Larson rocketing away from Bell, Byron and Cindric entering the first turn as Logano also tried to join the battle. As Larson led the field through the first four turns before navigating his way through the final three sets of infield turns, Larson slightly stretched his advantage over Bell through the oval’s backstretch and the backstretch chicane. As Playoff contenders Blaney and Hamlin were trying to navigate their way back into the top 10 on the track, Larson led the following lap while Reddick, who was mired in 24th place after he pitted, trailed the cutline by 12 points.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Larson continued to lead by more than a second over Bell as Playoff contenders Byron, Cindric, Elliott and Logano followed suit in the top six. With Logano losing fifth place on the track to Elliott not long ago, Reddick, who overtook Bowman for 19th place, trailed Logano in the standings by six points. Not long after, Reddick nearly got sideways as he bumped and sent Daniel Hemric for a spin in Turn 7. Amid the incident, Reddick continued in 18th place as he now trailed Logano by five points. Reddick would gain another point during the following lap as he overtook Stenhouse for 17th place and was trying to track McDowell for more.
With 15 laps remaining, Larson added an extra second to his advantage as he was leading by two seconds over Bell. Meanwhile, Reddick carved his way up to 15th place on the track, which placed him only two points behind Logano, who was still running in sixth place on the track, in the standings as he was trying to battle Kyle Busch for 14th place. Another lap later, however, Reddick’s deficit was cut to a single point as he overtook Busch’s No. 8 Lenovo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for 14th place while Logano was being pressured by Allmendinger for sixth place.
Down to the final 11 laps of the event, Logano and Reddick were tied for the final transfer spot to the Round of 8 as Allmendinger overtook Logano’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse for sixth place through the backstretch on the track. Meanwhile, Reddick was trying to track down team owner Hamlin, who is only seven points above the cutline, for 13th place on the track as Logano owned the tie-breaker over Reddick. Logano and Reddick would remain in seventh and 14th, respectively, on the track for the following lap as Larson stabilized his advantage to two seconds over Bell.
Then with nine laps remaining, Reddick overtook Logano in the Playoff standings as he was in the final transfer into the Round of 8 by two points after he overtook Toyota teammates Truex and Hamlin from Turns 5 to 7. Meanwhile, Logano was still mired in seventh place and racing ahead of van Gisbergen, Wallace and Blaney while Reddick was trying to track down Hocevar for 11th place. Despite dropping to 13th place, Hamlin remained seven points above the cutline.
With five laps remaining, Larson stabilized his advantage to more than two seconds over Bell as Byron, Cindric and Elliott followed suit in the top five. Meanwhile, Logano was scored outside the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings by four points as he was overtaken by van Gisbergen for seventh place on the track a few laps earlier while Reddick was up to 11th place. By then, Blaney and Elliott were also above the cutline by 18 and 14 points, respectively, while Bowman and Hamlin followed suit by eight and four points, respectively.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson remained as the leader by more than a second over Bell. As Larson proceeded to lap Suarez through the infield turns while Bell tried to close in, Larson was able to smoothly navigate his way out of the infield turns and through the final set of road course turns on the oval circuit as he then navigated through the frontstretch chicane and streaked across the finish line to claim the checkered flag by one-and-a-half seconds over Bell.
With the victory, Larson, who continues his pursuit for his second Cup Series championship ahead of the Round of 8’s commencement, achieved his sixth NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2024 season. He also achieved the 29th Cup victory of his career, his second at the Charlotte Roval after winning his first in 2021 and his first victory since winning the Bristol Night Race three weeks ago.
The victory was also the 15th of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate and the 11th of the season for Hendrick Motorsports, with the organization notching its 25th Cup victory overall at Charlotte, as Larson racked up his 23rd victory while driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for team owner Rick Hendrick.
“It’s the first time in my Playoff career [that] I’ve not been like close to the [Playoff] cutline,” Larson, who celebrated with his daughter Audrey on the frontstretch, said on NBC. “It was good to kind of have a little bit of a stress-free of a weekend. I think the first time I’ve been here without crashing, maybe besides the other time we won. Good weekend. Obviously, we’re here at [owner Rick] Hendrick’s home and got so many of the people here from there, so [it’s] gonna be fun to celebrate with them. It’s known that I don’t really use the [simulator] much and I was in the Sim this week. Huge thank you, you guys. It really helped me get into a rhythm, I think, early on and help us fine-tune our car, too. Hats off to everybody there.”
As Larson continued his race-winning celebration in Victory Lane, Tyler Reddick, the 2024 Cup Series Regular Season Champion, was left relieved and smiling on pit road with his team owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin as he survived his roller coaster event by claiming the eighth and final transfer spot to the Round of 8 by four points with an 11th-place result at Charlotte. The result enabled Reddick and the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota team to maintain their championship hopes for another three weeks.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“I thought I was going to flip [in Stage 2],” Reddick said. “This [car] was absolutely destroyed. Real hats off to everybody on this Monster Energy Toyota Camry [team]. This thing couldn’t go within four seconds of what the pace was and we just kept working on it, and we made it a lot better for Stage 3. This is how this place can be sometimes, but it’s really nice to pull this off. You just got to stay calm, got to stay focused. In those moments, man, it’s so easy to lose track of what you control. Either way, I was going to drive the car as fast as I could. It just worked out for us. This thing was able to get up back up through the field and get us to the good side of the cutline.”
Meanwhile, Logano, who recorded a race-high 17 stage points and came into Charlotte with a 13-point deficit to the cutline, was left disappointed as he fell four points shy of remaining in contention for a third Cup Series championship in 2024. This season marks the first time where Logano was eliminated from the Playoffs following the Round of 12 and it comes a year after he was eliminated following the Round of 16.
“We fought hard, for sure,” Logano said. “I think [crew chief] Paul [Wolfe] and the [No. 22] guys did a good job of executing the strategy and what we needed to do today. Just didn’t quite get enough there at the end. I fell off a little bit too much [on] that last run. Honestly, the No. 45 [team], Tyler [Reddick] and those guys did a good job [of] driving up through the field and scored more points. It’s hard not to think about Richmond a little bit right now. Just wasn’t meant to be. You can start looking back at different points in the season to gather four points pretty easily, but Talladega, we just didn’t do a good enough job there scoring stage points. It’s probably where a lot of it lies.”
Overall, Logano joins teammate Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez and Chase Briscoe as the next wave of four Playoff contenders to officially be eliminated from the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs.
“We had the speed and that’s the encouraging thing, that’s the exciting thing,” Cindric said. “Today, we needed it all. We had a great car. We had a great finish. All the things that are hard to do in a Cup race, we did all those things and capable of doing all those things in the two races prior [to Charlotte]. That’s what this [Playoff] format is. It’s difficult and for us having a better regular season, having bit better of a buffer can definitely help, but proud of everyone. Looking forward to trying to spoil some races and support our teammates to the rest.”
“We worked very hard for the last two weeks to prepare for this race,” Suarez said. “Honestly, [it was] probably the hardest I ever worked for one specific race and unfortunately, we don’t have anything to show for. Just wasn’t our day, but I can tell you something. I’m very proud of this group because we put in the work. I guarantee you something, nobody works harder to prepare for this race. Unfortunately, we don’t have anything to show for, but we have four more races and we’re going to go out there and give our best.”
On the contrary, Larson and Reddick join Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman as the remaining eight Playoff contenders who will continue the Playoff battle in the Round of 8, beginning next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Bell, Byron, Cindric and Elliott finished in the top five behind Larson at the Charlotte Roval while AJ Allmendinger, pole-sitter Shane van Gisbergen, Logano, Bubba Wallace and Blaney completed the top 10 in the final running order. As Reddick finished 11th, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Hamlin, Bowman, Suarez and Briscoe ended up 14th, 18th, 31st and 37th, respectively.
There were seven lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 13 laps. In addition, 30 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Kyle Larson, 62 laps led
2. Christopher Bell, one lap led
3. William Byron
4. Austin Cindric
5. Chase Elliott
6. AJ Allmendinger, 14 laps led
7. Shane van Gisbergen, 21 laps led
8. Joey Logano
9. Bubba Wallace
10. Ryan Blaney
11. Tyler Reddick, six laps led, Stage 1 winner
12. Carson Hocevar
13. Kyle Busch
14. Denny Hamlin
15. Michael McDowell
16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
17. Chris Buescher
18. Alex Bowman, five laps led, Stage 2 winner
19. Todd Gilliland
20. Zane Smith
21. Harrison Burton
22. Martin Truex Jr.
23. Josh Berry
24. Brad Keselowski
25. Daniel Hemric
26. Ryan Preece
27. Justin Haley
28. Kaz Grala
29. Ross Chastain
30. Josh Bilicki
31. Daniel Suarez, one lap down
32. Noah Gragson, one lap down
33. Austin Dillon, two laps down
34. Erik Jones – OUT, Accident
35. John Hunter Nemechek – OUT, Accident
36. Ty Gibbs – OUT, Engine
37. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Accident
38. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates Playoff contenders
Playoff standings
1. Kyle Larson – Advanced
2. William Byron – Advanced
3. Christopher Bell – Advanced
4. Ryan Blaney – Advanced
5. Chase Elliott – Advanced
6. Alex Bowman – Advanced
7. Denny Hamlin – Advanced
8. Tyler Reddick – Advanced
9. Joey Logano – Eliminated
10. Austin Cindric – Eliminated
11. Daniel Suarez – Eliminated
12. Chase Briscoe – Eliminated
The Round of 8 in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to occur next Sunday, October 20, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the South Point 400. The event’s broadcast time is slated to occur at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
For a second consecutive season, Sam Mayer went from being scored below the cutline in the Playoff’s Round of 12 finale to leapfrogging his way into the Round of 8 by winning the Drive for the Cure 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (Roval) on Saturday, October 12, amid an overtime shootout.
The 21-year-old Mayer from Franklin, Wisconsin, led three times for 13 of 72 over-scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row alongside Playoff contender Shane van Gisbergen but was penalized for launching ahead of the latter prior to the start/finish line while not the control competitor. Despite serving a pass-through penalty through pit road during the second lap, Mayer blended back on the track inside the top-15 mark, carved his way back into the top 10 after pitting before the first stage’s conclusion, and settled in 11th place. Despite falling one spot short of accumulating crucial stage points following the first stage period, Mayer racked up eight points by settling in third place at the conclusion of the second stage period.
After restarting on the front row for the start of the final stage period with 24 laps remaining, Mayer assumed the lead during the following lap. Despite pitting for fresh tires during a late caution period that started with 15 laps remaining, the Wisconsin native would use the tires to carve his way back up the leaderboard and up to second place as he tried to challenge Playoff contender Parker Kligerman for the victory in the closing laps.
Initially poised to finish in second place behind Kligerman, which would have eliminated him from the Playoffs, Mayer was gifted an opportunity to reclaim the lead after Leland Honeyman wrecked in Turn 3. The caution occurred inches before Kligerman could start the final lap of the event and make the event official, and instead sent the field into overtime. During the overtime shootout, Mayer overtook Kligerman through the Roval’s newly configured Turn 7 and muscled away from the field for two laps to win and maintain his 2024 championship hopes for another three weeks.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Playoff rookie Shane van Gisbergen notched his third Xfinity Series pole position of the season and his career with a pole-winning lap at 97.110 mph in 84.523 seconds. Playoff contender Sam Mayer joined him on the front row was Playoff contender Sam Mayer, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 96.871 mph in 84.731 seconds.
Prior to the event, Ed Jones and Thomas Annunziata dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Sam Mayer rocketed his No. 1 QPS Employment Chevrolet Camaro ahead of Shane van Gisbergen and AJ Allmendinger from the inside lane through the frontstretch as he proceeded to lead through the first turn before he navigated his way through the infield turns, starting in Turn 2. The field, led by Mayer, would then navigate through a pair of right-hand turns in Turns 3 and 4 before entering a brief straightaway to another right-hand turn in Turn 5. Mayer retained the lead through the Roval’s new design turns from Turns 6 and 7 before making a sharp left-hand turn to return back to the main Charlotte oval course.
As the field continued to jostle for early spots, Mayer proceeded to lead through the backstretch’s chicane before he was penalized by NASCAR for jumping the start while not the leader of the race. Amid the penalty, Mayer navigated his way through the final pair of turns before he returned to the frontstretch, drove through the chicane and led the first lap while being black-flagged by NASCAR.
During the second lap, Mayer served a drive-through penalty through pit road, which allowed van Gisbergen to assume the lead as he was followed by teammate AJ Allmendinger, Sheldon Creed, Josh Bilicki and Austin Hill. Despite being pressured by his Kaulig Racing teammate of Allmendinger, van Gisbergen would navigate his way through the 17-turn course and lead the following lap. By the fourth lap, however, Allmendinger navigated his way past van Gisbergen through the frontstretch’s chicane. With Allmendinger leading, van Gisbergen would fend off Creed for the runner-up spot as Bilicki and Hill followed suit.
Through the first five-scheduled laps, Allmendinger was leading by over teammate van Gisbergen as Creed, Bilicki and Austin Hill continued to trail in the top five ahead of rookie Jesse Love, Chandler Smith, Justin Allgaier, Connor Mosack and Riley Herbst. Behind, Aric Almirola trailed in 11th place ahead of Cole Custer, Parker Kligerman and Anthony Alfredo while Sam Mayer was mired in 15th place ahead of teammate Sammy Smith.
Two laps later, van Gisbergen missed the backstretch’s chicane, where he locked up the front tires and drove off the course while running in second place. The on-track misfortune dropped the New Zealander to sixth place, where he had to come to a full stop before proceeding back on the racing surface, as Bilicki, Creed, Hill and Jesse Love all moved up the leaderboard. By then, Allmendinger was leading by more than three seconds.
At the Lap 10 mark, eight of 12 Playoff contenders were racing inside the top 10 as Allmendinger continued to lead by more than two seconds over Bilicki. Behind, Creed, Hill and Love followed suit ahead of van Gisbergen, Allgaier, Chandler Smith and Almirola while Mayer carved his way back into the top 10. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Kligerman, Herbst, Custer and Sammy Smith were racing inside the top 15 mark as Connor Mosack occupied 14th place.
By Lap 15, Allmendinger stabilized his advantage to nearly four seconds over Bilicki while third-place van Gisbergen carved his way back up to third place in front of Creed, Hill and Love. Behind, Allgaier, Chandler Smith, Almirola and Mayer remained in the top 10 ahead of Kligerman and Herbst while Custer and Sammy Smith dropped to 16th and 17th, respectively.
Not long after, Creed, who was racing in fourth place, spun in the Roval’s newly configured Turn 7 after he got hit by Love, who was trying to make a move beneath teammate Hill for a top-five spot. The incident dropped Creed out of the top-10 mark on the track as the event remained under green flag conditions.
By Lap 17, select names led by Bilicki and including Chandler Smith, Almirola, Mayer, Kligerman, Austin Green, Brandon Jones, Custer, Anthony Alfredo, Sammy Smith, Josh Williams, Ed Jones, Alex Labbe and Ryan Sieg pitted under green. Parker Retzlaff had pitted a lap earlier as Allmendinger retained the lead by more than six seconds over teammate van Gisbergen.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 20, Allmendinger cruised to his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Teammate van Gisbergen followed suit in second ahead of Allgaier, Hill and Love while Creed, Mosack, Herbst, Bilicki and Chandler Smith were scored in the top 10. With eight of 12 Playoff contenders racking up the event’s first round of stage points, the remaining Playoff contenders including Mayer, Kligerman, Custer and Sammy Smith were mired in 11th, 21st, 23rd and 26th, respectively.
Under the stage break, some led by Allmendinger and including Playoff contenders van Gisbergen, Creed, Herbst, Allgaier, Hill and Love pitted while the rest led by Bilicki and Chandler Smith remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Love exited pit road first, ahead of Allmendinger, Creed, Hill, Herbst, Allgaier, van Gisbergen, Jeb Burton, Mosack and Sage Karam.
The second stage period started on Lap 24 as teammates Bilicki and Chandler Smith occupied the front row. At the start, Bilicki and Chandler Smith both dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Bilicki muscled his No. 19 Insurance King Toyota Supra ahead through the infield turns. As the field behind jostled for spots, Bilicki retained the lead through the infield turns, including the tight, left-hand Turn 7, before returning to the main oval course. In the midst of the battles, van Gisbergen, who restarted outside the top 20, made contact with Creed in Turn 7 in his charge back to the front before Alex Labbe spun through the backstretch’s chicane amid contact with Ed Jones. Amid the on-track chaos, the race remained under green flag conditions as Bilicki led the following lap ahead of teammate Chandler Smith while Aric Almirola was up to third place.
During an ensuing caution period that started on Lap 26 due to debris spotted in Turn 2, select names led by Creed and including Thomas Annunziata, Leland Honeyman and Blaine Perkins pitted while the rest of the field led by Bilicki remained on the track. Creed’s pit service was due to the driver reporting a shifter issue to his No. 18 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota Supra.
With the field restarting under green on Lap 29, Bilicki fended off teammate Chandler Smith through the first two turns to retain the lead. Bilicki retained a steady advantage over Smith, Mayer, Almirola and Kligerman through the infield turns from Turns 3 to 7 as the field fanned out while navigating back onto Charlotte’s oval course. Then as the field navigated through the backstretch’s chicane before returning to the frontstretch, the caution returned due to Matt DiBenedetto crashing into the tire barriers just past Turn 6 and struggling to restart from his carnage scene.
The start of the next restart period on Lap 32 featured Bilicki and Mayer occupying the front row, where both dueled for the lead through the first three turns before Mayer muscled ahead entering Turn 4. As the field behind fanned out, Mayer fended off Bilicki through the following three sets of infield turns before he returned to the oval course and continued to lead through the backstretch chicane. With Chandler Smith, Kligerman and Allmendinger trailing in the top five, Mayer led the following lap.
Shortly after, the caution returned when Herbst, who was battling Alfredo amid close-quarters racing for 15th place, made contact with Alfredo through the frontstretch chicane that resulted in Herbst getting turned sideways off the front nose of Alfredo as both went straight into the outside wall and igniting a pileup that involved Josh Williams, Mosack, Ed Jones, Parker Retzlaff, Ryan Sieg, Dylan Lupton, Preston Pardus, Blaine Perkins, Brad Perez, Jeremy Clements, Brennan Poole and Creed. Despite sustaining damage to their respective cars, Herbst and Creed continued and remained on the lead lap.
During the caution period and extensive cleanup period, a majority of the field led by Mayer pitted while the rest led by Allgaier remained on the track.
With the race restarting under green with three laps remaining in the second stage period, Allgaier and Sage Karam led the field to the restart zone, where Allgaier rocketed away from Karam and the field to lead through the infield turns as Leland Honeyman overtook Karam for second place. With Allgaier retaining the lead, the field fanned out while navigating through the infield turns, the oval turns and the backstretch’s chicane. As Allgaier proceeded to lead the following lap, more trouble struck for Creed, who was off the pace and limping his damaged car below the Charlotte oval’s apron. Creed would lose a lap as the field lapped him entering the backstretch.
As Herbst was also falling off the pace in his damaged No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang and with a broken trackbar, the caution would then fly on the final lap of the second stage period due to Creed coming to a halt in the backstretch. The caution would officially conclude the second stage period scheduled for Lap 40 as Allgaier claimed his 15th Xfinity stage victory of the 2024 season. Teammates Mosack and Mayer would follow suit in second and third, respectively, while Almirola, Honeyman, Allmendinger, van Gisbergen, Chandler Smith, Karam and Bilicki were scored in the top 10. With five of 12 Playoff contenders racking up a second round of stage points and both Herbst and Creed out of contention, the remaining Playoff contenders that included Kligerman, Love, Hill, Sammy Smith and Custer were mired inside the top 20.
During the stage break, select names including Allgaier, Karam, Clements, Retzlaff and Honeyman pitted while the rest led by Mosack remained on the track.
With 24 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced under green as teammates Mosack and Mayer occupied the front row. At the start, Mosack muscled ahead and cleared teammate Mayer through the first turn. As Mosack proceeded to lead in his No. 88 Apollo Pex Chevrolet Camaro through the ensuing infield turns, Mayer fended off Allmendinger to retain second while Almirola, van Gisbergen and Chandler Smith followed suit in the top six. With van Gisbergen diving his way up to fourth place through Turn 7, Mosack fended off teammate Mayer through both the backstretch and frontstretch chicanes to lead the following lap while teammates Hill and Love battled for ninth place.
Then, as Almirola and Clements spun in Turn 7, Mayer overtook teammate Mosack through Turns 8 and 9 to assume the lead. Mayer would retain the lead for the following lap as teammate Mosack, Allmendinger, van Gisbergen and Chandler Smith followed suit in the top five.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Mayer was leading by more than a second over teammate Mosack as Playoff contenders Allmendinger, van Gisbergen, Chandler Smith, Kligerman and Hill followed suit in the top seven ahead of Bilicki, Austin Green and Love. Behind, Sammy Smith, Custer and Allgaier were scored in the top 15 along with Brandon Jones and DiBenedetto as 31 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.
Five laps later, Mayer continued to lead by more than a second over Allmendinger as van Gisbergen, Chandler Smith and Mosack followed suit in the top five. With Mayer, who came into the event scored below the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings, leading, van Gisbergen currently occupied the eighth and final transfer spot to the top-eight cutline by two points over Allgaier, who overtook Custer for 12th place.
Shortly after, the caution flew due to Thomas Annunziata driving his No. 35 NFPA Toyota entry head-on into the barriers entering Turn 1 due to a brake failure. During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Mayer and including Playoff contenders Allmendinger, Hill, Kligerman, Allgaier, Custer and Sammy Smith pitted while the rest led by van Gisbergen remained on the track. In addition to van Gisbergen, Austin Green, Love, Preston Pardus and Nathan Byrd remained on the track.
The start of the ensuing restart period with 11 laps remaining featured van Gisbergen rocketing his No. 97 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro away with the lead as the field fanned out entering the first turn. With van Gisbergen leading Love, Green, Mayer and Kligerman through the infield turns and back on the oval turns, the New Zealander retained the lead by a steady margin through the backstretch chicane as Kligerman battled and overtook Love for the runner-up spot.
With 10 laps remaining, several competitors including Mosack and Alfredo spun through the frontstretch chicane while more including Sammy Smith served an on-track stop-and-go penalty in the frontstretch. At the front, van Gisbergen retained the lead over a hard-charging Kligerman while Mayer carved his way up to third place. Kligerman would cut van Gisbergen’s deficit through the infield turns before the former retained the advantage for the remaining turns.
The following lap, Kligerman, who pitted for fresh tires during the previous caution period and is placed in a “must-win” situation to advance into the Playoff’s Round of 8, closed in to van Gisbergen’s rear bumper through the infield turns. Kligerman then made his move beneath van Gisbergen in Turn 7 to move his No. 48 Big Machine Spiked Coolers Chevrolet Camaro into the lead and he would retain the top spot through the oval turns and the following set of chicanes as Mayer overtook van Gisbergen for the runner-up spot. Van Gisbergen, whose tires were beginning to wear out, would then yield third place to teammate Allmendinger through the infield turns during the following lap as Kligerman retained the lead over Mayer.
Down to the final five laps of the event, Kligerman kept his lead to three-tenths of a second over Mayer, with the latter keeping pace and remaining within a striking zone of the former while Allmendinger tried to close in on the two leaders. Behind, van Gisbergen trailed by more than two seconds in fourth place ahead of Hill while Chandler Smith, Allgaier, Brandon Jones, Bilicki and Love were racing in the top 10.
Then with four laps remaining, Mayer seized an opportunity and made his move beneath Kligerman entering the frontstretch chicane to assume the lead. With Mayer lightly bumping into Kligerman and retaining the lead through the chicane, Kligerman then executed a crossover move of his own as he made his move beneath Mayer and reassumed the lead through the frontstretch. With Kligerman fending off Mayer through the first three turns, Allmendinger joined the battle and van Gisbergen also tried to close in from fourth place. During the following lap, Mayer briefly lost his momentum through the oval’s backstretch, which allowed Allmendinger and van Gisbergen to challenge him for the runner-up spot. Mayer, however, defended his spot as Kligerman muscled away with the lead through every turn and straightaway.
For the following lap, Kligerman’s steady advantage grew to nine-tenths of a second over Mayer as Allmendinger and van Gisbergen followed suit by less than two seconds. Despite Mayer trimming the gap to half a second towards the frontstretch, Kligerman remained in the lead.
Then as Kligerman was inches away from crossing the start/finish line to take the white flag and start the final lap of the event, the caution flew and the event was sent into overtime due to Leland Honeyman wrecking and getting buried beneath the tire barriers in Turn 3. During the caution period, some including Love pitted while the rest led by Kligerman remained on the track
The start of the first overtime attempt featured Kligerman and Mayer dueling for the lead through the first four turns before the former rubbed and fended his way back to the front to retain the lead. Kligerman would retain the lead for the following infield turns before Mayer pulled a crossover move beneath Kligerman in Turn 7 and assumed the lead entering the oval turns. Mayer would proceed to lead through the backstretch chicane while Kligerman was trying to fend off Allmendinger and van Gisbergen for the runner-up spot.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Mayer remained as the leader by a second over Allmendinger and van Gisbergen, who overtook Kligerman for second and third. By then, van Gisbergen was tied with Love for the final transfer spot to the Round of 8. As Love was trying to gain a spot within the middle of the pack, Mayer retained the lead from the infield turns to the backstretch. With both Allmendinger and van Gisbergen unable to close in from behind, Mayer would cycle back to the frontstretch and weave his way through the chicane before crossing the finish line in first place and notching his third Xfinity checkered flag of the 2024 season.
With the victory, Mayer, who came into the Charlotte Roval event 13 points below the cutline after being disqualified due to his car failing to meet the height requirements during the post-race inspection process last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, notched his seventh career win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series division, his third of the season and his first since winning at Iowa Speedway in June. The victory was also the 16th of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate, with the manufacturer racking its sixth consecutive win at the Charlotte Roval, and the 88th overall for JR Motorsports.
The second consecutive victory at the Charlotte Roval allowed Mayer and the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet team to automatically advance into the Round of 8, where the Wisconsin native continues his pursuit for his first Xfinity Series championship.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“Man, it’s all thanks to the good Lord above,” Mayer said on the CW Network. “He’s blessed me with a lot of issues this year, learning moments. To come out here to the Charlotte Motor Speedway [Rova], go back to back [in wins] with a fast, fast car. To do it at home is something special. This No. 1 car was fast today. We certainly had to work for [the win] there. I knew that [passing in Turn 7] was my only shot if I got a good angle into that corner. [Kligerman] blocked the bottom [lane], which was good for me. It gave me a better angle up off the corner and this QPS Employment Chevrolet hooked up and we were gone from there. [It] Was something super special and now, I get to celebrate.”
As Mayer celebrated the race victory that enabled him to advance into the Round of 8, Jesse Love was also left smiling after he finished in 19th place, which was enough for him to claim the eighth and final spot to advance into the next round of the Playoffs by two points over rookie rival van Gisbergen, who ended up in third place. The result marks the second time where a driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet entry claimed the final berth into the Round of 8 while van Gisbergen’s championship run in his first full-time NASCAR campaign came to a bittersweet end.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“[The ending was] Just stressful,” Love said. “[My team] were telling me I needed one more [spot] and then one more. I was like, ‘When is [the race] gonna end?’ At the end of the day, I got to be loyal to my guys and they busted their ass really hard, so I got to put a sack over my shoulder and man up and drive forward. Just proud of my whole Whelen No. 2 team. We’re good enough to go race for a championship and we just got to go show it in the next three weeks.”
“It is what it is,” van Gisbergen said. “It probably comes down to last week [at Talladega] having the dramas we had and the DNF there, so that’s probably it. I’m proud of the Kaulig Racing guys. We’ve had an amazing year, my first year in NASCAR. I’ve loved it. I’m happy, but I’m also not. I’d love to keep going [in the Playoffs]. [I] Did what I could.”
Compared to van Gisbergen, teammate AJ Allmendinger advanced into the Round of 8 by finishing in second place. Playoff contenders Austin Hill, Chandler Smith and Justin Allgaier all advanced by finishing fourth, fifth and seventh, respectively, on the track as they joined Sammy Smith, who advanced by winning last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, for the Round of 8 battle.
Meanwhile, Kligerman did not transfer despite capping off his strong run in sixth place. Kligerman’s sixth-place result left the Connecticut native with mixed emotions and fighting off tears as he was initially within inches of both achieving his first elusive Xfinity victory and advancing into the Round of 8 during the event’s regulation period. Nonetheless, Kligerman remained humble and remained optimistic in pursuing his victory before he retires from NASCAR competition at this season’s conclusion.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“I might have teared up when I thought we got it there with the white flag and the caution comes out and then had to refocus,” Kligerman said. “I thought I’d cut off Turn 7 enough, but [Mayer] somehow got below me and then, it was on from there. I said I want to cry. I’m not gonna cry, but I really love this game. I just really, really wanted that. It would have meant the world, but you know what? It meant the world to be in that position. Thank you to [owner] Scott Borchetta and everyone at Spiked Coolers. Everyone who made this possible. Big Machine Racing. I don’t know how to process this. It’s going to take a while, but just really thankful to have the opportunity. God, I love this game. I want to get a trophy.”
Ultimately, Kligerman and van Gisbergen join Riley Herbst and Sheldon Creed as the bottom four competitors in the Playoff standings to not advance into the Round of 8.
There were 12 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 20 laps. In addition, 26 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Sam Mayer, 13 laps led
2. AJ Allmendinger, 18 laps led, Stage 1 winner
3. Shane van Gisbergen, seven laps led
4. Austin Hill
5. Chandler Smith, one lap led
6. Parker Kligerman, 12 laps led
7. Justin Allgaier, six laps led, Stage 2 winner
8. Josh Bilicki, 10 laps led
9. Aric Almirola
10. Sammy Smith
11. Brandon Jones
12. Parker Retzlaff
13. Cole Custer
14. Alex Labbe
15. Jeb Burton
16. Anthony Alfredo
17. Ryan Sieg
18. Connor Mosack, five laps led
19. Jesse Love
20. Jeremy Clements
21. Preston Pardus
22. Matt DiBenedetto
23. Kyle Sieg
24. Dawson Cram
25. Nathan Byrd
26. Brad Perez
27. Dylan Lupton, one lap down
28. Leland Honeyman – OUT, Accident
29. Sage Karam – OUT, Brakes
30. Austin Green – OUT, Engine
31. Ryan Ellis, 14 laps down
32. Riley Herbst – OUT, Driveshaft
33. Blaine Perkins, 16 laps down
34. Thomas Annunziata – OUT, Accident
35. Sheldon Creed – OUT, Accident
36. Josh Williams – OUT, Accident
37. Ed Jones – OUT, Accident
38. Brennan Poole – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates Playoff competitors
Playoff standings
1. Sam Mayer – Advanced
2. Sammy Smith – Advanced
3. Chandler Smith – Advanced
4. Austin Hill – Advanced
5. Cole Custer – Advanced
6. AJ Allmendinger – Advanced
7. Justin Allgaier – Advanced
8. Jesse Love – Advanced
9. Shane van Gisbergen – Eliminated
10. Sheldon Creed – Eliminated
11. Riley Herbst – Eliminated
12. Parker Kligerman – Eliminated
The Round of 8 in the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs is set to commence at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the Ambetter Health 302. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, October 19, and air at 7:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network.
Shane van Gisbergen doubled down with his second NASCAR national touring series pole position of the day at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (Roval) by claiming the top-starting spot for this weekend’s Bank of America Roval 400 on Saturday, October 12.
The three-time SuperCars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, was one of 10 from a list of 38-entered competitors to transfer into the final round of qualifying, where the first phase of qualifying consisted of two 19-car groups (Group A and Group B) and the top-five fastest competitors from each group transferring into the final qualifying round.
After being the fastest qualifier from the Group B qualifying round and the fastest in practice, van Gisbergen would proceed to claim the pole position with his best lap occurring at 99.246 mph in 82.704 seconds, which was enough to edge Tyler Reddick by 0.057 seconds.
With his accomplishment, van Gisbergen, who was initially not registered to compete in this event but ended up being added in Kaulig Racing’s No. 13 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry, notched his first career pole position in the NASCAR Cup Series division. He also became the 242nd competitor overall to win a pole in NASCAR’s premier series and he delivered the first Cup pole for Kaulig Racing as he will make his 10th Cup start of the 2024 season at the Charlotte Roval on Sunday. The New Zealander’s previous best starting spot in the Cup Series was third, which occurred at the Chicago Street Course in July 2023 and Watkins Glen International this past August.
Van Gisbergen, who will also start on pole position for Saturday afternoon’s Xfinity Series Playoff event at the Roval in his quest to advance into the Round of 8, also joins Michael McDowell and Ross Chastain as non-Playoff contenders to record poles as he strives to become the sixth competitor to win a Cup event at the Roval.
“Man, thank you to this Kaulig Racing team,” van Gisbergen said on USA Network. “[It was a] Last minute deal to come and race here. Thanks to [team owner] Matt [Kaulig] and the guys for letting me run their car. What an amazing day. I’m lost for words. I have to respect [that] there’s a lot of Playoff guys around me. I have to race respectfully. We’re here to win the race. Hopefully, we have a good day.”
Reddick, who won the Charlotte Roval pole a year ago and who made a last-ditch effort to topple van Gisbergen off the top of the qualifying charts, will start in second place with his best lap occurring at 99.177 mph in 82.761 seconds. Ironically, Reddick, the highest-starting Playoff contender, also rallied from being involved in a spin during the event’s practice session.
AJ Allmendinger, van Gisbergen’s teammate at Kaulig Racing and the reigning Bank of America Roval 400 winner, will start in third place with his best qualifying lap occurring at 98.874 mph in 83.015 seconds. Joey Logano and Austin Cindric, Playoff contenders and teammates at Team Penske, will line up in the top five.
Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, Playoff contenders and teammates at Hendrick Motorsports, will follow suit in sixth and seventh, respectively, while Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace and Playoff contender William Byron complete the top-10 starting spots.
With six of the 12 Playoff contenders starting in the top 10 for Sunday’s main event, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Christopher Bell, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe will start 12th, 13th, 14th, 17th, 18th and 25th, respectively.
With Sunday’s main event at the Charlotte Roval serving as the final Round of 12 event of the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs, the following names that include Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe enter the Roval below the top-eight cutline while Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott occupy the final two transfer spots by 14 and 13 points, respectively. William Byron is the only Playoff contender who is currently locked into the Round of 8 based on points while Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman and Ryan Blaney follow suit in the top six in the Playoff standings.
*All 38 competitors entered for Sunday’s event at Charlotte earned a starting spot.
Qualifying position, best speed, best time:
Shane van Gisbergen, 99.246 mph, 82.704 seconds
Tyler Reddick, 99.177 mph, 82.761 seconds
AJ Allmendinger, 98.874 mph, 83.015 seconds
Joey Logano, 98.694 mph, 83.166 seconds
Austin Cindric, 98.580 mph, 83.262 seconds
Kyle Larson, 98.500 mph, 83.330 seconds
Chase Elliott, 98.389 mph, 83.424 seconds
Brad Keselowski, 98.341 mph, 83.465 seconds
Bubba Wallace, 98.219 mph, 83.568 seconds
William Byron, 98.165 mph, 83.614 seconds
Kyle Busch, 98.637 mph, 83.214 seconds
Christopher Bell, 98.605 mph, 83.241 seconds
Daniel Suarez, 98.456 mph, 83.367 seconds
Ryan Blaney, 98.464 mph, 83.360 seconds
Todd Gilliland, 98.456 mph, 83.367 seconds
Ross Chastain, 98.277 mph, 83.519 seconds
Alex Bowman, 98.453 mph, 83.370 seconds
Denny Hamlin, 98.174 mph, 83.607 seconds
Ty Gibbs, 98.377 mph, 83.434 seconds
Carson Hocevar, 98.039 mph, 83.722 seconds
Michael McDowell, 98.305 mph, 83.495 seconds
Austin Dillon, 98.009 mph, 83.747 seconds
Zane Smith, 98.128 mph, 83.646 seconds
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 97.924 mph, 83.820 seconds
Chase Briscoe, 97.987 mph, 83.766 seconds
Harrison Burton, 97.834 mph, 83.897 seconds
Daniel Hemric, 97.921 mph, 83.823 seconds
Corey LaJoie, 97.756 mph, 83.964 seconds
Chris Buescher, 97.760 mph, 83.961 seconds
Martin Truex Jr., 97.647 mph, 84.058 seconds
Kaz Grala, 97.752 mph, 83.968 seconds
Noah Gragson, 97.560 mph, 84.133 seconds
Justin Haley, 97.718 mph, 83.997 seconds
Ryan Preece, 97..234 mph, 84.415 seconds
John Hunter Nemechek, 97.664 mph, 84.043 seconds
Josh Berry, 97.069 mph, 84.558 seconds
Erik Jones, 97.515 mph, 84.172 seconds
Josh Bilicki, 95.261 mph, 86.163 seconds
The 2024 Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course is scheduled to occur on Sunday, October 13, and air at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
Rookie Shane van Gisbergen will start on the pole position for the 2024 Drive for the Cure 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (Roval) on Saturday, October 12.
The three-time SuperCars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, was one of 10 from a list of 38-entered competitors to transfer into the final round of qualifying, where the first phase of qualifying consisted of two 19-car groups (Group A and Group B) and the top-five fastest competitors from each group transferring into the final qualifying round.
After being the fastest qualifier from the Group A qualifying round, van Gisbergen would proceed to post his best qualifying lap at 97.110 mph in 84.523 seconds during the final qualifying round, which was enough for him to claim the pole position for Saturday’s main event.
With the result, van Gisbergen, who is pulling double-duty roles between the Xfinity and Cup Series divisions, notched the third NASCAR Xfinity Series pole of the 2024 season and of his career. His previous poles of this season occurred at Sonoma Raceway in June and at the Chicago Street Course in July, both of which he proceeded to win the main events.
With Saturday’s main event at Charlotte serving as the Round of 12 finale in the 2024 Xfinity Series Playoffs, van Gisbergen’s pole position comes at a critical time. The New Zealander is currently ranked in 10th place in the Playoff standings and trails the top-eight cutline to the Round of 8 by 10 points. Having finished eighth and 35th, respectively, during the first two events of the Round of 12, van Gisbergen aims to race up front and contend for the victory that would enable him to the Round of 8 and remain in title contention.
“The WeatherTech Camaro was really good,” van Gisbergen said on USA Network. “Obviously, AJ’s [Allmendinger] fast as well, so that’s a credit to our Kaulig Racing guys. We struggled at Watkins [Glen] for pace, had to rethink and now, our cars are really, really good. Hopefully, we can both take [the competition] to’em. Hopefully, both of us get through to the second round of the Playoffs. We’re in a good spot. See how the race goes.”
Joining van Gisbergen on the front row will be Sam Mayer, a 2024 Xfinity Playoff contender who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 96.871 mph in 84.731 seconds. Like van Gisbergen, Mayer enters the Charlotte Roval below the cutline following a disqualification last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway due to his car failing to meet the height requirements during the post-race inspection process. Having won the Charlotte Roval in a “must-win” situation a year ago, Mayer, who trails the cutline by 13 points, strives to repeat his success at the Roval that would enable him to maintain his Playoff hopes for another round.
AJ Allmendinger, van Gisbergen’s teammate at Kaulig Racing and a five-time NASCAR national touring series race winner at the Charlotte Roval, will line up in third place with his best qualifying lap occurring at 96.776 mph in 84.814 seconds. Allmendinger, who currently occupies the eighth and final transfer spot into the Round of 8 by seven points, will be followed by Josh Bilicki and Playoff contender Sheldon Creed on the starting grid.
Playoff contenders Austin Hill, Chandler Smith, rookie Jesse Love and Justin Allgaier will start sixth to ninth, respectively, while Connor Mosack will occupy the 10th starting spot.
With eight of 12 Playoff contenders starting in the top 10, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Riley Herbst, Cole Custer, Sammy Smith and Parker Kligerman will start 12th, 14th, 16th, and 22nd, respectively.
*All 38 competitors entered for Saturday’s event at Charlotte earned a starting spot.
Qualifying position, best speed, best time:
Shane van Gisbergen, 97.110 mph, 84.523 seconds
Sam Mayer, 96.871 mph, 84.731 seconds
AJ Allmendinger, 96.776 mph, 84.814 seconds
Josh Bilicki, 96.256 mph, 85.273 seconds
Sheldon Creed, 96.248 mph, 85.280 seconds
Austin Hill, 96.183 mph, 85.337 seconds
Chandler Smith, 96.115 mph, 85.398 seconds
Jesse Love, 96.079 mph, 85.430 seconds
Justin Allgaier, 95.751 mph, 85.722 seconds
Connor Mosack, 95.636 mph, 85.825 seconds
Anthony Alfredo, 96.137 mph, 85.378 seconds
Riley Herbst, 95.775 mph, 85.701 seconds
Aric Almirola, 95.767 mph, 85.708 seconds
Cole Custer, 95.688 mph, 85.779 seconds
Brandon Jones, 95.675 mph, 85.790 seconds
Sammy Smith, 95.669 mph, 85.796 seconds
Austin Green, 95.562 mph, 85.892 seconds
Ed Jones, 95.543 mph, 85.909 seconds
Alex Labbe, 95.446 mph, 85.996 seconds
Parker Retzlaff, 95.385 mph, 86.051 seconds
Jeremy Clements, 95.335 mph, 86.096 seconds
Parker Kligerman, 95.319 mph, 86.111 seconds
Josh Williams, 95.215 mph, 86.205 seconds
Brennan Poole, 95.119 mph, 86.292 seconds
Ryan Sieg, 94.898 mph, 86.493 seconds
Matt DiBenedetto, 94.833 mph, 86.552 seconds
Jeb Burton, 94.777 mph, 86.603 seconds
Sage Karam, 94.549 mph, 86.812 seconds
Preston Pardus, 94.397 mph, 86.952 seconds
Ryan Ellis, 94.350 mph, 86.995 seconds
Brad Perez, 94.257 mph, 87.081 seconds
Thomas Annunziata, 94.160 mph, 87.171 seconds
Leland Honeyman, 93.877 mph, 87.434 seconds
Blaine Perkins, Owner Points
Kyle Sieg, Owner Points
Dylan Lupton, Owner Points
Dawson Cram, Owner Points
Nathan Byrd, Owner Points
The 2024 Drive for the Cure 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course is scheduled to occur Saturday afternoon, October 12, at 3:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network.
For the first time in 65 races, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. triumphantly drove his way to Victory Lane in the NASCAR Cup Series division after he edged Brad Keselowski in a photo finish during an overtime shootout to win the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, October 6.
The 2023 Daytona 500 champion from Olive Branch, Mississippi, led five times for 19 of 195 over-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified 32nd and used the draft to muscle his way to second place after the first stage period. After avoiding carnage after the second stage period that knocked out the reigning series champion Ryan Blaney, Stenhouse spent the majority of the final stage period mixing up the competition with his fellow competitors and Playoff contenders amid a series of three and four-wide action as the competitors raced in tight formation and aggressively at the front.
After barely dodging a track-record 28-car wreck on the backstretch with five laps remaining, where he got hit in the driver’s side by a spinning Austin Cindric but escaped with the lead, Stenhouse then outdueled and edged Brad Keselowski by 0.006 seconds amid an overtime shootout to claim his first elusive Cup Series victory of this year and become the third non-Playoff competitor to win throughout the 2024 Playoffs.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, October 5, Michael McDowell won his sixth Cup pole position this season and his career after he posted a pole-winning lap at 183.063 mph in 52.310 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Austin Cindric, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 182.424 mph in 52.493 seconds.
Before the event, Playoff contender Daniel Suarez dropped to the rear of the field and was assessed a drive-through penalty after taking the green flag due to an unapproved adjustment made to the roof area of Suarez’s No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet entry during the event’s pre-race inspection process. While no additional penalties were warranted, Suarez’s car chief was ejected from Sunday’s event.
Playoff contender Christopher Bell also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota entry, but he was assessed no drive-through penalty.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Michael McDowell and Austin Cindric dueled for the lead in front of two stacks of competitors running in two drafted lanes. Through the first two turns, McDowell muscled ahead from the inside lane with drafting help from teammate Todd Gilliland, but Cindric fought back through the backstretch and on the outside lane with drafting help from Kyle Busch. As Suarez served his drive-through penalty while the field fanned out entering the frontstretch, McDowell led the first lap over Cindric and Gilliland.
Over the next four laps, the field fanned out to as wide as four lanes through every straightaway and corner before settling to three stacked lanes. At the front, McDowell, who transitioned from the inside to the outside lane, maintained the lead over Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher while Cindric and Ryan Preece followed suit ahead of Kyle Busch, Noah Gragson, Playoff contender Joey Logano, Todd Gilliland and Martin Truex Jr. By then, the top-39 competitors were separated by nearly two seconds while Suarez trailed the lead pack by 35 seconds. Meanwhile, Playoff contender Denny Hamlin, who started in the top 10 before he was shuffled out of the draft earlier, was mired in 37th place.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, the top-six spots were occupied by Ford competitors as McDowell retained the lead ahead of Keselowski, Gilliland, Playoff contender Ryan Blaney, Cindric and Buescher while Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch, Preece and Harrison Burton were racing in the top 10. Behind, Noah Gragson, Logano, Playoff contender Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr. and Playoff contender Kyle Larson were scored in the top 15 as Shane van Gisbergen, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Playoff contender Tyler Reddick, Corey LaJoie and Playoff contender Chase Briscoe were mired in the top 20. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders and Hendrick Motorsports teammates Alex Bowman and William Byron were back in the top-25 mark while Joe Gibbs Racing’s Bell and Hamlin were scored in 33rd and 37th, respectively as Suarez, who was still mired in 40th place, trailed by 49 seconds.
A lap later, the event’s first caution flew when Suarez, who was lapped by the leaders through the first two turns but opted to blend in with the lead and the draft, made contact with BJ McLeod while trying to move up in front of McLeod through the backstretch. The contact sent both into the outside wall before Suarez spun his No. 99 Tootsies Orchid Lounge Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 below the track and came to a rest with flat-spotted tires towards the Turns 3 and 4 apron as Byron barely dodged Suarez.
During the first caution period, where Suarez limped his damaged car to pit road, a majority of the lead lap field led by McDowell pitted while the rest led by McLeod and including Bell and Hamlin remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Keselowski exited pit road first ahead of McDowell and Cindric while Austin Dillon, Gragson, Buescher, Blaney, Truex, Stenhouse and Preece were scored in the top 10. The remaining competitors who did not pit during the first cycle led by McLeod pitted before the restart, which handed the lead back to Keselowski.
As the event restarted under green on Lap 16, Keselowski and McDowell dueled for the lead through the first two turns and in front of two stacked lanes. The field started to fan out through the backstretch as McDowell had Cindric drafting him on the outside lane while Keselowski had Austin Dillon drafting him on the inside lane. Through the frontstretch, McDowell reassumed the lead and he quickly transitioned his No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang Dark Horse in front of Keselowski’s No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse to gain a draft from him while Cindric was trying to regain momentum with drafting help from Buescher. This forced McDowell to go on defense through two lanes while Kyle Busch was charging from a third drafting lane toward the outside lane.
At the Lap 20 mark, the top 39 competitors were running within one second of one another and fanned out to three stacked lanes as McDowell held a slight advantage over Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Preece and Austin Dillon while Cindric, Gilliland, Gragson, Buescher and Justin Haley were racing in the top 10.
Two laps later, McDowell nearly lost the lead to Preece through the frontstretch, but teammate Gilliland shoved McDowell back out front of the pack from the middle lane, where both Front Row Motorsports competitors went on defense to fend off Kyle Busch on the outside lane and Preece on the inside lane. As McDowell proceeded to lead the Lap 25 mark ahead of Gilliland and Kyle Busch, the trio of Cindric, Bowman and Blaney were the only Playoff contenders scored in the top 10 on the track.
By Lap 30, the top 39 competitors were separated by one-and-a-half seconds as McDowell continued to lead while fending off teammate Gilliland, Cindric, Kyle Busch, Justin Haley and a bevy of competitors running in a stack of three drafted lanes. With Playoff contenders Cindric, Bowman and Blaney racing in the top 10, Hamlin, Logano, Larson and Reddick were mired inside the top-20 mark while Briscoe followed suit in 21st place. Meanwhile, Elliott and Bell were mired back in 25th and 28th, respectively, while Byron dropped to 33rd place.
Nearing the Lap 40 mark, the field started to aggressively fan out to four tight lanes through every corner and straightaway as McDowell was being challenged by Haley for the lead. Haley assumed the top spot on Lap 38 while Cindric and Ross Chastain challenged him for the top spot amid a tight stack of three lanes. By then, McDowell had Haley racing in front of him amid the draft while Larson drafted Chastain to the lead at the Lap 40 mark towards the outside wall.
Three laps later, a tight four-wide formation for the lead occurred as Chastain, Larson, Alex Bowman and Daniel Hemric all challenged one another for the lead in front of a bevy of competitors running in close-quarters racing amid the draft. Chastain would then muscle his No. 1 Busch Light Camo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ahead to lead at the Lap 45 mark while the rest of the field behind continued to duel against one another through four tight lanes. By then, 11 of 12 Playoff contenders were racing within the top-25 mark while five, including Larson, Bowman, Cindric, Bell and Hamlin were racing within the top-10 mark.
At the Lap 50 mark, Chastain retained a narrow lead over a hard-charging Hemric, who had Hamlin drafting him, as a majority of the front-runners remained in a tight four-wide formation for the lead. Chastain along with Ty Gibbs and Larson would then break away from the pack by four-tenths of a second during the following lap before the field caught back up through the backstretch. Hemric would then get shuffled out of the draft through Turns 3 and 4 as Larson assumed the lead from teammate Bowman and Chastain during the next lap period.
With the field fanned out to three tight-packed lanes, Chastain led the Lap 53 mark before Ty Gibbs aggressively made his move to the lead. With Chastain rocketing back ahead, Hamlin would then get briefly shuffled out of the lead draft as Larson, Bowman, Haley, Ty Gibbs, Cindric and others followed suit behind Chastain. By Lap 55, the aggressiveness of the front-runners intensified amid three lanes as Chastain remained on defense to fend off Larson, Cindric and Bowman at the front.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 60, Chris Buescher muscled his No. 17 Nexletol Ford Mustang Dark Horse to the front and fended off Stenhouse to claim his third Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Stenhouse followed suit in second as Byron, Larson, Bell, Reddick, Chastain, Briscoe, Cindric and Blaney were scored in the top 10 while the top 25 competitors were separated by less than two seconds. With seven of 12 Playoff contenders accumulating a first round of stage points, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Bowman, Logano, Elliott, Hamlin and Suarez ended up 11th, 17th, 19th, 23rd and 40th, respectively, with the latter pinned two laps behind.
Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Buescher returned to pit road for service while select names including Shane van Gisbergen, Keselowski, rookie Zane Smith, Austin Dillon and Justin Haley remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Byron exited pit road first, followed by Buescher, Bell, Reddick, Stenhouse, Briscoe, Blaney, Cindric, Chastain and Ty Gibbs. Amid the pit stops, Gilliland was hit by Bubba Wallace and sent sliding towards his pit box while nearly dodging Byron in the process while Larson endured a slow pit stop after he had to reverse to exit his entry out of his pit box.
During the following lap, van Gisbergen, Keselowski, Zane Smith and Austin Dillon would pit their respective entries while Haley remained on the track to inherit the lead. A bevy of names led by Haley and Hemric would then pit to top off on fuel a lap prior to the second stage’s start.
The second stage period started on Lap 66 as Buescher and Reddick occupied the front row. At the start, Buescher and Reddick dueled for the lead in front of two stacked lanes running tightly as Chase Elliott was shoved out of the draft. With rookie Josh Berry trying to start a third drafting lane towards the outside wall, Reddick led the following lap by a hair over Buescher as both continued to duel for the top spot in front of Stenhouse, Bell, Briscoe and Blaney.
Just past the Lap 70 mark and with the field returning to three-wide formation Buescher was leading both the race and a lane running towards the outside wall while McDowell led the middle lane. Meanwhile, Corey LaJoie led the inside lane as Buescher had drafting help from Bell to remain ahead of McDowell for the following lap.
At the Lap 75 mark, LaJoie made his presence at the front known as he led ahead of John Hunter Nemechek, Buescher, Cody Ware and Bell while McDowell, Hamlin, Blaney, Ty Gibbs and Erik Jones were scored in the top 10 ahead of Cindric, Reddick, Logano, Stenhouse, Briscoe, Harrison Burton, Preece, Kyle Busch, AJ Allmendinger and rookie Carson Hocevar. With all four Hendrick Motorsports competitors mired back within the top-30 mark, McDowell, who reassumed the lead a lap earlier, dueled with Buescher for the lead as Burton, LaJoie, Briscoe and Bell followed suit while the top 26 competitors were separated under a second of one another.
Two laps later, seven Ford competitors, including all four Stewart-Haas Racing competitors and McDowell, pitted under green for fuel. Amid the pit stops, Blaney was leading ahead of van Gisbergen, Cindric, Logano and Chastain while Keselowski and Gilliland, both of whom missed their marks while trying to pit with the Ford competitors and were forced to cycle around the superspeedway venue an extra lap, pitted during the following lap. By Lap 86, however, nine Ford competitors led by Buescher, all of whom pitted, trailed the lead by nearly 36 seconds as Blaney retained the lead.
Within the Lap 90 mark, van Gisbergen, who assumed the lead two laps earlier, was leading as he was trying to fend off Blaney and Chastain through two stacked lanes while the top 27 competitors were separated within a second of one another.
At the halfway mark on Lap 94, the lead pack aggressively lapped Keselowski, Cody Ware and Gilliland through the backstretch as van Gisbergen assumed the lead from Blaney, who was getting stalled by his fellow Ford competitors and caused the field to scatter and fan out. Just then, Truex spun his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE as he locked up the brakes while he was trying to enter pit road along with his Toyota teammates from Joe Gibbs Racing, 23XI Racing and Legacy Motor Club. The race, however, remained under green flag conditions as the Toyota competitors pitted primarily for fuel. Soon after, Truex was lapped as van Gisbergen retained the lead ahead of Chastain, Blaney, Elliott, Byron and Cindric.
By Lap 100, van Gisbergen led the top-13 competitors to pit road for service under green as Hemric nearly ran into the rear of Kyle Busch while trying to reduce the speed of his car while Austin Dillon nearly missed his pit stall while pitting A lap earlier, more names including Chevrolet competitors Chastain, Byron, Bowman, Larson, Stenhouse and Suarez had pitted under green as Cindric cycled into the lead ahead of Elliott, van Gisbergen and Blaney. With the rest of the field, all of whom had pitted, slowly closing back in on the leaders amid the draft, the competitors within the field also started to scatter and fan out as Cindric retained the lead.
Within the Lap 105 mark, the top 30 competitors were separated by more than a second as the field started to fan out to two drafted lanes. In the process, Cindric retained the lead, where he blocked teammate Blaney exiting the backstretch as Blaney had Kyle Busch drafting him while Elliott led the inside lane ahead of van Gisbergen, Byron, Bubba Wallace and Hemric. The aggressiveness of the draft amongst the front-runners intensified shortly after as Cindric and Elliott dueled for the lead in front of two stacked lanes through every corner and straightaway.
On Lap 110, Cindric and Elliott continued to duel tightly against one another for the lead in front of two stacked lanes as the top-29 competitors were separated by two seconds. By then, five of 12 Playoff contenders were scored in the top 10, with 10 contenders racing within the top-20 mark.
Seven laps later, McDowell, who was running towards the rear of the lead pack, pitted under green for fuel. By then, AJ Allmendinger was lapped while both Cindric and Elliott fiercely dueled for the lead in front of the pack.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 120, Playoff contender Austin Cindric fended off the pack to score his fourth Cup stage victory of the 2024 season while teammate Blaney was bumped by Bowman’s No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the frontstretch. The contact resulted in Blaney getting loose and veering his No. 12 Pennzoil/Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse back across the path of Chastain, where both collided against one another and towards the outside wall while teammate Logano, Hamlin, Ty Gibbs, Reddick and LaJoie also sustained damage to their respective entries. Despite ending up eighth and 10th, respectively, Blaney and Chastain were knocked out of further contention, with the former concluding his event with a total of four stage points.
Amid the carnage, Elliott settled in second place ahead of Kyle Busch, van Gisbergen and Byron while Bowman, Wallace and Larson occupied the remaining top 10 spots on the track. By then, the remaining Playoff contenders including Reddick, Hamlin, Briscoe, Logano, Bell and Suarez did not rack up any points during the second stage’s conclusion while Allmendinger claimed the free pass spot by being the first competitor scored a lap down ahead of Suarez and Anthony Alfredo.
Under the stage break, a majority of the lead lap field led by Cindric returned to pit road, primarily for fuel, while others led by Reddick remained on the track. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategies, Kyle Busch exited pit road first ahead of Cindric, Wallace, Elliott and Byron while Larson, van Gisbergen, Ty Gibbs, Bowman and Hemric followed suit in the top 10, with Bowman being penalized for removing equipment out of his pit box. Not long after, the remaining competitors who remained on the track led by Reddick pitted, which handed the lead to Busch.
With 61 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Kyle Busch and Wallace occupied the front row. At the start, Busch received a strong shove from Cindric from the outside lane, where he maintained a steady lead through the first two turns and managed to break ahead through the backstretch. Wallace, however, fought back from the inside lane through Turns 3 and 4, but Busch would lead the following lap by a hair over Wallace. By then, the field fanned out to three drafted lanes as Buescher tried to ignite a charge toward the outside lane. Meanwhile, Wallace had drafting help from Byron on the inside lane while Busch, who led the next lap, had Cindric drafting him on the outside lane.
Over the next four laps, Wallace managed to lead ahead of Busch as the front-runners returned to a three-wide formation. With 55 laps remaining, however, Buescher and Briscoe briefly rocketed away from the field through Turns 3 and 4 before the field caught back up through the frontstretch. As the field settled in by the following lap, a three-wide formation for the lead ensued as Allmendinger led both the race and the drafting lane toward the outside lane. With Allmendinger going on defense, he had Buescher, Briscoe and Cody Ware all closing in on him with Wallace, Kyle Busch, Gilliland, Byron, Logano and Cindric following suit.
With 50 laps remaining, Logano, who suffered front nose damage to the front of his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse after he got collected in the second stage’s wreck that involved teammate Blaney, emerged with the lead in front of a stack of three-wide competition from the field, with Allmendinger, Cody Ware, Kyle Busch and Briscoe scored in the top five. By then, six of the remaining 11 Playoff contenders on the track were racing within the top-10 mark while the remaining four that included Reddick, Byron, Bell and Hamlin were mired within the top-30 mark.
Ten laps later, Allmendinger, who spent the previous 10 laps trailing Logano before he overtook him amid the draft two laps earlier, was leading ahead of Logano, Briscoe, Gilliland and Buescher while Cindric, Stenhouse, Wallace, Austin Dillon and Elliott were scored in the top 10 as the top-34 competitors were separated by less than two seconds. By then, the field was locked in a three-wide formation at the front while Allmendinger had drafting help from Briscoe from the inside lane that enabled him to remain ahead of Logano and Cindric. The field then fanned out to four drafting lanes four laps later as both Logano and Cindric muscled ahead of Allmendinger.
Down to the final 30 laps of the event, a three-wide battle for the lead between Allmendinger, Logano and Cindric continued to ensue in front of three stacked lanes as the top-35 competitors were separated by more than a second. By then, Logano, Cindric and Briscoe were the only Playoff contenders racing in the top-10 mark while seven additional contenders were racing within the top-25 mark. Meanwhile, Suarez was still mired a lap down in 36th place.
Nine laps later, select names including Allmendinger, Hemric, van Gisbergen and Anthony Alfredo peeled off the track to pit for fuel under green. Back on the track, Cindric led with 20 laps remaining over Austin Dillon before Buescher, Wallace and Erik Jones pitted under green, with the former getting sideways and locking up his front tires while trying to reduce his pace before entering pit road.
With 17 laps remaining, nine competitors led by Stenhouse and including Byron, Elliott, Larson and Suarez all pitted under green before a bevy of competitors led by Gilliland pitted under green during the following lap. By then, Gilliland was penalized for speeding while entering pit road as he locked up the front tires of his No. 38 Georgia Peanuts Ford Mustang Dark Horse as more names led by McDowell pitted.
Back on the track and with a majority of the field, including those who pitted, settling in back within the racing groove, Cindric was leading ahead of Keselowski and Logano as the top 21 competitors were separated by less than two seconds with 15 laps remaining. In the ensuing laps, Cindric had Keselowski shoving him from the inside lane while Stenhouse launched a side-by-side duel from the outside lane with drafting help from Elliott.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, the top 29 competitors were separated by more than a second as both Cindric and Stenhouse continued to duel for the lead in front of two stacked lanes as Cindric and Stenhouse also continued to have drafting help from Keselowski and Stenhouse, respectively.
Five laps later, Cindric continued to lead ahead of Stenhouse, Keselowski and a bevy of competitors racing in two-wide formation while Austin Dillon, who was mired in 29th place, tried to ignite a third drafting lane towards the outside wall.
Shortly after, the caution flew when Keselowski gave the leader Cindric a huge bump in the rear, which got Cindric’s No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse loose and ramming into the left driver’s side of Stenhouse’s No. 47 Kroger/Palmolive Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 before he spun in the middle of the pack and scrambled the field, with nearly every competitor racing in the lead pack spinning and crashing into one another and towards the walls through the backstretch. Among those who were involved included Playoff contenders Elliott, Briscoe, Logano, Bowman, Bell and Reddick as pole-sitter McDowell was also left with a wrecked race car.
The incident that collected a track-record 28 competitors was enough for the event to be sent into overtime as Stenhouse, who was hit in the driver’s side, escaped with the lead followed by Keselowski, Byron, Larson and Kyle Busch. It also placed the event in a red flag period for more than eight minutes before the scattered field led by Stenhouse resumed under a cautious pace. By then, Briscoe and Elliott, both of whom had their respective cars towed back to their pit stalls and were given clearance by NASCAR to have their cars repaired, managed to continue despite dropping out of the lead lap category while teammates Logano and Cindric were ruled out of the race.
When the race returned under green flag conditions, the start of the first overtime attempt featured Stenhouse and Keselowski dueling for the lead while Hendrick Motorsports’ Byron and Larson followed suit ahead of Bell, Kyle Busch and Erik Jones. Stenhouse and Keselowski continued to battle dead even in front of two stacked lanes exiting the backstretch before they returned to Turns 3 and 4.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Stenhouse and Keselowski remained deadlocked against one another for the lead and in front of the field. Through Turns 1 and 2, Kyle Busch was shoved out of the draft by Erik Jones, which resulted in Busch drifting towards the rear of the field as both Stenhouse and Keselowski continued to duel while being drafted by Byron and Larson, respectively.
Then through Turns 3 and 4, Keselowski muscled ahead and had both lanes under his control. Stenhouse, however, came storming back to draw even with Keselowski with drafting help from Byron’s No. 24 RAPTOR Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entering the frontstretch while Keselowski had no drafting help from Larson and Bell. As the field fanned out approaching the start/finish line, Stenhouse edged Keselowski by 0.006 seconds to claim the checkered flag and be awarded his first Cup Series victory of the 2024 season.
With the victory, Stenhouse, whose margin of victory (0.006 seconds) marks the sixth-closest finish recorded in the history of the Cup Series, snapped a 65-race winless drought dating back to his previous victory in the 2023 Daytona 500 as he scored his fourth career win in the Cup Series, all occurring between Talladega Superspeedway or Daytona International Speedway. The victory was the 14th of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate and the third ever for JTG-Daugherty Racing. Stenhouse also became the second competitor to win the Playoff event at Talladega as a non-Playoff contender since the inception of the current Playoff elimination-style format in 2014.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“Man, this team has put a lot of hard work in,” Stenhouse, who dedicated his victory to those affected by Hurricane Helene, said on NBC. “Obviously, we haven’t won since the [Daytona] 500 in ’23. It’s been an up-and-down season. It was a lot of hard work this season, just trying to find a little bit of speed, but we knew this track is one of ours to come get. This means a lot winning here. Man, what a day. Just proud of this group. I’m looking forward to seeing [co-owner Brad Daugherty]. This win’s really, really special.”
Brad Keselowski, who led two laps and just fell short of winning at Talladega in April earlier this season, settled in second place for the fourth time in 2024.
“[Larson] gave me a good push down the frontstretch, but [Byron] was able to really stick with [Stenhouse],” Keselowski said. “[I] Needed a tiny bit there, but good finish for us. We’ve been knocking on the door on these plate tracks. [I] Hate that we didn’t bust through with the win, but happy to be right there in contention.”
Meanwhile, Playoff competitors and teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson accomplished their goals of notching strong results at Talladega by finishing third and fourth, respectively. The third-place result was enough for Byron to clinch his spot into the Playoff’s Round of 8 based on points while Larson is scored 52 points above the top-eight cutline.
“Just proud of my team,” Byron said. “[They] Brought a good car here. Thanks to my spotter Branden [Lines]. He did a great job all day. We missed a couple wrecks early on that were sketchy, just when we were saving fuel and things like that. Really happy to advance on points [in the Playoffs]. We’ll be on attack [mode] going in the Round of 8 and next week. Next week’s my home track, so I look forward to that place. Hopefully, get a win there.”
“[This is my] Second top five of my career in general on speedways, so I’ll take that,” Larson added. “It’s really cool. Obviously, there’s a lot of luck that plays into just finishing these races. I feel like we do a great job and today just showed that. It’s cool to finally go into the [Charlotte] Roval with a 52-point gap. That race is stressful. It’s way more stressful to me than Talladega, so glad to not have to worry about it too much.”
Erik Jones logged in the first top-five result of the season for both himself and Legacy Motor Club by finishing fifth while Playoff contender Christopher Bell, Justin Haley, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace and Playoff contender Denny Hamlin completed the top 10 in the final running order.
With four of 12 Playoff contenders finishing in the top 10, the remaining Playoff contenders that include Alex Bowman, Tyler Reddick, Daniel Suarez, Chase Elliott, Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney ended up 16th, 20th, 26th, 29th, 30th, 32nd, 33rd and 39th, respectively.
With the results, the four Playoff contenders who enter next weekend’s Round of 8 finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course below the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings are Logano, Suarez, Cindric and Briscoe. Meanwhile, Reddick and Elliott occupy the final two transfer spots by 14 and 13 points, respectively, while Ryan Blaney escapes with a 25-point advantage from the cutline amid his Stage 2 accident that resulted in him finishing in the next-to-last position in the leaderboard.
There were 66 lead changes for 24 different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 24 laps. In addition, 22 of 40 starters finished on the lead lap.
The Round of 12 in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to conclude next Sunday, October 13, at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course in Concord, North Carolina, for the Bank of America ROVAL 400 and where the second of three elimination processes will occur. The event’s broadcast time is slated to occur at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
Michael McDowell flexed his yearlong qualifying muscles on superspeedway venues and saved his best for last as he zoomed his way to the pole position for this weekend’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday, October 5.
The 2021 Daytona 500 champion from Glendale, Arizona, was one of 10 from a list of 40-entered competitors to transfer into the second of two qualifying rounds consisting of one timed lap per round, with the top-10 competitors posting the 10-fastest lap times during the first round. After the first qualifying round, McDowell was the fastest qualifier with a lap at 182.944 mph in 52.344 seconds and was two-tenths of a second faster than Playoff contender Austin Cindric.
During the final round of qualifying, McDowell, who was the last of 10 second-round qualifiers to qualify, knocked Cindric off the top of the chart after he posted his pole-winning lap at 183.063 mph in 52.310 seconds, where he was nearly two-tenths of a second faster than Cindric.
As a result, McDowell, down to his final six races with Front Row Motorsports before joining Spire Motorsports in 2025, swept both Talladega poles of the 2024 Cup Series season. He also notched the sixth Cup pole of his career and of this season, with his latest occurring during the Playoff opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway in early September, and his fifth on superspeedway venues.
This weekend, McDowell will make his 28th attempt to win at Talladega in the Cup Series for the first time. Earlier in April, he led a race-high 36 of 188 scheduled laps from pole position and was leading on the final lap when he got turned off the front nose of Brad Keselowski through the frontstretch’s tri-oval and was involved in a multi-car wreck. Ultimately, McDowell ended up in 31st place in the final running order after he was unable to limp his damaged car to complete the final lap.
“It’s just amazing,” McDowell said on USA Network. “I’m just so proud of everybody on this No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang team. It’s hard to come down here [at Talladega] and get the pole, but we found some things in the off-season [period]. [We] Went to Daytona, it worked, and we just kept that momentum going. We came down here with a game plan. The game plan was to sit on the pole, and we did that today. That should put us in the lead for the most poles for the year. That’s something we have circled, but there’s a lot of racing left. Hopefully, tomorrow goes smoother than [in April]. To get [six] poles is pretty amazing.”
Joining McDowell on the front row will be Austin Cindric, the highest-starting Playoff contender who posted his best lap at 182.424 mph in 52.493 seconds during the final round of qualifying. Cindric, the 2022 Daytona 500 champion, enters Talladega situated in 12th place in the Playoff standings and trailing the top-eight cutline by 29 points as he strives to climb his way back above the cutline prior to the conclusion of next weekend’s Round of 8 finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course.
Todd Gilliland, McDowell’s teammate at Front Row Motorsports, will start in third place for this weekend’s main event at Talladega, followed by Kyle Busch and Playoff contender Ryan Blaney on the starting grid. Playoff contender Joey Logano, Austin Dillon, Playoff contender Denny Hamlin, Harrison Burton and Daniel Hemric completed the top-10 starting positions.
With four of 12 Playoff competitors starting in the top 10, the remaining Playoff competitors include Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, William Byron, Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez and Chase Briscoe, who will start 11th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 21st, 23rd, 31st and 36th, respectively.
*All 40 competitors entered for Sunday’s event at Talladega earned a starting spot.
Qualifying position, best speed, best time:
Michael McDowell, 183.063 mph, 52.310 seconds
Austin Cindric, 182.424 mph, 52.493 seconds
Todd Gilliland, 182.258 mph, 52.541 seconds
Kyle Busch, 181.863 mph, 52.655 seconds
Ryan Blaney, 181.784 mph, 52.678 seconds
Joey Logano, 181.687 mph, 52.706 seconds
Austin Dillon, 181.567 mph, 52.741 seconds
Denny Hamlin, 181.453 mph, 52.774 seconds
Harrison Burton, 181.038 mph, 52.895 seconds
Daniel Hemric, 180.980 mph, 52.912 seconds
Chase Elliott, 181.322 mph, 52.812 seconds
Kyle Larson, 181.292 mph, 52.821 seconds
Brad Keselowski, 181.254 mph, 52.832 seconds
Tyler Reddick, 181.223 mph, 52.841 seconds
Ty Gibbs, 181.195 mph, 52.849 seconds
William Byron, 181.007 mph, 52.904 seconds
Shane van Gisbergen, 180.973 mph, 52.914 seconds
Ryan Preece, 180.966 mph, 52.916 seconds
Josh Berry, 180.911 mph, 52.932 seconds
Chris Buescher, 180.700 mph, 52.994 seconds
Christopher Bell, 180.655 mph, 53.007 seconds
Noah Gragson, 180.642 mph, 53.011 seconds
Alex Bowman, 180.638 mph, 53.012 seconds
Martin Truex Jr., 180.611 mph, 53.020 seconds
AJ Allmendinger, 180.529 mph, 53.044 seconds
Bubba Wallace, 180.461 mph, 53.064 seconds
Ross Chastain, 180.417 mph, 53.077 seconds
Corey LaJoie, 179.932 mph, 53.220 seconds
John Hunter Nemechek, 179.922 mph, 53.223 seconds
Erik Jones, 179.801 mph, 53.259 seconds
Daniel Suarez, 179.787 mph, 53.263 seconds
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 179.693 mph, 53.291 seconds
Anthony Alfredo, 179.608 mph, 53.316 seconds
Cody Ware, 179.581 mph, 53.324 seconds
Justin Haley, 179.011 mph, 53.494 seconds
Chase Briscoe, 178.997 mph, 53.498 seconds
Carson Hocevar, 178.327 mph, 53.699 seconds
BJ McLeod, 177.761 mph, 53.870 seconds
Zane Smith, 177.593 mph, 53.921 seconds
JJ Yeley, 174.847 mph, 54.768 seconds
The 2024 YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway is scheduled to occur this Sunday, October 6, and air at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
The feeling of winning at home never felt sweeter for Grant Enfinger, who guaranteed himself an early shot to contend for this year’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship after capping off a dominant performance with a victory in the Love’s RV Stop 225 at Talladega Superspeedway on Friday, October 4.
The 39-year-old Enfinger from Fairhope, Alabama, led nine times for a race-high 34 of 85-scheduled laps in an event where he started in fourth place and spent a majority of the event racing upfront amid the draft and up against both his fellow Playoff and non-Playoff contenders. After finishing second in the first stage before winning the second stage, Enfinger, who would endure three restarts throughout the final stage period, retained the lead at the start of the final one with nine laps remaining. He then fended off late challenges from Playoff contenders Christian Eckes and Taylor Gray through the frontstretch on the final lap and amid a multi-truck wreck approaching the finish line to record his first elusive victory of the season and automatically transfer his way into this year’s Championship 4 round.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, William Sawalich, the 2024 ARCA Menards Series East champion, notched his first Truck Series career pole position after he posted a pole-winning lap at 175.764 mph in 54.482 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Ben Rhodes, who posted his best qualifying lap at 175.648 mph in 54.518 seconds.
Prior to the event, Keith McGee dropped to the rear of the field as a result of replacing Bryan Dauzat in the FDNY Racing entry. Bayley Currey also dropped to the rear of the field due to an engine change to his Niece Motorsports entry.
When the green flag waved and the race started, William Sawalich muscled his No. 1 Starkey/Soundgear Toyota Tundra TRD Pro ahead with the lead from the inside lane as he was followed by Ben Rhodes and Playoff contenders Ty Majeski and Taylor Gray through the first two turns. Sawalich proceeded to lead through the backstretch as a bevy of competitors behind dueled early for positions in two drafting lanes. When the field returned to the frontstretch, Playoff contender Grant Enfinger received a draft from Chase Purdy from the outside lane to rocket his No. 9 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet Silverado RST ahead and lead the first lap ahead of Sawalich.
Through the second to fifth lap, the field fanned out to three drafting lanes as Purdy, Enfinger and Matt Mills all took turns leading at the front while Jake Garcia, Sawalich, Connor Zilisch, Dean Thompson, Majeski, Playoff contender Tyler Ankrum, Dean Thompson and Lawless Alan all followed pursuit. By then, Ben Rhodes, who started on the front row alongside Sawalich, was penalized for jumping the start, as he launched ahead of Sawalich when he was not in control of bringing the field up to race pace before the event’s start. After serving a drive-through penalty for the penalty, however, Rhodes was penalized a second time, this time for a blend violation as he moved up the racing surface early through the backstretch. The pair of penalties would result in Rhodes losing a lap to the field while Mills and Enfinger dueled for the lead in front of the field.
Through the first 10-scheduled laps, Enfinger was leading ahead of Purdy, Sawalich, Mills and Majeski while Garcia, Playoff contender Taylor Gray, Zilisch, Ankrum and Dean Thomson were racing in the top 10. Behind, Playoff contender Corey Heim occupied 11th place ahead of, Lawless Alan, Playoff contender Christian Eckes, Playoff contender Rajah Caruth and Ryan Reed while Bret Holmes, Nick Sanchez, Stefan Parsons, Stewart Friesen and Tanner Gray were mired in the top 20.
Five laps later, Enfinger, who led three of the previous five laps, was leading by a hair amid a side-by-side battle with Mills while the rest of the field racing in two-packed lanes followed suit. By then, Garcia, Sawalich and Zilisch were running in the top five as Playoff contenders Majeski, Taylor Gray and Ankrum were racing in the top-10 mark. In addition, Heim and Caruth were battling within the top-15 mark while Eckes and Sanchez were mired within the top-20 mark. Meanwhile, Johnny Sauter, who was making his second Truck start of the season with Hattori Racing Enterprises, had pitted to have a broken spoiler brace fixed.
With two laps remaining in the first stage period, Sanchez and Currey pitted their respective entries, primarily for fuel, as Enfinger retained the lead.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 20, Matt Mills received a draft from Garcia to overtake Enfinger from the outside lane through the backstretch and claim his first Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Enfinger settled in second ahead of Garcia, Zilisch and Sawalich while Thompson, Majeski, Alan, Taylor Gray and Tanner Gray were scored in the top 10 on the track. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders that included Ankrum, Heim, Eckes and Caruth were mired within the top 16 while Sanchez was down in 32nd place.
Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Mills pits while the rest including Stewart Friesen, Matt Crafton, Spencer Boyd and Sanchez remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Enfinger exited pit road first ahead of Majeski, Garcia, Alan, Zilisch, Eckes, Thompson, Taylor Gray, Caruth and Tyler Ankrum. Friesen, Crafton and Boyd would eventually pit prior to the second stage’s start while Sanchez, who pitted before the first stage’s conclusion, remained on the track and inherited the lead.
The second stage period started on Lap 27 as Sanchez and Enfinger occupied the front row. At the start, Sanchez and Enfinger dueled for the lead for a full lap and in front of two stacked lanes. Enfinger was being pushed by Garcia while Sanchez was being pushed by Majeski and Zilisch. By then, Taylor Gray pitted to have a punctured tire on his No. 17 Place of Hope Toyota Tundra TRD Pro removed as both Sanchez and Enfinger continued to duel for the lead by the Lap 30 mark.
Then with three laps remaining in the second stage period, the caution flew after Sanchez, who had both lanes to his control before Enfinger came storming back to challenge him for the lead, got loose by Zilisch through the frontstretch. Sanchez then slid sideways into the path of Zilisch, where Zilisch kept pushing Sanchez’s spinning No. 2 Gainbridge Chevrolet Silverado RST while Sauter, Rhodes and Purdy all wrecked against the outside wall while trying to avoid the wreck. The incident occurred as Mills and Parsons made contact, but avoided igniting a wreck entering the frontstretch while being mired behind Playoff contenders Heim, Ankrum and Taylor Gray, the latter of whom had lost a lap to the field.
The multi-truck incident on Lap 37 was enough for the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 40 to officially conclude under caution as Enfinger was awarded his second Truck stage victory of the 2024 season. Garcia, Eckes, Alan, Caruth, Thompson, Heim, Tanner Gray, Ankrum and Stefan Parsons were scored in the top 10.
Under the stage break, some, led by Crafton and including Boyd while the rest led by Enfinger pitted. During the pit stops, Mason Maggio, who made contact with Ankrum on pit road, was penalized for having too many men over his pit wall. Soon after and amid the caution period, a bevy of names including Playoff contender Taylor Gray, Sanchez all returned to pit road for additional services.
With 39 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced under green as Dye and Caruth occupied the front row. At the start, Daniel Dye, who received drafting help from a bevy of Chevrolet teammates, including teammate Eckes, muscled his No. 43 NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet Silverado RST ahead of Caruth before he then moved in front of Caruth entering the backstretch. Eckes would also follow suit and he also transitioned his No. 19 NAPA Chevrolet Silverado RST in front of Caruth on the inside lane. By the following lap, Dye was leading ahead of a five-truck breakaway from the field along with teammate Eckes, Ankrum, Caruth and Dean Thompson while Enfinger and Corey Heim dueled for sixth place in front of two lines of stacked competitors.
With 35 laps remaining, teammates Eckes and Dye dueled for the lead in front of two stacked lanes of competitors. Five laps later, the top-10 competitors on the track were separated under a second as Eckes was leading ahead of Enfinger, teammate Dye, Caruth and Parsons while Mills, Garcia, Alan, Kaden Honeycutt and Sanchez were in the top 10.
Then with 28 laps remaining, a majority of field led by Eckes and Enfinger pitted under green. During the pit stops, Caruth blew a tire while he was slamming on the brakes and locking up his front tires of his No. 71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST while trying to enter pit road. Caruth, however, would be penalized for being too fast while trying to enter pit road as he eventually lost a lap. In addition, Dye missed pit road and could not pit with the front-runners while Norm Benning spun on pit road after making contact with Stefan Parsons. Soon after, Purdy was seen limping his slowed truck below the apron on the backstretch, but he continued without drawing a caution.
Back on the track with 25 laps remaining, Jason White was leading ahead of Dawson Sutton, Mason Maggio, Honeycutt and Sanchez while Enfinger, Eckes, Garcia, Riggs and Friesen were scored in the top 10.
Shortly after, the caution flew when Garcia got turned off the front nose of Parsons that resulted in Garcia colliding with rookie Layne Riggs and clipping Riggs again that sent Riggs back across the track and into Tanner Gray and Matt Mills up against the outside wall. Connor Zilisch and Dean Thompson would also get involved in the carnage while Playoff contenders Tyler Ankrum and Taylor Gray slid through the infield grass and kicked up dirt to avoid the carnage.
During the caution period, some led by the leader Jason White and including Sutton, Mason Maggio, Clay Greenfield, Cory Roper, Spencer Boyd and Ankrum pitted while the rest led by the new leader Honeycutt remained on the track.
Down to the final 17 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Honeycutt received a draft from Eckes on the inside lane to rocket ahead with the lead through the first two turns. As the field started to fan out to three lanes through the backstretch, Eckes made his move to the outside lane as he overtook Honeycutt while he was followed by Sanchez. Sanchez then made a move beneath Eckes in Turn 4 as he assumed the lead and led the following lap ahead of Honeycutt and Eckes. Sanchez would then be placed on defense to block Eckes and Honeycutt as Enfinger and Taylor Gray started to muscle up into the top five by the following lap.
The caution would then return with 15 laps remaining after Sanchez received a push from Eckes that got him sliding sideways below the apron entering Turn 3. While trying to save his truck from spinning, Sanchez slid up the track backward in between Turns 3 and 4 and barely clipped Dye, which sent Dye for a spin below the turn’s grass. With nearly the entire field dodging Sanchez’s truck, Keith McGee and Mason Maggio wrecked along with Dawson Sutton while avoiding Sanchez.
The start of the following restart period with nine laps remaining featured Enfinger rocketing ahead with the lead with drafting help from Eckes and Alan while Taylor Gray, who restarted outside the front row, blended in line in fourth place ahead of Ryan Reed and Ankrum. With a majority of the front-runners running in a long single-file line towards the inside lane, Enfinger retained the lead for the following lap and ahead of Eckes, Alan, Ankrum and Reed.
Down to the final five laps of the event, the top 12 competitors were racing under a second while the top 16 were separated within a second. In the process, Enfinger was leading ahead of Eckes, Alan, Taylor Gray and Reed while Ankrum, Friesen, Heim, Caruth and Majeski were mired in the top 10 ahead of Bret Holmes and Spencer Boyd.
During the following lap, the field behind Enfinger slowly started to fan out to multiple drafting lanes as Heim, racing in eighth place, was leading a charge from the outside lane with drafting help from Caruth. Heim and Caruth then made contact entering the backstretch, which stalled their momentum and forced both to blend back in the long drafting lane towards the double yellow lines and behind Enfinger, who continued to lead in front of Eckes.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Enfinger remained as the leader ahead of Eckes, Alan, Taylor Gray and Reed while Daniel Dye was trying to ignite a final drafting charge from the outside lane along with Caruth, Parsons and Heim. Enfinger would continue to lead through the backstretch along with Turns 3 and 4 as both Taylor Gray and Ankrum transitioned to the outside lane to receive the drafting momentum Dye was receiving.
Then through the frontstretch and with the finish line in sight, Lawless Alan would then transition to the outside lane, but Taylor Gray and Eckes pinned him in three-wide formation. As Enfinger retained the lead, trouble ignited as Ankrum was bumped and sent spinning through the frontstretch before he was hit in the driver’s side by Friesen. Eckes then slid sideways off the front nose of teammate Reed and shot back across the track, where he collected a majority of the front-runners. Meanwhile, Enfinger managed to fend off a charge from Taylor Gray to claim the checkered flag and grab the victory.
With the victory, Enfinger, who scored his first series victory at Talladega in 2016, became the first Playoff competitor to win the Truck Series Playoff event at Talladega and he became the fifth competitor to achieve multiple Truck victories at Talladega. He also notched his 11th career win in the Craftsman Truck Series and his first since winning at the Milwaukee Mile in August 2023.
Above all, Enfinger, who came into Talladega strapped in seventh place in the Playoff standings, became the first competitor to clinch a spot into this year’s Championship 4 round, where he will contend for the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series championship at Phoenix Raceway on November 8.
“[My team] knew stuff was going to get dicey,” Enfinger, who credited spotter Tim Fedewa with the victory, said on FS1. “We didn’t make all the perfect decisions today, but we had a Champion Power Equipment Chevy [that] was fast enough to get it done today. That was hairy coming right [to the finish]. I knew Taylor [Gray] was coming with a run. Tim told me to go up, then he told me to come down. It’s just Talladega right there. Hopefully, all the fans enjoyed it. It’s nothing like winning at your hometown, home track. On top of that, we get to race for a championship at Phoenix.”
Enfinger’s Talladega victory was also the first ever for CR7 Motorsports, a team that debuted in 2018 and had hired Enfinger as a part-time competitor in 2021 before signing him to a full-time, multi-year deal at the start of this season. Now after recording five top-five results and barely transferring into the Playoff’s Round of 8 throughout the previous 19 events on this year’s schedule, the organization will receive its first opportunity to contend for a NASCAR championship with the veteran Enfinger also setting his sights on claiming the title one year after being one position shy of claiming it.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“There are just so many people that make this team,” Enfinger added. “It’s a little bit of the little team that could, but we have great resources with our friends over there at [McAnally-Hilgemann Racing]. Obviously, great resources from everybody at Team Chevy. We’ve been knocking on the door. I know it’s speedway race, but we’ve been knocking on the door at all the tracks. I feel like we stumbled that first round of the Playoffs, but it really doesn’t matter now. [I was] able to win our way to Phoenix. Now, we can just focus on that. Looking forward to having some fun the next couple races, but a championship’s on the line now.
Behind Enfinger, Taylor Gray tied his career-best result of second place as he just missed his first victory and an early ticket to the Championship 4 round by 0.041 seconds. Daniel Dye managed to cross the finish line in third place with a destroyed race truck while Rajah Caruth and Lawless Alan finished in the top five. Christian Eckes, Ryan Reed, Stefan Parsons, Bret Holmes and Spencer Boyd finished in the top 10 on the track.
With Playoff contenders Enfinger, Taylor Gray, Caruth and Eckes finishing in the top 10 on the track, the remaining Playoff contenders that included Corey Heim, Ty Majeski, Tyler Ankrum and Nick Sanchez ended up 11th, 12th, 14th and 22nd, respectively. As a result, Eckes, Heim and Majeski leave Talladega above the top-four cutline to the Championship 4 round while Caruth, Gray, Sanchez and Ankrum trail the cutline.
There were 27 lead changes for 12 different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 25 laps. In addition, 23 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Grant Enfinger, 34 laps led, Stage 2 winner
2. Taylor Gray
3. Daniel Dye, three laps led
4. Rajah Caruth, two laps led
5. Lawless Alan
6. Christian Eckes, eight laps led
7. Ryan Reed
8. Stefan Parsons
9. Bret Holmes
10. Spencer Boyd
11. Corey Heim
12. Ty Majeski
13. Stewart Friesen, one lap led
14. Tyler Ankrum
15. Clay Greenfield
16. Cory Roper
17. Danny Bohn
18. Mason Maggio
19. Kaden Honeycutt, three laps led
20. Jason White, seven laps led
21. Norm Benning
22. Nick Sanchez, 10 laps led
23. Matt Crafton, one lap led
24. Dawson Sutton, four laps down, one lap led
25. Chase Purdy, 14 laps down, one lap led
26. Keith McGee – OUT, Accident
27. William Sawalich, 21 laps down
28. Layne Riggs – OUT, Accident
29. Jake Garcia – OUT, Accident
30. Tanner Gray – OUT, Accident
31. Matt Mills – OUT, Accident, 14 laps led, Stage 1 winner
32. Dean Thompson – OUT, Accident
33. Connor Zilisch – OUT, Accident
34. Johnny Sauter – OUT, DVP
35. Ben Rhodes – OUT, Accident
36. Bayley Currey – OUT, Rear Gear
*Bold indicates Playoff competitors
Playoff standings
1. Grant Enfinger – Advanced
2. Corey Heim +30
3. Christian Eckes +29
4. Ty Majeski +5
5. Rajah Caruth -5
6. Taylor Gray -13
7. Nick Sanchez -20
8. Tyler Ankrum- 23
The second Round of 8 event in the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs is set to occur at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida, and is scheduled to occur on October 26 and air at noon ET on FS1.
In his third full-time season as a crew chief in the NASCAR Cup Series, Dave Elenz, who works atop the pit box of the No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota Camry XSE team piloted by Erik Jones, is poised to achieve a milestone feat. By participating in this weekend’s Cup Playoff event at Talladega Superspeedway, Elenz will call his 100th event as a crew chief in NASCAR’s premier series.
Elenz, a native of Gaylord, Michigan, earned a mechanical engineering degree from Clemon University in 2003, He first worked for Jasper Racing from 2001 to 2003 before joining MB2 as he measured cars and bodies. In 2008, he joined Team Penske to work as a race engineer for Sam Hornish Jr. and the No. 77 team before joining Red Bull Racing as an engineer, a role he retained through 2011. The following season, he joined Hendrick Motorsports to work as an engineer on the No. 88 team piloted by Dale Earnhardt Jr. before shifting to the No. 48 team piloted by five-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson.
The 2015 season marked Elenz’s first season as a crew chief in NASCAR as he joined JR Motorsports to lead the team’s No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro entry piloted by five different competitors throughout the Xfinity Series season. During the season, Elenz notched his first two career victories, both occurring with the reigning Cup champion Kevin Harvick and navigated the No. 88 team to a 12th-place finish in the final owner’s standings. From 2015 to 2021, Elenz worked with 14 different competitors and notched 15 Xfinity career victories, including three season-opening events at Daytona International Speedway. He also notched back-to-back Xfinity Series championships between 2017-18, the first occurring with William Byron and the second with Tyler Reddick, all while working atop the pit box of JRM’s No. 9 team.
Coming off a strong 2021 Xfinity campaign with Noah Gragson and the No. 9 JR Motorsports team highlighted with three victories and a third-place finish in the final standings, Elenz was promoted back to the Cup Series for the 2022 season to work as a crew chief for Erik Jones and the No. 43 Petty GMS Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team. The duo commenced the season with a 29th-place finish during the 64th running of the Daytona 500 amid a late multi-car wreck before rallying the following weekend at Auto Club Speedway by finishing third. Elenz and Jones would proceed to record seven additional top-10 results throughout 24 regular-season events, with Elenz being suspended from participating at Pocono Raceway in July amid an L1 penalty for violations pertaining to the rocker box assemblies, and they would miss the 2022 Cup Series Playoffs.
Then during the 2022 Playoff opener at Darlington Raceway, Elenz notched his first Cup career victory as a crew chief after Jones capitalized on a 20-lap shootout to fend off Denny Hamlin and notch both his third Cup career win and his second Southern 500 victory. The victory for both Jones and Elenz occurred 55 years to the day when team owner Richard Petty won his first and only Southern 500 (1967) as the duo snapped an eight-year winless drought for Petty’s No. 43 team and became the first non-Playoff team to win a Cup Series Playoff opener. Following the Southern 500 victory, Elenz and Jones would finish in the top 10 in three of the remaining nine Playoff events before settling in 18th place in the final drivers’ standings.
The following season, when Petty GMS Motorsports was rebranded to Legacy Motor Club, Elenz and Jones commenced the season with a 37th-place finish in the 65th running of the Daytona 500 following a multi-car wreck just past the halfway mark. Then following the next 14 events, where the duo had managed to record only two top-10 results, Elenz was issued a two-race suspension and fined $75,000 after the No. 43 team was issued an L1 penalty and a 60-point dock for modifications to the car’s greenhouse.
After being absent from Sonoma Raceway in June, Legacy Motor Club attempted to appeal the penalty, which allowed Elenz to work atop the No. 43 pit box for the following event at Nashville Superspeedway but would lose the appeal by late June as Elenz would be absent for the inaugural Chicago Street Race in early July.
Returning atop the pit box during the following weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Elenz would lead Jones and the No. 43 team to two top-10 results during the final eight regular-season events, but they missed the Playoffs for a second consecutive season. During the Playoffs, Elenz and Jones finished 10th at Darlington before recording a season-best third-place result at Kansas Speedway in September amid an overtime shootout. Finishing no higher than 14th during the final eight events on the schedule, the duo settled in 27th place in the final standings.
Elenz and Jones commenced their third full-time Cup campaign together by finishing eighth in the 66th running of the Daytona 500. Then after racking up three additional top-15 runs over their next eight races, Jones suffered a compression fracture in his lower vertebra following a hard accident at Talladega in April, which caused him to miss the next two races as Corey Heim, a Craftsman Truck Series competitor for TRICON Garage, filled in for Jones.
After Heim finished no higher than 22nd during his two-race stint, Jones returned to competition at Darlington Raceway in May and finished 19th. Finishing no higher than 14th throughout the remaining 14 regular-season events, Elenz and Jones did not make the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs. Since the start of the Playoffs, the duo are coming off four consecutive top-35 results, with their highest result being a 26th-place run during the Playoff opener at Atlanta. Currently, Jones and the No. 43 team are ranked in 32nd place in the drivers’ standings.
Through 99 previous Cup events, Elenz has achieved one victory, four top-five results and 20 top-10 results while working with two different competitors.
Dave Elenz is scheduled to call his 100th Cup Series career event as a crew chief at Talladega Superspeedway for the YellaWood 500 on Sunday, October 6, with the event’s coverage to occur at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
