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Tag: Ross Chastain

  • Byron caps off dramatic rally with rain-shortened Cup victory at Atlanta

    Byron caps off dramatic rally with rain-shortened Cup victory at Atlanta

    In one of the wildest events of his youthful racing career, William Byron defied the odds by rallying from his early issues both on pit road and on the track that pinned him a lap behind to methodically motor his way back towards the front and implement a strategic pit call that enabled him to contend and attain the lead before claiming a dramatic victory in the rain-shortened Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 9.

    The 25-year-old Byron from Charlotte, North Carolina, led the final 20 of 185-shortened laps in an event where he started 18th and had a strong showing by finishing fifth in the first stage. Amid the stage break, however, Byron’s event quickly down spiraled after he was penalized for a safety violation during his pit stop that sent him to the rear of the field.

    Then while trying to carve his way back to the front, Byron ran into more trouble on Lap 79 after a tap from Corey LaJoie sent the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 spinning through the frontstretch. Despite nursing his car back to pit road in spite of flat-spotting his tires, Byron lost a lap to the leaders. By Lap 92, however, Byron received the free pass to return to the lead lap category amid a muti-car wreck that knocked his teammate Kyle Larson out of contention.

    Then after pitting with a host of competitors amid a caution period due to a multi-car wreck that struck on Lap 122, an opportunity presented itself for Byron and the No. 24 team when the second stage concluded on Lap 160. With weather threats persisting and looming near the venue, Byron remained out on the track as he restarted the final stage inside the top five. Then with 93 laps remaining, Byron overtook AJ Allmendinger for the lead and retained the top spot until the event’s seventh caution period flew with 83 laps remaining for a two-car spin involving Ryan Preece and Bubba Wallace.

    As the rain started to fall, Byron, who still retained the lead, led the field to pit road and the event was placed in a red flag period with 75 laps remaining. Not long after and with the rain increasing, NASCAR made the call to deem the event official as Byron was awarded his fourth NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, July 8, Aric Almirola notched his first Cup pole of the 2023 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 177.346 mph in 31.261 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Ryan Blaney, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 177.266 mph in 31.275 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Christopher Bell dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing entry.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Almirola and Blaney dueled for the lead through the first two turns. Entering the backstretch before Almirola, who started on the outside lane and with Joey Logano drafting him, Almirola muscled ahead in his No. 10 Smithfield/IHOP Ford Mustang. As the field made its way back to the frontstretch while running stacked in two lanes, Almirola led the first lap and then pulled ahead of the pack followed by Logano and Blaney while Chase Briscoe and Harrison Burton battled for fourth.

    Through the second lap, the majority of the field migrated to the outside lane and in a long single-file line as Almirola retained the lead followed by his Ford teammates of Logano, Blaney, Briscoe and Harrison Burton while rookie Ty Gibbs occupied sixth in front of Kevin Harvick. As Harvick started to lose a handful of spots while being stuck on the inside lane by the fourth lap, where he slipped out of the top 10, Almirola was still leading the field.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Almirola was still leading by a tenth of a second over Logano as they were pursued by Blaney, Briscoe and Harrison Burton. Behind, Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, Austin Cindric, Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin were in the top 10 while Martin Truex Jr., Todd Gilliland, William Byron, Brad Keselowski and Michael McDowell were running in the top 15.

    Six laps later, the first caution of the event flew when Harrison Burton, who was running in the top 10, slipped and spun sideways entering the backstretch from the middle to the bottom surface of the track as he was dodged by oncoming traffic while locking his tires and making light contact against the inside wall. During the first caution period, a host of names that included Harvick, Justin Haley, Ryan Preece, Kyle Busch, Chris Buescher, Daniel Suarez, Corey LaJoie, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain, JJ Yeley, Erik Jones, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon, BJ McLeod, Austin Hill, Cole Custer, Ty Dillon and rookie Noah Gragson pitted while the rest led by Almirola remained on the track.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 23, Almirola and Blaney dueled for the lead through the first two turns and through the backstretch until Almirola managed to prevail from the outside lane again and retain the lead through Turns 3 and 4. During the following lap, he transitioned to the inside lane to gain control of the pack followed by Logano and Blaney as Larson was in fourth along with Truex, Cindric, Byron and Reddick.

    At the Lap 30 mark and with the field running at speeds above 180+ mph amid the draft and in two-packed lanes, Almirola was leading ahead of Logano, Blaney, Truex and Larson while Cindric, Byron, Reddick, Briscoe and Ty Gibbs were running in the top 10. In addition, Todd Gilliland was in 11th ahead of teammate Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell, Hamlin and AJ Allmendinger while Brad Keselowski, Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace, Justin Haley and Chris Buescher were scored in the top 20 with all but one of 37 starters scored on the lead lap.

    Fifteen laps later, Almirola, who briefly lost the lead from Logano on Lap 40 before reassuming it back, retained the top spot ahead of a long line of competitors that included Logano, Blaney, Larson and Truex while Byron, Reddick, Bell, Cindric and Briscoe were in the top 10.

    Then on Lap 48, Logano made his move beneath Almirola in Turns 1 and 2 and moved back in front of Almirola to inherit the lead through the backstretch. Almirola, however, darted left and fought back on the inside lane entering Turns 3. But Logano received drafting help from teammate Blaney exiting the turns as he surged ahead in his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang with the lead while Almirola was trying to navigate his way back to the outside lane amid the pack.

    Nearing the Lap 50 mark, Larson and Truex moved up into third and fourth along with Byron while Almirola was still trying to force his way in front of Reddick in getting back up to the outside lane. With more contact ensuing through the frontstretch as Reddick nearly got turned by Cindric while racing him and Bell within the top 10, the field fanned out to three lanes as Almirola continued to slip back to 10th in front of Reddick.

    Back to the front of the pack on Lap 53, Truex tried to overtake Blaney for second, but he could not execute the run to claim the spot as Larson tried to join the battle. By then, Bell carved his way up into the top five while Logano was still out in front with the lead. Another four laps later and with the field still fanning out to three lanes amid the intensity increasing, Blaney moved his No. 12 Wurth Ford Mustang into the lead ahead of teammate Logano while Larson tried to challenge Logano for second on the inside lane.

    During the final lap of the first stage mark, Logano launched a final side-by-side challenge on teammate Blaney for the stage victory as the field fanned out. Amid the field fanning out, Larson also launched his charge to the front as he overtook Logano for second entering Turns 3 and 4 while barely staying above the double-yellow line boundary zone. He then tried to edge Blaney for the stage victory entering the frontstretch, but Blaney pulled ahead on the outside lane and managed to edge Larson for the first stage victory on Lap 60 and for his third stage victory of the 2023 Cup season. Amid the field fanning out through the frontstretch, Larson settled in second while Truex, Logano, Byron, Bell, Cindric, McDowell, Reddick and Almirola were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Blaney pitted for service while BJ McLeod and Ty Dillon remained on the track. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategy, Larson exited first followed by Blaney, Byron, Suarez, Bell, Logano and Buescher. During the pit stops, Truex was hit by McDowell, who was trying to exit his pit stall, as Truex spun backward down pit road. Amid the pit stops, Hamlin was penalized for equipment interference. In addition, teammate Bell was also penalized for removing equipment from his pit box while Byron was penalized for a safety violation. McLeod and Ty Dillon, both of whom remained on the track, would pit after remaining on the track for a lap as Larson cycled to the lead followed by Blaney.

    The second stage started on Lap 66 as Larson and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Blaney surged ahead on the inside lane with drafting help from teammate Logano through the first two turns and through the backstretch. With Larson fighting back on the outside lane, he would lead the proceeding lap before Blaney surged ahead and cleared the pack stacked up to two lanes during the following lap. Blaney would continue to lead at the Lap 70 mark as he had both of his Team Penske competitors, Logano and Cindric, running in the top three. In addition, Alex Bowman carved his way up to the front as he would overtake Cindric for third along with Haley, Bubba Wallace, Larson and Daniel Suarez.

    Then on Lap 79, the third caution of the event flew when Corey LaJoie, who was racing within the top 25, turned and sent Byron for a spin just past the start/finish line towards the frontstretch as Byron managed to keep his No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 spinning below the racetrack before he continued despite flat-spotting his tires. Despite continuing, Byron would lose a lap to the leaders.

    During the caution period, select names that included Wallace, Ryan Preece, Truex, Elliott and McLeod remained on the track while the rest led by Blaney pitted. During the pit stops, Reddick was penalized due to a crew member jumping over the pit box too soon. Elliott would then pit prior to the restart and amid a miscommunication with his pit crew to pit earlier with the field

    With the race restarting under green on Lap 85, Wallace and Truex, both of whom started on the front row, dueled for the lead as Wallace managed to lead the proceeding lap while running on the outside lane. With Truex fighting back on the inside lane, he then managed to surge ahead and move in front of Wallace to assume control of the field on Lap 87 as Bowman, Logano, Preece and Buescher followed in pursuit. Then on Lap 88, Ty Gibbs scraped the backstretch’s outside wall amid contact with Erik Jones, but the event remained under green flag conditions as the field led by Truex remained stacked in two fast-paced, tight-packed lanes.

    On Lap 92 and just as Buescher carved his way to the front over Truex, the caution returned when Larson got loose and slipped sideways in front of Erik Jones as he then spun amid oncoming traffic in between Turns 3 and 4 while the field managed to dodge Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Chase Briscoe and Austin Hill both would spin below the track while trying to avoid Larson as Larson would damage the right-front end of his car after the right-front tire blew while he was trying to pit.

    During the caution period, select names that included Truex, Wallace, Ty Dillon, Noah Gragson, Elliott, Almirola, Custer and McDowell pitted while the rest led by Buescher remained on the track.

    By the proceeding restart on Lap 98, Buescher and Haley, both of whom restarted on the front row, dueled for the lead as Buescher managed to retain the top spot by a hair while running on the outside lane. As the field fanned out to three lanes just past the Lap 100 mark, Buescher cleared the field and assumed command of the field followed by Allmendinger, Logano and Blaney as Haley fell back to fifth. Bowman would then surge up into the top five by Lap 102, but he would be overtaken by Preece and Cindric amid the draft while Buescher retained the lead ahead of Allmendinger, Logano and Blaney.

    By Lap 110 and with the field stilled fanned out towards the front, Buescher continued to lead ahead of Allmendinger, Logano, Blaney and Prece while Cindric, Bowman, Hamlin, Reddick and Corey LaJoie were in the top 10. By then, 34 of 37 starters were not only running on the lead lap but they were separated by four seconds as the top-eight competitors were separated by eight-tenths of a second.

    Ten laps later and with the intensity of the competition igniting towards the front and around the venue, Buescher continued to lead by a tenth of a second over Allmendinger followed by Team Penske’s trio of Logano, Blaney and Cindric while Bowman, Hamlin, Keselowski, Bell and LaJoie followed pursuit in the top 10. By then, Larson retired in the garage.

    Another two laps later and just as Team Penske’s trio of Logano, Blaney and Cindric overtook Allmendinger towards the front, the event’s fifth caution flew when LaJoie and Erik Jones made contact in between Turns 1 and 2 as LaJoie got loose and slipped up the track before he bounced off of Reddick, which sent Reddick’s No. 45 The Beast Unleashed Toyota TRD Camry scraping into the wall before he darted sideways. In the process, LaJoie would get hit by Ty Gibbs, who received a hard shot from Chastain as Chastain damaged the right front of his No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, while Truex had to slam on the brakes to avoid sustaining any damage to his car.

    During the caution period, some led by Buescher and including Logano, Blaney, Cindric, Bowman, Keselowski, Haley, Elliott, Preece, Almirola, McDowell, McLeod, Briscoe, JJ Yeley, and Kevin Harvick remained on the track while the rest led by Allmendinger pitted.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 128, Buescher and Logano dueled for the lead through the first two turns as they had Ford teammates Blaney and Cindric drafting them. Buescher, however, would muscle ahead with drafting help from Cindric as the field fanned out to two stacked lanes. With the field reaching its halfway mark on Lap 130, Buescher retained the lead ahead of Cindric, Blaney and Logano while Keselowski carved his way into the top five. Cindric, however, would receive drafting help from teammate Blaney to shoot into the lead through Turns 3 and 4 during the following lap. Keselowski would then merge into the top three and challenge Cindric for the lead during the proceeding laps as Buescher was left to battle Blaney and Logano for third.

    By Lap 140, Cindric was leading following a long duel against Keselowski as Keselowski settled in second while Blaney and Buescher battled for third. Behind, Truex battled Bowman for fifth while Haley, Allmendinger, Logano and Wallace battled and jostled against one another inside the top 10. Keselowski would then reassume the lead two laps later as he re-ignited his battle on Cindric for the lead. With Keselowski out in front, Blaney would then draw himself back towards the front and challenge Keselowski for the lead.

    At the Lap 150 mark, Keselowski was leading the field while trying to fend off teammate Buescher, Blaney and Cindric amid the draft and in close-quarters racing.

    Five laps later, the caution flew when Bowman, who was running towards the front, slipped up the track through Turns 3 and 4 and clipped Hamlin as he sent Hamlin’s No. 11 Coca-Cola Toyota TRD Camry sideways entering the frontstretch before both spun through the frontstretch while the rest of the field led by Keselowski dodged the incident. The caution period for the incident involving Hamlin and Bowman was enough for the second stage scheduled to conclude on Lap 160 to conclude under caution as Keselowski captured his second stage victory of the 2023 season. Blaney settled in second while Buescher, Cindric, Allmendinger, Wallace, Haley, McDowell, Bell and Preece were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break and with weather threats looming, some led by new leader Allmendinger and including McDowell, Erik Jones, Byron, Suarez, Gilliland, JJ Yeley, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Cole Custer, Kyle Busch, McLeod, Ty Dillon and Reddick remained on the track while the rest led by Keselowski pitted amid mixed strategy.

    With 96 laps remaining, the final stage started as Allmendinger and McDowell occupied the front row. At the start, McDowell tried to surge ahead on the inside lane through the first two turns. With both Allmendinger and McDowell remaining dead even for the lead, however, Allmendinger surged ahead on the outside lane as he led the proceeding lap. Allmendinger would then pull ahead of McDowell before Byron carved his way into the lead with 93 laps remaining. With Byron out in front and as the field fanned out to three tight-packed lanes, Allmendinger settled in second followed by Suarez, Gilliland and Yeley while McDowell, who was running low of fuel, battled Stenhouse and Kyle Busch for sixth.

    With 88 laps remaining, Harvick spun his No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang just past the frontstretch amid contact from Hamlin, but he kept his car spinning below the track as the event remained under green. Back at the front, Byron retained the lead ahead of Allmendinger while Kyle Busch used the outside lane to try to bolt his way into the top five. By then, Keselowski was back into the top five and running in fifth while Suarez started to challenge Allmendinger for second.

    Then with 83 laps remaining, the caution flew when Preece received a bump from Ricky Stenhouse Jr. entering Turn 3 that sent him sideways and spinning into the path of Wallace as both spun towards the bottom of Turn 3 after running in the top 10. At the moment of caution, Byron was scored the leader ahead of Suarez, Allmendinger, McDowell and Kyle Busch.

    As the field continued to run under a cautious pace behind the pace with pit road closed and with less than 80 laps remaining, reports of rain and sprinkles were being reported in Turn 1 and through the backstretch as Byron retained the lead. Then with 75 laps remaining, the field led by Byron was directed to pit road and the event was placed under a red flag period due to the increase of rain around the venue.

    Soon after and with the rain intensifying around the venue, NASCAR declared the event official 75 laps shy of its scheduled distance and William Byron was awarded his fourth victory of the 2023 Cup season.

    With the victory, Byron became the first four-time winner of the 2023 Cup Series season as he also claimed his second victory at Atlanta and his eighth career victory in his 199th start in NASCAR’s premier series. He also recorded the sixth victory of the season for Hendrick Motorsports and the 12th for the Chevrolet nameplate.

    Ironically, Byron’s victory occurred as Goodyear Racing tires celebrated its 2,000th Cup Series race victory at Atlanta. With Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 24 car achieving the victory thanks to Byron during Goodyear’s milestone mark, it marked another historic moment for the No. 24 car as NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon piloted the No. 24 car to victory at Bristol in 1995 during Goodyear’s 1,000th Cup race victory.

    Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “Just teamwork,” Byron said on USA Network. “I don’t completely understand this one. It’s a really good feeling. I’ve never had a rain victory like this, but just thanks to AXALTA, Chevrolet. It’s cool, man. We went through so much throughout the night. Spinning through the infield, destroyed the bottom of the car, dragging it around the apron trying to stay on the lead lap. At that point, you just don’t have the grip, so I was real edgy back in traffic, but [crew chief] Rudy [Fugle] made a good call to pit there [on Lap 125 under caution] and then stay out [prior to Lap 165 restart]. Once we got towards the front, it was OK. We could make the right decisions, block OK and get the lead from AJ [Allmendinger] and was just able to manage the runs. Just a crazy night.”

    “[This win]’s really important,” Byron added. “We’re just keeping our heads in it. Over the last few weeks, we finished in the top 15 when we don’t have good cars. The days we have really good cars, we finish in the top five. It’s just a matter of staying with it. Today was definitely a lucky break. I can’t overstate that. We were in the lead, but there’s certainly a lot of laps to go. Just thankful for a good team to make good decisions and to stay in the race when it’s easy to kind of give up and pack it in.”

    With Byron being awarded the victory, Suarez concluded the rain-shortened event in the runner-up spot followed by Allmendinger while McDowell, who gambled late to remain on the track and towards the front while on low fuel, netted fourth place in the final running order and moved inside the top-16 cutline for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs. Kyle Busch came home fifth while Keselowski, JJ Yeley, Haley, Blaney and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished in the top 10.

    There were 18 lead changes for 12 different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 43 laps. In total, 27 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With eight regular-season events remaining of this year’s Cup Series schedule, William Byron leads the regular-season standings by 21 points over Martin Truex Jr., 36 over Kyle Busch, 37 over Christopher Bell and 53 over Ross Chastain.

    William Byron, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are currently guaranteed spots for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning at least once throughout the regular-season stretch. Kevin Harvick, Chris Buescher, Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell currently occupy the remaining vacant spots in the Playoffs based on points, with McDowell occupying the 16th and final vacant spot by three points over Bubba Wallace, 13 over AJ Allmendinger, 26 over rookie Ty Gibbs, 38 over Austin Cindric, 41 over Justin Haley, 44 over Alex Bowman and 60 over Chase Elliott.

    Results.

    1. William Byron, 20 laps led

    2. Daniel Suarez

    3. AJ Allmendinger, six laps led

    4. Michael McDowell

    5. Kyle Busch

    6. Brad Keselowski, 19 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    7. JJ Yeley

    8. Justin Haley

    9. Ryan Blaney, 20 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    10. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    11. Erik Jones

    12. Austin Cindric, 10 laps led

    13. Chase Elliott

    14. Denny Hamlin

    15. Chris Buescher, 39 laps led

    16. Todd Gilliland

    17. Joey Logano, 11 laps led

    18. Aric Almirola, 46 laps led

    19. Ty Dillon

    20. BJ McLeod, one lap led

    21. Austin Dillon

    22. Chase Briscoe

    23. Christopher Bell

    24. Ryan Preece

    25. Bubba Wallace, five laps led

    26. Alex Bowman

    27. Tyler Reddick

    28. Harrison Burton, one lap down

    29. Martin Truex Jr., one lap down, five laps led

    30. Kevin Harvick, four laps down

    31. Corey LaJoie, six laps down

    32. Cole Custer, seven laps down

    33. Noah Gragson, 11 laps down

    34. Ty Gibbs, 35 laps down

    35. Ross Chastain – OUT, Dvp

    36. Kyle Larson – OUT, Accident, four laps led

    37. Austin Hill – OUT, Dvp

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ lone visit of this season to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, July 16, at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Nashville

    NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Nashville

    Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

    1. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex led 50 laps at Nashville, but couldn’t match the speed of Ross Chastain in the final stage and settled for the runner-up spot.

    “Ross just had too much,” Chastain said. “You could say he ‘destroyed the field.’ If you add up all the cars of competitors he’s wrecked over the course of his career, you could also say he’s ‘destroyed the field.’”

    2. Kyle Busch: Busch suffered damage on Lap 147 when he tagged Ryan Blaney after cars in front checked up on a restart. Busch, however, recovered and salvaged a ninth-place finish.

    “‘It was an accident,’” Busch said, “is what I said after the race, and also this one time at an airport in Mexico.”

    3. William Byron: Byron finished sixth at Nashville.

    “As per usual,” Byron said, “my car was primarily sponsored by Liberty University. Liberty U. is even advertising during NASCAR races to attract students. Who wouldn’t want to attend Liberty? It’s the academic intersection of education, religion, and voyeurism.”

    4. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin won Stage 2 and finished third in the Ally 400.

    “There’s losing,” Hamlin said, “and then there’s losing to Ross Chastain. I hate all of those things.”

    5. Ross Chastain: Chastain started on the pole at Nashville and came on strong in the final stage to win the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.

    “It’s really cool being rewarded with a guitar for winning a race, ” Chastain said. “Let my ability to strum a tune remind everyone of my desire to win the Cup championship, because ‘I ain’t playing.’”

    6. Christopher Bell: Bell came home seventh at Nashville, posting his tenth top 10 of the year.

    “We’re headed to Chicago next week for the first NASCAR race on a street circuit,” Bell said. “Fans in the Windy City are in for a real treat. For once, something other than bullets are going to be whizzing through downtown Chicago.”

    7. Kevin Harvick: Harvick finished 24th in the Ally 400 at Nashville.

    “My No. 4 Ford sported the Busch Light Peach paint scheme,” Harvick said. “I’m not sure who this flavor of beer would appeal to, but they should have the taste slapped out of their mouths.”

    8. Joey Logano: Logano struggled to crack the top 10 at Nashville and scored a disappointing 19th in the Ally 400.

    “I was barely able to stay on the lead lap,” Logano said. “So, at least for a day, ‘Sliced Bread’ felt like the ‘End Piece.’”

    9. Ryan Blaney: Blaney crashed out at Nashville on Lap 147 when a restart stacked up the field, resulting in Kyle Busch rear-ending Blaney and sending him into the inside wall. Blaney finished last in 36th.

    “I don’t know who was leading the field to green on that restart,” Blaney said, “but I’d like to introduce them to a gas pedal, and also my fist.”

    10. Kyle Larson: Larson finished fifth at Nashville, recording his seventh top 5 of the season.

    “Ross Chastain looks like a real championship contender,” Larson said. “Now, he’s in the head of every other championship contender. You could say, like a real watermelon farmer, he ‘planted a seed.’”

  • Chastain fends off Truex for first Cup victory of 2023 at Nashville

    Chastain fends off Truex for first Cup victory of 2023 at Nashville

    In a season that has been characterized by an up-and-down journey through his share of run-ins and challenges, all while remaining competitive, Ross Chastain capped off a historic weekend that commenced by winning his first NASCAR Cup Series career pole to capturing his first Cup Series victory of the season in the third annual running of the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday, June 25.

    The 30-year-old Chastain from Alva, Florida, led five times for a race-high 99 of 300-scheduled laps in a weekend where he led the field to the green flag for the first time ever from pole position. After leading early before spending the majority of the event keeping pace with the front-runners, Chastain commenced his late charge to victory by overtaking Denny Hamlin for the lead with 70 laps remaining. Following a series of green flag pit stops, he then cycled back into the lead with 34 laps remaining and fended off a late charge from Martin Truex Jr. to capture the first checkered flag of the 2023 Cup season for himself and Trackhouse Racing.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, June 24, Ross Chastain notched his first Cup Series pole position of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 160.687 mph in 29.797 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Tyler Reddick, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 159.573 mph in 30.005 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Daniel Suarez started at the rear of the field in a backup car after wrecking his primary car during Saturday’s qualifying session. Corey LaJoie, who also had an incident during his qualifying run, also started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments and repairs made to his Spire Motorsports entry.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Chastain fended off an early challenge from Reddick to assume the lead through the first two turns. As the field fanned out and jostled early for on-track positions, Chastain proceeded to lead the first lap ahead of Reddick while Joey Logano moved up to third. Behind, Justin Haley, who qualified third, settled in fourth in front of Martin Truex Jr. and William Byron. In addition, Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin battled for seventh as the event surpassed the second-lap mark.

    The battles around the circuit would continue through the third lap as Truex and Byron moved into the top five while Haley fell back to sixth in front of Wallace, all while Chastain remained as the leader by a steady margin over Reddick. Chastain would proceed to retain the lead as the event reached its fifth lap mark.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Chastain was leading by two-tenths of a second over Reddick followed by Logano, Truex and Byron while Haley, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Wallace and Kyle Busch were in the top 10. Behind, Chris Buescher was in 11th ahead of Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman and rookie Ty Gibbs while AJ Allmendinger, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Christopher Bell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. occupied the top 20.

    Just past the Lap 15 mark, Kyle Busch, who was running within the top 10, made an unscheduled pit stop under green due to a flat right-front tire on his No. 8 Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. With Busch plummeting below the leaderboard and losing a lap, Chastain maintained the lead by within two-tenths of a second over Reddick. By then, Truex and Byron moved up to third and fourth while Logano was in fifth.

    At the Lap 25 mark, Chastain retained the lead by a tenth of a second over Reddick followed by Truex and Byron while Hamlin moved his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry into fifth place. With Logano falling back to sixth, Haley was scored in seventh ahead of Elliott, Wallace and Buescher. Behind, Larson was situated in 12th in between Blaney and Bowman, Harvick was in 17th behind Christopher Bell and Keselowski was in 18th. In addition, rookie Noah Gragson, who received medical clearance to return to racing after missing Sonoma Raceway due to concussion-like symptoms, was mired in 26th in between Corey LaJoie and Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric was in 28th and Chase Briscoe was back in 31st.

    Ten laps later, Chastain slightly stretched his advantage to half a second over Reddick while Truex, Byron and Hamlin remained in the top five. By then, Haley and Elliott moved up to sixth and seventh in front of Logano while Blaney carved his way into the top 10 in 10th place. Behind, Bowman moved up to 11th ahead of teammate Larson while Wallace fell back to 15th.

    Then just past the Lap 40 mark, green flag pit stops commenced as Ryan Preece pitted followed by Wallace, Harvick, Michael McDowell, Larson, Aric Almirola, Truex, Ty Gibbs, Hamlin, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Reddick and others. Chastain would then surrender the lead on Lap 42 to pit under green followed by more competitors as Byron proceeded to lead a lap for himself before he pitted during Lap 43 as Chase Elliott assumed a brief lead. Once Elliott pitted on Lap 45, teammate Alex Bowman cycled into the lead for a lap before he surrendered the lead to Suarez, who would pit after leading a lap for himself on Lap 46. By then, Ty Dillon, who had yet to pit, cycled into the lead while Michael McDowell, who pitted earlier, was assessed a pass-through penalty for a commitment line violation.

    By the time Ty Dillon pitted just past the Lap 50 mark, which completed the first cycle of green flag pit stops, Chastain cycled back into the lead ahead of Reddick. Behind, Byron moved up to third ahead of Truex and Hamlin while Kyle Busch, Elliott, Logano, Larson and Buescher were running in the top 10.

    At the Lap 60 mark, Chastain, who was trying to lap Noah Gragson, continued to lead by a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Reddick and by more than a second over third-place Byron while Truex and Hamlin remained in the top five. With Gragson refusing to relent to the leaders during the proceeding lap, Reddick gained a strong run on Chastain through the first two turns before he drew himself alongside Chastain’s No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and assumed the lead, thus becoming the second leader of the event.

    Fifteen laps later, Reddick, who nearly lost the lead amid a side-by-side battle with Chastain six laps earlier, was leading by half a second over Chastain, who continued to keep Reddick within his sights. Meanwhile, third-place Byron trailed by more than two seconds ahead of Truex and Hamlin while Elliott, winner of last year’s Cup event at Nashville, carved his way up to sixth in front of Kyle Busch and Larson. In addition, Bell was up in ninth ahead of AJ Allmendinger, winner of Saturday’s Xfinity event at Nashville.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 90, Reddick, sporting The Big 615 radio station on Tuneln captured his third stage victory of the 2023 Cup season after fending off Chastain by four-tenths of a second. Byron and Truex followed suit in third and fourth along with Hamlin while Elliott, Kyle Busch, Larson, Bell and Allmendinger were scored in the top 10. By then, 25 of 36 competitors were scored on the lead lap.

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Reddick pitted for service. Following the pit stops, the No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 piloted by Byron managed to exit pit road first with the lead ahead of Chastain, Reddick, Truex, Hamlin and Larson. Amid the pit stops, Kyle Busch and Harvick were both penalized for speeding on pit road.

    The second stage started on Lap 97 as Byron and Chastain occupied the front row. At the start, Truex launched a three-wide challenge on Chastain and Byron through the first two turns and the backstretch. All three continued to battle tightly amid three tight lanes for a full lap and they would all continue to battle tightly by the Lap 100 mark. Then during the following lap, Truex managed to launch ahead in his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota TRD Camry and assume the lead with a clear racetrack around him while Byron and Chastain battled for second in front of Reddick and Bell.  

    By Lap 110, Truex was leading by nearly a second over Byron and Chastain while Reddick and Bell remained in the top five. Behind, Hamlin was in sixth ahead of Elliott, Blaney, Larson and Buescher while Bowman, Allmendinger, Ty Gibbs, Aric Almirola and Erik Jones were running in the top 15.

    Fifteen laps later, Truex stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Byron followed by Reddick, Chastain and Bell while Hamlin, Elliott, Larson, Blaney and Buescher were running in the top 10. By then, Allmendinger and Bowman continued to duel fiercely for 11th while Kyle Busch had carved his way up to 16th. In addition, Harvick was up in 20th while Logano had fallen to 19th.

    Nearly 10 laps later, the event’s second round of green flag pit stops commenced as Austin Dillon and Haley pitted. They were soon followed by Ty Gibbs and Kyle Busch as Reddick, Byron, Chastain, Bell, Larson, Blaney, Bowman, Almirola, Buescher, Bowman and Erik Jones pitted. Then on Lap 138, Truex surrendered the lead to pit as teammate Hamlin cycled into the lead.

    Then on Lap 138, the caution flew when Reddick, who had just pitted and was trying to cycle his way back onto pit road, spun towards the pit road entrance as a result of a loose right-rear wheel, which the wheel popped out of the car and rolled down towards the pit road wall as Reddick spun backward on pit road. During the caution period, Hamlin, Keselowski and Wallace, all three of whom had yet to pit, pitted, but all three were able to gain a bevy of spots from second through fourth as Truex cycled back into the lead. As a result of spinning and losing the wheel on pit road, Reddick was assessed a tail end of the line penalty as he lost two laps in the process.

    Just as the field restarted under green on Lap 146, the caution quickly returned amid a stacked restart as Keselowski struggled to launch forward when Blaney, who restarted within the top 20, got hit in the rear by Kyle Busch. While Busch briefly spun in front of Bowman, Blaney slid his No. 12 Menards/Pennzoil Ford Mustang all the way toward the bottom of the track and past the pit road exit before making head-on contact with the inside wall as his event came to an end just shy of the halfway mark.

    During the proceeding restart on Lap 152, the field fanned out entering the first turn as teammates Truex and Hamlin battled for the lead in front of Bubba Wallace. With Byron launching his attack on Wallace for third during the following lap, teammates Truex and Hamlin continued to duel for the lead. Despite pulling away from third-place Byron by seven-tenths of a second, Truex and Hamlin continued to battle dead even for the lead until Hamlin managed to rocket ahead with a clear racetrack and the lead on Lap 157.

    At the Lap 165 mark, Hamlin was leading by four-tenths of a second over a lurking Truex while Byron, Chastain and Wallace were scored in the top five. Behind, Bell was in sixth ahead of Elliott, Allmendinger, Larson and Erik Jones while Keselowski, Harvick, Ty Gibbs, Buescher and Daniel Suarez were in the top 15.

    Ten laps later, Hamlin retained the lead by four-tenths of a second over teammate Truex while Chastain moved up to third ahead of Byron and Wallace.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 185, Hamlin captured his fourth stage victory of the 2023 Cup season. Teammate Truex settled in second ahead of Chastain, Byron and Bell while Wallace, Elliott, Allmendinger, Harvick and Erik Jones were scored in the top 10.

    During the stage break, the leaders led by Hamlin pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin retained the lead after exiting first ahead of teammate Truex, Byron, Chastain, Bell, Elliott and Harvick. Amid the pit stops, Wallace, who pitted from sixth, exited pit road just outside the top 15 after enduring a slow pit service from his pit crew while Austin Cindric was penalized for speeding on pit road.

    With 108 laps remaining, the final stage started as teammates Hamlin and Truex occupied the front row. At the start and with the field fanning out, Hamlin retained the lead ahead of Truex and Chastain while the field behind jostled for positions.

    With 100 laps remaining, Hamlin was leading by four-tenths of a second over teammate Truex while Chastain, Bell and Byron were in the top five. Behind, Kevin Harvick carved his way up to sixth while Elliott, Suarez, Ty Gibbs and Logano occupied the top 10. Meanwhile, Erik Jones was in 11th while Keselowski, Buescher, Wallace, Larson, Allmendinger, Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch, Stenhouse and Harrison Burton were mired in the top 20, with 30 of 36 starters running on the lead lap.

    Ten laps later, Hamlin stabilized his advantage to within two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Truex while third-place Chastain trailed by more than a second. Hamlin would continue to lead teammate Truex by a tenth of a second another 10 laps later while Harvick carved his No. 4 Busch Light Peach Ford Mustang up to fourth as he trailed the lead by more than three seconds. Soon after with 74 laps remaining, Chastain battled and overtook Truex for second as he tried to launch his charge on Hamlin for the lead.

    Then with 70 laps remaining, Chastain gained a strong run on Hamlin exiting the frontstretch as he returned to the lead over Hamlin while Truex trailed in third by seven-tenths of a second. By then, Harvick retained fourth as he trailed by more than a second while Chase Elliott was in fifth and trailing by more than five seconds.

    With 61 laps remaining, late trouble struck for Harvick, who was starting to challenge Truex for third, as he fell off the pace and pitted under green to address a flat right-rear tire to his No. 4 entry. Not long after, another cycle of green flag pit stops slowly commenced as Elliott pitted followed by Truex, Corey LaJoie and Cindric. The leader Chastain would then pit with 58 laps remaining followed by Hamlin and after the pit stops, Chastain managed to blend back on the track ahead of Truex and Hamlin while more competitors pitted under green.

    With 45 laps remaining and with most of the field having made a pit stop under green, Kyle Busch was leading by more than seven seconds over Bowman, but both were in need of another pit stop to make it to the event’s scheduled distance. Meanwhile, third-place Chastain, the first competitor on four fresh tires and a full tank of fuel, was trailing by more than 14 seconds while Truex and Hamlin were in the top five.

    Then with nearly 40 laps remaining, Kyle Busch surrendered the lead to pit under green. Busch’s move gave Bowman the lead while Chastain cut the deficit to trail by more than four seconds. Once Bowman pitted his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 under green with 34 laps remaining, Chastain, who started to approach lapped traffic, reassumed the lead ahead of a hard-charging Truex, who kept Chastain close within his sights.

    Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Chastain was leading by a tenth of a second over Truex, who was trying to gain more ground on Chastain for the lead through every turn and straightaway, while third-place Hamlin trailed by more than three seconds.

    Ten laps later, Chastain, who started to experiment with different racing lanes to place a reasonable gap between himself and Truex, started to stretch his advantage to eight-tenths of a second over Truex while third-place Hamlin trailed by more than four seconds.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Chastain continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over Truex as third-place Hamlin trailed by more than four seconds. Behind, Elliott and Byron were in the top five while Larson, Bell, Erik Jones, Allmendinger and Keselowski occupied the top 10.

    With five laps remaining, Chastain extended his advantage to eight-tenths of a second over Truex, who was slowly losing ground on Chastain in his bid for a second consecutive victory in recent weeks.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Chastain remained as the leader by seven-tenths of a second over Truex. With Truex unable to gain ground to mount a final lap charge, Chastain was able to navigate his way around Nashville for a final time and cycle back to the finish line to capture his first elusive checkered flag of the 2023 Cup season.

    With the victory, Chastain, the championship runner-up finisher from last season, became the 11th different competitor to win through the first 17 regular-season events and place himself in prime contention to make the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs. He also notched his third Cup career victory, his first in 42 races and since winning at Talladega Superspeedway in April 2022. The Floridian also achieved his first oval-shaped victory and the first win for Trackhouse Racing since teammate Daniel Suarez won at Sonoma Raceway in June 2022.

    Ironically, Chastain extended Chevrolet’s winning streak at Nashville to three consecutive seasons in the three seasons the Cup Series has competed at Music City.

    “[The] Only thing sweeter [than winning] is this Georgia watermelon, I gotta tell you!” Chastain, who smashed a watermelon on the frontstretch, exclaimed on NBC. “This is incredible. This is why every little kid out there, anywhere in the world, when you get criticized and you’re going to if you’re competitive, they will try to tear you down. You will start believing them [that] you can’t do it. You have to go to your people, trust in the process, read your books, trust the big man’s plan upstairs and just keep getting up and going to work. I gotta tell you, a lot of self-reflection through all of this, but I had a group that believed in me and they didn’t let me get down. They bring rocket ships and I just try to point them into Victory Lane…It’s absolutely incredible the fight that we have.”

    “[The fun]’s just a desire to win,” Chastain added. “It’s just so hard at this level and it’s the best of the best. It’s where I’ve wanted to be since I was 18 years old. It’s a Cup win. I don’t care what happened the last month or by the rest of my life. It’s a freaking Cup win!”

    Truex, the winner of the previous Cup scheduled event at Sonoma, ended up in second place after leading 50 laps, though he maintained the lead in the regular-season standings, while teammate Hamlin rallied from wrecking late at Sonoma to settle in third at Nashville after leading 81 laps.

    “[I] Just needed to get the lead,” Truex said. “Once we lost it, I probably made a bad move, taking the bottom [lane] on the restart. Just too loose on the long runs. I could hang with whoever was leading. Just could never get off the corner good enough to make a move. Just lacking soundbite and then overall, just burning the rear tires off too much. Just really loose at the end of the race there as well. Just needed a little bit. Got lots of speed. Just could never get the balance where it needed it to be. Without having clean air, it was difficult. Overall, a good night for our Bass Pro/Tracker Toyota Camry. The guys are doing a great job. Just that close again. If we can keep doing this, we’ll be in good shape.”

    “I just think we had a third-place car the entire race,” Hamlin said. “I thought [Truex] was a little better. [Chastain], obviously, came on strong there at the end. That’s all we had with our FedEx Ground Toyota. It’s an optimized day. It’s a day with no mistakes and we gave ourselves a chance. Just didn’t have quite a fast enough car to go up and contend.”

    Meanwhile, Elliott notched his fourth top-five result of the season by finishing fourth, where he still trails the top-16 cutline to make the Playoffs by 64 points, while teammate Larson rallied to finish fifth.

    Byron, Bell, Erik Jones, Kyle Busch and AJ Allmendinger finished in the top 10. Notably, Suarez, who crashed into Chase Briscoe at the event’s conclusion while trying to congratulate teammate Chastain on the track, ended up 12th after starting the event at the rear of the field. In addition, rookie Ty Gibbs settled in 14th in front of Bubba Wallace, Bowman ended up 17th, Logano fell back to 19th, Harvick finished 24th after never recovering from his late tire issue and Reddick could only work his way up to 30th following his early spin and tire issue.

    There were 21 lead changes for 12 different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 24 laps. In total, 21 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With nine regular-season events remaining of this year’s Cup Series schedule, Martin Truex Jr. continues to lead the regular-season standings by 18 points over both William Byron and Ross Chastain while Christopher Bell trails by 45 points and Kyle Busch trails by 48.

    William Byron, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Christopher Bell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are currently guaranteed spots for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning at least once throughout the regular-season stretch. Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace and Daniel Suarez currently occupy the remaining vacant spots to the Playoffs based on points, with Suarez occupying the 16th and final vacant spot by two points over Alex Bowman, 10 over rookie Ty Gibbs, 24 over AJ Allmendinger, 27 over Michael McDowell, 45 over Corey LaJoie, 51 over Austin Cindric and 55 over Justin Haley.

    Results.

    1. Ross Chastain, 99 laps led

    2. Martin Truex Jr., 50 laps led

    3. Denny Hamlin, 81 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    4. Chase Elliott, one lap led

    5. Kyle Larson

    6. William Byron, five laps led

    7. Christopher Bell, three laps led

    8. Erik Jones

    9. Kyle Busch, 12 laps led

    10. AJ Allmendinger

    11. Brad Keselowski, two laps led

    12. Daniel Suarez, one lap led

    13. Austin Dillon

    14. Ty Gibbs

    15. Bubba Wallace

    16. Ryan Preece

    17. Alex Bowman, nine laps led

    18. Chris Buescher

    19. Joey Logano

    20. Corey LaJoie

    21. Harrison Burton

    22. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap down

    23. Justin Haley, one lap down

    24. Kevin Harvick, one lap down

    25.  Aric Almirola, one lap down

    26. Noah Gragson, one lap down

    27. Austin Cindric, one lap down

    28. Michael McDowell, one lap down

    29. JJ Yeley, two laps down

    30. Tyler Reddick, two laps down, 33 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    31. Chase Briscoe, two laps down

    32. Ty Dillon, two laps down, four laps led

    33. Brennan Poole, three laps down

    34. Josh Bilicki, three laps down

    35. Todd Gilliand, four laps down

    36. Ryan Blaney – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ inaugural event at the Chicago Street Course in Downtown Chicago, Illinois. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, July 2, at 5:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

  • NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Sonoma

    NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Sonoma

    Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

    1. Kyle Busch: Busch won Stage 2 at Sonoma but couldn’t catch Martin Truex Jr. late and settled for the runner-up spot.

    “I thought I could catch Martin,” Busch said. “I gave it my best shot. There’s nothing like a charge in ‘Wine Country,’ except for maybe a ‘charge’ in ‘Tequila Country.’”

    2. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex held off former teammate Kyle Busch to win the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma.

    “Nothing beats sipping wine in Victory Circle at Sonoma,” Truex said. “Except shotgunning a beer anywhere but Victory Circle at Sonoma.”

    3. William Byron: Byron started 26th and finished 14th in the Toyota/Save Mart 350.

    “My Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott chatted with Denny Hamlin about their incident at WWT Raceway,” Byron said. “I don’t know the details of their talk, but I’m pretty sure they put the ‘cuss’ in ‘discussion.’”

    4. Kevin Harvick: Harvick finished 11th at Sonoma.

    “That was my 806th Cup series start,” Harvick said. “That put me ahead of Jeff Gordon for the most all-time. I may have more starts than Jeff, but I’ll never have more championships or marriages.”

    5. Joey Logano: Logano finished third at Sonoma, his second consecutive third-place finish.

    “Good things come in threes,” Logano said, “unless you’re Austin Dillon.”

    6. Ryan Blaney: Blaney struggled at Sonoma and finished 31st.

    “Road course racing is not my cup of tea,” Blaney said, “and here in Sonoma, it’s not my glass of wine.”

    7. Christopher Bell: Bell finished ninth at Sonoma, his first top-10 finish since Dover in April.

    “This race was a typical Sonoma race,” Bell said. “Long, boring, and lacking entertainment. Here in Wine Country, the race packed all the drama of a wine tasting.”

    8. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin started on the pole, but wrecked with under 20 laps to go and finished last at Sonoma.

    “I’ve got no one to blame but myself,” Hamlin said. “But by the time my latest podcast goes live, I’ll have someone else to blame.”

    9. Ross Chastain: Chastain finished 10th at Sonoma, posting his seventh top 10 of the year.

    “It’s always fun to see Denny Hamlin wreck,” Chastain said. “And it’s about time he did something without my help.”

    10. Kyle Larson: Larson came home eighth in the Toyota/Save Mart 350.

    “It was a good day for Hendrick Motorsports,” Larson said. “But only because all four regular drivers participated.”

  • Several Cup and Xfinity drivers performing double duty roles at Sonoma

    Several Cup and Xfinity drivers performing double duty roles at Sonoma

    For a second consecutive season, Sonoma Raceway is in for a delightful treat as NASCAR makes its annual return to the 12-turn circuit in Sonoma, California, on June 9-11, 2023.

    In a similar approach from last year, two of NASCAR’s top three national touring series will run on the same weekend in conjunction with the ARCA Menards Series West at Sonoma. Compared to a year ago, where the Craftsman Truck Series competition made its return to the circuit for the first time in 24 years, the NASCAR Xfinity Series competition will experience its first taste of the twists and turns in Wine Country this upcoming Saturday, June 10, with DoorDash returning as a title sponsor of the 250-mile event.

    With the return of the highly anticipated racing weekend in Northern California, a host of NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series stars will be attempting to pull double duty efforts within all three series.

    The driver who headlines the double duty role for this weekend’s Xfinity-Cup doubleheader feature is Kyle Larson. The 2021 Cup Series champion and 21-race Cup winner from Elk Grove, California, is scheduled to make his first of two starts this season in the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro for Hendrick Motorsports. His Xfinity start will occur a day prior to climbing aboard his iconic No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in the Cup division.

    Aside from being a hometown hero, Larson is no stranger to achieving success at Sonoma. He notched a Cup victory at the circuit in 2021 after leading a race-high 57 of 92 laps and has started on pole position in the last five consecutive Cup events at Sonoma. He has also achieved his share of success on road course venues after winning the last two Cup events at Watkins Glen International, the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course venue in October 2021 and his first Xfinity road course victory at The Glen last August.

    While this weekend is set to mark his first Xfinity start of this season in HMS’ No. 17 entry, Larson has already made one start in the series in May. There, he piloted Kaulig Racing’s No. 10 Chevrolet Camaro entry to a thrilling last lap victory over John Hunter Nemechek at Darlington Raceway. With the Darlington victory being the first for him ever in NASCAR, Larson aims to achieve another accomplishment by adding a Xfinity victory at Sonoma to his racing resume.

    Speaking of the No. 10 Kaulig Racing entry, AJ Allmendinger returns to pilot the entry for a second time this season. The 41-year-old veteran from Los Gatos, California, will be receiving sponsorship support from Gabriel Glas for this weekend’s Xfinity and Cup rides, where he currently drives the No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry for Kaulig in NASCAR’s premier series.

    Of his 16 career victories in the Xfinity circuit, 11 of them have occurred on road course venues, which makes Allmendinger the winningest competitor on road courses in the series. Despite winning on seven different road courses between the Xfinity and Cup levels, including his two Cup victories at Watkins Glen International and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course venue, Allmendinger has yet to achieve a win at Sonoma. In 11 previous starts at Sonoma in the Cup Series, he has led a total of 65 laps, but has only managed to finish in the top 10 twice, with his best result being seventh in 2009. He has managed to start on the front row three times between 2014-16, including on pole position in 2015. With his most recent victory in the series occurring this past March at Circuit of the Americas, Allmendinger strives to extend his road course dominance by checking off another road course venue off his bucket list.

    Photo by Chad Wells for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    Joining the list of double duty competitors between the Xfinity-Cup action is Ross Chastain, who drives the No. 1 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Trackhouse Racing in the Cup Series. The 30-year-old Chastain from Alva, Florida, is scheduled to drive the No. 91 Chevrolet Camaro for DGM Racing sponsored by Skip Barber Racing School, with the event set to mark his third series start of this season after competing at Auto Club Speedway in February and at Darlington in May.

    In three career starts at Sonoma in the Cup Series, Chastain has notched two consecutive seventh-place results, including this past season. He was one of five Cup competitors who competed in last year’s Truck Series event at Sonoma, where he led 19 of 75 laps before finishing fourth while driving for Niece Motorsports. Chastain also has one road course victory stored in his resume, which occurred at Circuit of the Americas in March 2022 on a day where he also notched the first Cup career win for himself and Trackhouse Racing. On the Xfinity side, his best series’ result on a road course venue was at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course circuit, where he finished fourth.

    Ironically, a year after making his 100th Truck career start overall at Sonoma, Chastain is also primed to achieve another milestone start in Northern California. By qualifying and taking the green flag in this Saturday’s event, he will make his 200th career start in the Xfinity circuit. Through 199 previous Xfinity starts, the Floridian has achieved two career victories, one pole, 23 top-five results, 49 top-10 results, 961 laps led and an average-finishing result of 16.7. His best points result in the series is seventh place, which occurred in 2020. During that season, he notched career-high stats in top-fives (15), top-10s (27), laps led (553), overall average-starting result (7.7) and overall average-finishing result (8.2) despite going winless and while driving for Kaulig Racing.

    Veteran Aric Almirola from Tampa, Florida, is also scheduled to pull double duty efforts as he will be piloting the No. 28 Michael Roberts Construction Ford Mustang for RSS Racing on Saturday before driving the No. 10 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing on Sunday. The Xfinity event is set to mark Almirola’s 104th career start in the series and second of the season after he competed at Circuit of the Americas this past March, where he finished 24th while competing for SS-Green Light Racing.

    Through 10 Cup career starts at Sonoma, Almirola has achieved two top-10 results, with his best result being eighth in June 2018. While this weekend is set to mark his first Xfinity start at Sonoma, it will mark his third different series where he has competed at the circuit. In June 2018, Almirola competed in the ARCA Menards Series West event at Sonoma for Stewart-Haas Racing, where he finished second after leading 23 of 64 laps. With his last Xfinity victory occurring at Talladega Superspeedway in May 2017 and his best road course result in the Xfinity circuit being a fifth-place run at Watkins Glen in August 2018, a first road course victory is still something Almirola continues to pursue.

    Photo by Bruce Nuttleman for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    Another competitor attempting to participate in double duty efforts is Ty Dillon, who will be piloting the No. 4 Chevrolet Camaro for JD Motorsports. The 31-year-old Dillon and grandson of championship-winning owner Richard Childress from Welcome, North Carolina, is coming off his recent series start at Darlington in May, where he finished 19th while driving the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro.

    Dillon has made a total of four Cup starts at Sonoma, with his best result being 23rd a year ago while driving for Petty GMS Motorsports. Like Almirola, he has yet to achieve a road course victory to his resume. The closest Dillon came to winning on a road course circuit was during the inaugural Truck Series event at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in September 2013, where he was leading on the final lap until he got wrecked by Chase Elliott entering the final corner. His best Xfinity result on a road course venue is third, which was achieved at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in August 2015. With his latest Xfinity victory spanning back to July 2014 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Dillon, who currently competes full time in the Cup Series and in the No. 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Spire Motorsports, aims for a momentous boost to his racing career as he fights his way back to championship-caliber form.

    In a youthful career highlighted with an abundance of success and a rapid ascend to the Cup Series level, Ty Gibbs is set to experience another first to his career as he prepares to tackle Sonoma Raceway for the first time ever and twice in one weekend. The 20-year-old reigning Xfinity Series champion and grandson of championship-winning owner Joe Gibbs from Charlotte, North Carolina, will return as the driver of the No. 19 Toyota Supra sponsored by The He Get Us campaign for his third series start of this season.

    While racing on Sonoma’s surface will be new for Gibbs, racing on road courses is something he is familiar with, with some of his success occurring on road course venues. He achieved his first Xfinity career victory in his series debut at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course in February 2021. He then proceeded to win at Watkins Glen in August 2021 before winning at Road America last July following a last lap battle against Kyle Larson. With 11 Xfinity victories achieved, three on road courses, in 53 series career starts, Gibbs, who earned top-five results in two Xfinity starts this season at Circuit of the Americas in March and at Charlotte in May, aims to extend his top-five streak to three and potentially, emerge victorious while continuing his pursuit of claiming this year’s Cup Rookie-of-the-Year title behind the wheel of JGR’s No. 54 Toyota TRD Camry in the Cup circuit.

    Lastly on the Xfinity side, Daniel Suarez becomes the seventh Cup participant for the inaugural Xfinity event at Sonoma as he will be piloting the No. 07 Chevrolet Camaro for SS-Green Light Racing. The 2016 Xfinity Series champion from Monterrey, Mexico, enters the Sonoma weekend with high momentum after notching his first Cup Series career victory at the circuit a year ago and becoming the first Mexican-born competitor to win in NASCAR’s premier series.

    While this season marks his third as a full-time Cup Series competitor in the No. 99 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Trackhouse Racing, this Saturday’s Xfinity event is set to mark Suarez’s first start in the Xfinity circuit since racing at Chicagoland Speedway in June 2018. Suarez, though, made his name made within the Xfinity circuit with 84 career starts in the series, a Rookie-of-the-Year title from 2015 and three career victories, including the 2016 championship as he became the first Latin American competitor to win a title across NASCAR’s top three national touring series. His highest Xfinity result on road courses stands at fourth place, which he achieved twice at Watkins Glen and at Road America in August 2016.

    For Sonoma, Suarez returns to the circuit with vast experience. In conjunction with his five total Cup Series start, he competed in two consecutive ARCA Menards Series West events at Sonoma, where he finished 11th and fourth, respectively, in 2017 and 2018. Suarez also competed as a relief competitor for the injured Carson Hocevar and Niece Motorsports during the Truck Series’ Sonoma event a year ago, where he rallied from two laps down after relieving Hocevar early in the event to finish sixth. Given his strength of the circuit, Suarez aims for a repeat victory while pursuing his first Cup victory of the 2023 campaign.

    Photo by David Myers for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    A day prior to the Xfinity Series’ inaugural event at Sonoma, the ARCA Menards Series West division will make its return to the circuit for the 44th time overall as General Tire retains its right of sponsoring the 200-mile event. The lone Cup Series competitor who is entered for the event is Ryan Preece, who drives the No. 41 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing. The 32-year-old Preece from Berlin, Connecticut, will be piloting the No. 9 Ford for SHR in the ARCA West region, which will mark his second career start in the series. His lone start in the series occurred at Sonoma in June 2019, where he led a race-high 33 of 57 laps and was in position of winning until he was penalized for a late restart violation and demoted to the last competitor running on the lead lap in 20th place. A former winner across the Truck and Xfinity circuits, Preece has also made two previous starts at Sonoma in the Cup Series in 2019 and 2021, with his best result being 21st from the 2021 season. His best results on road courses within NASCAR’s top three national touring series are a pair of fourth-place runs at Watkins Glen and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course in 2018.

    For Friday’s ARCA West event at Sonoma, Preece will be competing alongside a host of Xfinity Series regulars that include Cole Custer, Riley Herbst, Parker Retzlaff, Kyle Sieg and Sammy Smith, all of whom will receive a head start to their weekend prior to their series’ debut at the Northern California circuit.

    Custer, a former Cup Series Rookie-of-the-Year recipient from Ladera Ranch, California, will retain driving responsibilities of the No. 55 Ford for High Point Racing for a second consecutive week after competing in last weekend’s event at Portland International Raceway. Custer is also coming off a dramatic weekend at Portland, where he notched his first Xfinity victory of the season during an overtime shootout. Herbst, Custer’s Xfinity teammate at Stewart-Haas Racing from Las Vegas, Nevada, will also be returning to the series for a second consecutive week as he will be driving the No. 5 Jerry Pitts Racing Ford.

    Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    Retzlaff, a Xfinity rookie competitor from Rhinelander, Wisconsin, who currently competes for Jordan Anderson Racing, will be piloting the No. 02 Young’s Motorsports Chevrolet for a second consecutive week while Kyle Sieg, a full-time Xfinity competitor for RSS Racing from Tucker, Georgia, will be assuming the No. 46 Ford for Lowden Jackson Motorsports.

    Lastly, Sammy Smith, a Xfinity rookie from Johnston, Iowa, who currently competes for Joe Gibbs Racing, will be joining Hattori Racing Enterprises for a one-race effort in the No. 81 Toyota. Smith, who notched his first Xfinity career victory at Phoenix Raceway in March, has not yet competed at Sonoma throughout his youthful racing career, but he has achieved an abundance of success within the ARCA divisions, with six victories in the ARCA Menards Series, two consecutive ARCA East titles and a single ARCA West victory that occurred at Phoenix last November.

    With Sonoma Raceway serving as the next scheduled event on the 2023 NASCAR schedule and with the drivers’ roster for this weekend’s events set, the weekend commences with the ARCA Menards Series West running the General Tire 200 on Friday, June 9, at 6:30 p.m. ET as the event will air live on FloRacing. The Xfinity Series’ inaugural DoorDash 250 at Sonoma will occur the following day on Saturday, June 10, at 8 p.m. ET on FS1. The Cup Series’ Toyota Save/Mart 350 will cap off the weekend as the series’ top premier competitors compete on Sunday, June 11, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

  • Chastain and Gragson trade blows on pit road

    Chastain and Gragson trade blows on pit road

    What started as a heated discussion devolved into a punching match.

    As Denny Hamlin celebrated his victory, Sunday, in the Advent Health 400, Noah Gragson approached Ross Chastain to chew him out. He grabbed him and the talk continued, until Chastain connected with his left cheek.

    “There’s no talking to the guy,” Gragson told Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports, after the scuffle.

    It ceased just as quickly as it started, after multiple officials swarmed them both to break up the fight.

    “Sucks that they all get involved,” he said. “Just let us two work it out and finish it off.”

    This stems from an incident during the race, in which Chastain put Gragson into the wall off Turn 4. Based on Gragson’s comments, post-race, it happened somewhere between Lap 200 and 210.

    “Yeah, definitely crowded him up off of (Turn) 4, and he took a swipe at us in 3, and then he came down and grabbed a hold of me, and a very big man once told me we have a no-push policy here at Trackhouse,” Chastain said.

    Gragson adds his name to the growing list of drivers displeased with Chastain’s aggressive style of racing. Most famous of which is Hamlin, who spent several laps, last season, at Gateway to put on some fun-dumb racing with him. Then again at The Clash and climaxed a few weeks later at Phoenix.

    As for Gragson, it wasn’t the first time, either.

    “He did the same thing after Talladega on the plane and nothing happened,” Chastain told Jeff Gluck of The Athletic.

    Only this time, Gragson was tired of nobody confronting Chastain.

    “The guy just runs into everyone,” he said. “When you’ve got guys like Chase Elliott saying, ‘Go beat his ass,’ everyone is sick and tired of him and nobody has the balls to go up and get him.”

    What repercussions this leads to for Chastain, down the road, only time will tell. For now, however, he leaves Kansas with a 27-point lead over Christopher Bell.

  • Hamlin clips Larson for thrilling last lap Cup victory at Kansas

    Hamlin clips Larson for thrilling last lap Cup victory at Kansas

    Denny Hamlin executed a thrilling finish for the ages by stalking and making the slightest contact on Kyle Larson that sent Larson into the backstretch wall on the final lap to win the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, May 7.

    The 42-year-old Hamlin from Chesterfield, Virginia, led eight times for 34 of 267-scheduled laps in a Heartland event that generated competitive racing and various lead changes from start to finish. At the event’s conclusion, Hamlin, who spent the final 26 laps trailing and cutting Larson’s steady advantage while trying himself to overtake him, seized an opportunity at the start of the final lap when he got to Larson’s rear bumper and tried to overtake him through the first two turns. Then as Larson gained the momentum to pull ahead entering the backstretch, both competitors’ cars came together as Hamlin slipped up and resulted with Larson getting sideways and wrecking against the outside wall. This allowed Hamlin to sneak by with the lead as he cruised to his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season by more than a second.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, William Byron notched his second Cup pole of the season and the 10th of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 179.206 mph in 30.133 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Kyle Larson, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 179.170 mph in 30.139 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following names that included Josh Bilicki, Corey LaJoie and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Byron took off with the lead on the inside lane and assumed control of the field that fanned out through the first two turns and the backstretch. As the field continued to jostle for positions, Byron led the first lap while teammate Larson and Ross Chastain battled for second. Behind, Tyler Reddick was in fourth while Martin Truex Jr. retained fifth ahead of Joey Logano.

    During the third lap, however, Byron briefly fell off the pace and dipped his No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 below the apron after getting loose entering the backstretch, which allowed Larson and Chastain to rocket past him as they battled for the lead followed by a hard-charging Reddick. A tight three-car battle for the lead then ensued between Larson, Chastain and Reddick, with neither letting off the throttle nor giving an inch as they fanned out and slid up the track to stall the momentum.

    Then prior to the fifth lap, the three-car battle for the lead between Larson, Reddick and Chastain went south as Reddick, who was sliding up the track and attempting to file in behind Larson and in front of Chastain entering the frontstretch, made contact with Larson as he sent Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 spinning across the frontstretch. Larson, however, managed to keep his car spinning below the apron without getting hit from the oncoming field and proceed without sustaining any damage as the event’s first caution flew.

    During the first caution, names that included Larson, Brad Keselowski, Chase Briscoe, Josh Bilicki, Todd Gilliland, Harrison Burton, Ryan Preece, Justin Haley and JJ Yeley pitted while the rest led by the new leader Reddick remained on the track.

    When the race restarted on the ninth lap, Reddick retained the lead on the inside lane as the field fanned out through the first two turns and the backstretch. Behind, Chastain and Byron were in second and third while rookie Ty Gibbs used the outside lane to move his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry into the top five as he battled teammate Martin Truex Jr. for more. Denny Hamlin also launched his bid for a spot in the top five against Gibbs followed by Logano, Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace and Daniel Suarez.

    Through the first 15 scheduled laps, Reddick was leading by half a second over Chastain followed by Truex, Hamlin and Byron while Bell, Ty Gibbs, Wallace, Suarez and Logano were in the top 10. Michael McDowell was in 11th followed by Chris Buescher, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch while rookie Noah Gragson, Austin Cindric, AJ Allmendinger, Austin Dillon and Ty Dillon were running in the top 20. Meanwhile, Larson, who was trying to carve his way back to the front following his early spin, was mired outside the top 25 on the track.

    Thirteen laps later, Truex, winner of last week’s Cup event at Dover Motor Speedway, moved his No. 19 Reser’s Fine Foods Toyota TRD Camry into the lead after gaining momentum and seizing an opportunity for the top spot through the backstretch and Turns 3 and 4. Teammate Hamlin followed suit in second in his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry as Reddick fell back to third.

    By Lap 37, Byron, who fell back to ninth, pitted under green, but was assessed a penalty for speeding on pit road, which dropped him to last place in the running order and out of the lead lap category. By then, Aric Almirola pitted as Austin Cindric, Suarez and Kyle Busch pitted their respective entries. The first cycle of green flag pit stops proceeded as Wallace and Chastain pitted along with Hamlin, Reddick, Harvick, Wallace and Logano.

    By Lap 40, Truex surrendered the lead to pit along with Josh Berry, AJ Allmendinger, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs and others. Truex’s pit stop, however, occurred a lap later than planned due to a miscommunication with his team. This allowed teammate Hamlin to overtake him for position on the backstretch with nearly the entire field having made a pit stop.

    Just past the Lap 45 mark, Corey LaJoie, who had yet to pit, was leading followed by Keselowski while Hamlin, the first competitor who pitted, cycled to third ahead of Truex and JJ Yeley. Then once LaJoie pitted on Lap 47, Hamlin cycled as the new leader by three-tenths of a second over teammate Truex. Truex, however, managed to narrow the deficit and reassume the lead from Hamlin on Lap 49 while Keselowski, who had yet to pit, retained third followed by Reddick and Ty Gibbs.

    On Lap 56, trouble ignited for Chase Briscoe, who exited his pit stall after completing a pit stop under green when the left-front wheel came off of Briscoe’s No. 14 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang and rolled down pit road. The tire, however, managed to roll behind the wall and Briscoe was able to reverse his car back to his pit stall without drawing a caution. He, however, was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation as Truex continued to lead ahead of teammate Hamlin, Reddick, Gibbs and Suarez.

    By Lap 65, Truex retained the lead ahead of teammate Hamlin and more than nine seconds over third-place Reddick while Gibbs and Suarez remained in the top five. Behind, Wallace was in sixth ahead of Bell while Blaney, Chastain and Kyle Busch were in the top 10. Two laps later, Keselowski, who was trying to stretch his fuel tank after pitting on the seventh lap, pitted under green after slipping out of the top-10 running order while Larson and Harvick battled for 11th.

    On Lap 71, the battle for the lead between teammates Truex and Hamlin reignited as Hamlin, who gained ground on Truex through the backstretch a lap prior, managed to carve his way past Truex amid lapped traffic to reassume the lead. By then, Byron’s rocky day went from bad to worse as he pitted under green after scrubbing the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 80, Hamlin captured his second stage victory of the 2023 season. Teammate Truex settled in second followed by teammate Ty Gibbs while Reddick, Suarez, Bell, Wallace, Blaney, Chastain and Larson were scored in the top 10. By then, 19 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap.

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Hamlin pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin retained the lead after exiting first followed by Truex, Gibbs, Suarez, Wallace and Blaney. During the pit stops, Reddick lost five spots on pit road due to a slow pit service involving the jack while Kyle Busch, who backed his car on pit road to tighten a lug nut, was penalized for speeding on pit road.

    The second stage started on Lap 88 as teammates Hamlin and Truex occupied the front row. At the start, teammates Hamlin and Truex dueled for the lead as the field fanned out and battled in close-quarters racing through the first two turns and the backstretch. In the midst of the battle for the lead, Suarez, who restarted third, was nearly turned in the backstretch as he fell within the top 10.

    As the field returned to the frontstretch, both Truex and Hamlin refused to give an inch nor let off the throttle as they continued to battle dead even for the lead while Chastain overtook Gibbs and Reddick for third. Behind, Elliott muscled his way to the front as he overtook Larson, Blaney and Wallace to move up to seventh.

    On Lap 94, Hamlin attempted to side-draft teammate Truex for the lead through the frontstretch, but Truex gained the momentum on the outside lane through the first two turns as he retained the lead. Their battles were among many occurring around the speedway as Chastain was starting to be pressured by Wallace for third while Blaney and Bell battled for seventh.

    At the Lap 100 mark, Hamlin, who pulled a slide job to reassume the lead from Truex, was leading by half a second over teammate Truex, with both continuing to pressure one another for the lead as third-place Wallace trailed by two seconds. Chastain and Gibbs were in the top five while Bell, Elliott, Larson, Josh Berry and Blaney were scored in the top 10. Behind, Suarez was back in 11th followed by Aric Almirola, Kevin Harvick, Reddick and Buescher while Kyle Busch was in 16th.

    Seven laps later, the caution flew when Austin Cindric, who was running 19th, blew a right-front tire and slapped the outside wall exiting the frontstretch and through the first two turns. Cindric’s incident was one that broke the wheel in half and fell off his No. 2 Freightliner Ford Mustang as he pitted. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Hamlin returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Wallace emerged as the new leader after exiting pit road first followed by Chastain, Truex, Gibbs, Larson and Hamlin. During the pit stops, Elliott backed his No. 9 UniFirst Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 back to his pit stall to have a left-side lug nut tightened as he lost a bevy of spots on pit road.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 113, Chastain jumped ahead with the lead on the inside lane, but Wallace quickly fought back on the outside lane with drafting help from Truex as he reassumed the top spot and held the lead amid a series of battles. With Wallace leading, Chastain and Truex battled for second as Hamlin was in fourth ahead of Larson, Gibbs and Almirola. Meanwhile, Reddick was back in eighth along with Kyle Busch, Josh Berry, Harvick and Bell while Blaney was back in 13th.

    On Lap 118, Truex used the inside lane to his advantage as he overtook Wallace for the lead entering the frontstretch. Behind, Larson rocketed his way up to third while Hamlin was in fourth ahead of Chastain. As Gibbs occupied sixth, Reddick and Kyle Busch battled for seventh while Elliott was back in 12th in between Almirola and Harvick.

    At the halfway mark between Laps 133 and 134, Truex was leading by more than a second over Larson and more than two seconds over third-place Hamlin while Wallace and Chastain were back in the top five. Reddick, Gibbs, Kyle Busch, Bell and Berry were in the top 10 while Elliott Harvick, Almirola, Buescher, Blaney, Suarez, Gragson, Austin Dillon, Allmendinger and Logano were running in the top 20. Notably, Keselowski was in 21st, Erik Jones was mired in 25th behind Harrison Burton and Byron was in 32nd.

    On Lap 138, the caution flew when Almirola, who was running 13th, snapped sideways and spun towards the bottom of the track in the backstretch as he slowly limped his No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang back to pit road with multiple flat tires. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Hamlin returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Larson managed to edge Truex and Hamlin off of pit road first as he assumed the lead followed by Chastain, Wallace and Kyle Busch. During the pit stops, Ty Gibbs reversed his car back to his pit stall to tighten a loose wheel on his entry. In addition, Keselowski was penalized for speeding on pit road.

    During the following restart on Lap 143, Larson and Truex dueled for the lead as the field fanned out through the backstretch and returning to the frontstretch. During the following lap, Larson managed to clear Truex, who had to lift off the throttle in Turn 4, to retain the lead as Hamlin followed pursuit in third. Behind, Wallace and Chastain battled for fourth as Kyle Busch and Elliott battled for sixth. As a series of on-track battles ensued, including one at the front where Wallace overtook Truex and Hamlin for second while Kyle Busch and Chastain bumped and rubbed fenders, resulting with the former voicing his displeasure to the latter, the caution returned on Lap 148 when Erik Jones spun his No. 43 Allegiant Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entering the backstretch. At the same time, Berry also spun after pinning Gibbs in between himself and Buescher, which resulted with Berry spinning his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 below the backstretch.

    During the caution period, names that included Keselowski, Austin Dillon, Harrison Burton, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Preece and Ty Dillon pitted while the rest led by Truex remained on the track.

    With 12 laps remaining in the second stage, the race restarted under green. At the start, Larson and Wallace battled dead even for the lead for a lap, with neither managing to clear one another as Hamlin gained ground on both. During the following lap, both Larson and Wallace continued to duel with both Hamlin and Truex remaining within striking distance before Larson managed to pull a slide job and clear Wallace through Turns 1 and 2. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch moved up to fifth ahead of Blaney and Chastain.

    Then with eight laps remaining and just as Wallace reassumed the lead from Larson, the caution flew when Bell, who was running eighth, made contact against Chastain, spun his No. 20 SiriusXM Toyota TRD Camry off of the backstretch and pounded the outside wall as his strong run came to an end. During the caution period, some led by Logano remained on the track while the rest led by Wallace pitted.

    With three laps remaining in the second stage, the race restarted under green. At the start, the field scrambled and fanned out through the first two turns between competitors on old tires versus new tires as Logano and McDowell battled for the lead. Then through the backstretch, the caution returned when Kyle Busch, who was trying to carve his way back to the front amid the mixed strategy, slid across the nose of Ryan Preece and spun his No. 8 Cheddar’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 below the track as he slapped the inside wall and slid backwards on flat tires as his roller coaster day came to an end. The incident was one that ended Busch’s. Busch’s incident was enough for NASCAR to conclude the second stage scheduled for Lap 165 under caution as Logano captured his second stage victory of the 2023 season. McDowell settled in second while Gragson, Erik Jones, AJ Allmendinger, Buescher, Austin Dillon, Ty Dillon, Larson and Hamlin were scored in the top 10. By then, 28 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap.

    Under the stage break, some led by Logano, including the ones that remained on the track during the previous caution period, pitted while the rest led by new leader Larson remained on the track.

    With 97 laps remaining, the final stage started under green as Larson and Hamlin occupied the front row. At the start, Larson retained the lead ahead of Hamlin following a push from teammate Elliott as a series of on-track battles ensued from the front to the back. With Larson leading, Wallace challenged his owner Hamlin for second with Elliott settling in fourth as Blaney, Truex and Reddick battled for fifth. Truex would then fall back to seventh as he was being pressured by teammate Ty Gibbs and Harvick for more.

    Then with 91 laps remaining and amid the continuous battles, the caution flew when Gibbs, who was battling teammate Truex and Harvick for seventh place, slid up the track entering the backstretch as he sent Truex up the track and towards the outside wall. While Truex proceeded, Gibbs then spun his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry below the track as he made little contact against the inside wall while flat-spotting his tires. He then damaged his right-front fender as his right-front tire shredded while he attempted to enter pit road, which resulted with him getting stuck towards the frontstretch grass and ending his race with a wrecked race car.

    During the following restart with 84 laps remaining, Larson and Hamlin battled for the lead amid the field fanning out as Larson managed to clear Hamlin and retain the lead. Behind, Blaney carved his way up to fourth while battling Reddick for the spot while Elliott overtook Hamlin for second. Behind, Truex was trying to carve his way back to the front as he was in seventh behind Wallace as Elliott started to challenge teammate Larson for the lead. After gaining a strong run through the backstretch, Elliott, who is needing a victory to make the 2023 Cup Playoffs after missing six of the first eight scheduled events, moved into the lead with 81 laps remaining as Hamlin tried to battle Larson for second.

    With 77 laps remaining, the caution returned when Harrison Burton spun his No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang off of Turn 2 while trying to avoid hitting Buescher. During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by Elliott pitted while the rest that included Truex, Austin Dillon, Logano, Gragson and Todd Gilliland remained on the track.

    At the start of the following restart with 72 laps remaining, Truex and Austin Dillon dueled for the lead as Larson, the first competitor restarting on fresh tires, fanned out while charging his way back to the front. With Truex retaining the lead, teammates Larson and Elliott pressured Austin Dillon for second with Suarez in fifth as Hamlin was back in sixth ahead of Byron and Logano. With 69 laps remaining, however, Hamlin capitalized exiting the backstretch to overtake both Suarez and Elliott for fourth place while Larson, who managed to overtake Austin Dillon for second, started to pressure Truex for the lead.

    Then with 64 laps remaining, Larson side-drafted and overtook Truex through the frontstretch to reassume the lead on four fresh tires. He then started to pull away as Hamlin, Austin Dillon and Byron occupied the top five. Behind, Suarez was in sixth followed by Blaney while Wallace battled Reddick, Harvick and Elliott for eighth. The caution, however, returned with 62 laps remaining when Gragson, who was battling hard against Chastain for a top-15 spot and scrubbed the outside wall on the frontstretch a few laps earlier, got sideways by himself entering the backstretch as he spun his No. 42 Sunseeker Resort Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 below the track.

    During the caution period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Truex pitted while names that included Corey LaJoie, Preece and McDowell remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Larson exited first with the lead followed by teammate Byron, Hamlin, Suarez, Truex and Austin Dillon. Following the pit stops, however, Suarez was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation after a wheel rolled out of his pit box.

    With the race restarting with 56 laps remaining, the field fanned out and scrambled as Preece and LaJoie dueled for the lead in front of Byron, Larson and Hamlin. During the following lap and with the field still scrambling, Byron, who was two laps down early in the event, cycled into the lead followed by teammate Larson, Hamlin and Truex. Larson then engaged in a battle with his Hendrick Motorsports teammate for the lead with both refusing to give an inch while Hamlin tried to close in while running third.

    It would not take long, however, for the caution to return with 53 laps remaining when Erik Jones got loose after touching Almirola as he battled him for position and spun below the apron in Turns 3 and 4. At the same time, Berry spun off of the two turns, with both proceeding to pit their respective entries. The caution period enabled McDowell and Preece to pit while the rest of the field led by Byron remained on the track.

    During the proceeding event with 47 laps remaining, Larson gained the momentum on the outside lane to assume the lead from teammate Byron with Hamlin in third as Wallace charged his way back to fourth along with Chastain. Truex, meanwhile, fell back to seventh after having issues gaining speed on the inside lane as Wallace and Chastain battled for fourth.

    With 35 laps remaining, Larson was leading by six-tenths of a second over teammate Byron followed by Hamlin, Chastain and Wallace while Logano, Elliott, Truex, Reddick and Austin Dillon were in the top 10. Behind, Harvick was in 11th ahead of Blaney, Stenhouse, Allmendinger and LaJoie while Keselowski, Almirola, Suarez, Buescher and Justin Haley occupied the top 20.

    Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Larson extended his advantage to more than a second over Hamlin, who overtook Byron for second a lap earlier, as Chastain and Wallace remained in the top five. Larson’s advantage, however, decreased to six-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Hamlin with less than 20 laps remaining while third-place Byron trailed by more than two seconds.

    With 10 laps remaining, Larson, who scrubbed the wall four laps earlier while trying to navigate his way through lapped traffic, retained the lead by only three-tenths of a second over Hamlin, who continued to close in for the lead and now had Larson close to his front windshield.

    During the proceeding laps, Hamlin, who was experimenting different lanes to gain the ground needed on Larson, cut the deficit to as little as a tenth of a second as he tried to navigate his way around Larson for the lead amid more lapped traffic. Larson, however, maintained his ground as he was forced to block and fend off Hamlin for the lead. With nearly five laps remaining, Hamlin gained a run beneath Larson and nearly took over the lead on the frontstretch, but Larson managed to maintain the lead by a tenth of a second as he gained the momentum through the first two turns. Larson then managed to stabilize his advantage by only as high as half a second, leaving Hamlin more work to try and regain the ground.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson, who continued to block and fend off Hamlin’s charges through every turn and straightaway, remained as the leader by a tenth of a second over Hamlin. Through the first two turns, Hamlin tried once again to draw himself even with Larson for the lead, but Larson started to peek ahead entering the backstretch. It was there where the competitors’ cars touched as Hamlin slid up and barely clipped Larson left-rear quarter panel, which got Larson loose and into the outside wall on the backstretch. Despite hitting the wall, Larson managed to quickly straighten his car and proceed, but the damage was done as Hamlin escaped with the lead. After navigating his way through the final two corners without any pressure, Hamlin cycled back to the frontstretch and delivered with his first checkered flag of the 2023 season after winning by more than a second over Larson.

    With the victory, Hamlin, who won for the first time since winning the 2022 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, notched his 49th NASCAR Cup Series career victory, which tied him with NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart on the all-time wins list, and his fourth victory at Kansas Speedway. He also became the ninth different competitor to win through the first 12-scheduled events and the third to do so while driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, which achieved career victory No. 400 in NASCAR.

    The 2023 season marks Hamlin’s 17th season with at least one victory in NASCAR’s premier series. Hamlin also produced the first last-lap pass for the victory at Kansas Speedway.

    “Yeah, so proud of this whole FedEx team,” Hamlin, who was met with mixed reviews from the crowd, said on FS1. “I got position on [Larson] there. I was trying to side-draft him, but clipped his left rear. Glad he was able to at least finish and proud of my FedEx team, though. [That’s] 400 wins now for Joe Gibbs Racing. Just such a great accomplishment for them.”

    Larson, who rallied from his early spin, settled in second place for a second consecutive time in the spring Kansas event as he also notched his second runner-up result of the 2023 season.

    “I was really loose,” Larson said. “I was trying to do what I could to manage it. [I was] Just really loose on that end. [Hamlin] was a little bit better than me at the end there. Obviously, he was side-drafting really aggressively like he would, but he was like touching me, it felt like, and it just had me kind of out of control.”

    Byron capped off his miraculous comeback from two laps down to finish third followed by Bubba Wallace, who notched his second top-five result of the season. Points leader Chastain came home in fifth while Logano, Elliott, Truex, Reddick and Austin Dillon finished in the top 10 on the track.

    Meanwhile, tempers flared on pit road between 29th-place finisher Noah Gragson and fifth-place finisher Ross Chastain, both of whom made contact on the frontstretch that scales back to less than 70 laps remaining when Chastain forced Gragson up and into the outside wall and resulted with Gragson stalling Chastain’s momentum. After the race, both competitors met to discuss their incident on pit road and the conversation went south as Gragson grabbed Chastain’s chest. With the conversation intensifying, Chastain then swung a punch towards Gragson before both were separated by NASCAR officials.

    There were a record-setting 37 lead changes for 12 different leaders. The race featured 11 cautions for 57 laps. In total, 22 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Following the 12th event of the 2023 Cup Series season, Ross Chastain continues to lead the regular-season standings by 31 points over Christopher Bell, 36 over Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin, 46 over Kevin Harvick and 50 over Tyler Reddick.

    Results.

    1. Denny Hamlin, 34 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    2. Kyle Larson, 85 laps led

    3. William Byron, 10 laps led

    4. Bubba Wallace, nine laps led

    5. Ross Chastain, three laps led

    6. Joey Logano, eight laps led, Stage 2 winner

    7. Chase Elliott, five laps led

    8. Martin Truex Jr., 79 laps led

    9. Tyler Reddick, 23 laps led

    10. Austin Dillon

    11. Kevin Harvick

    12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    13. Aric Almirola

    14. AJ Allmendinger

    15. Daniel Suarez

    16. Ryan Blaney

    17. Chris Buescher

    18. Justin Haley

    19. Brad Keselowski

    20. Corey LaJoie, seven laps led

    21. Erik Jones

    22. Ty Dillon

    23. JJ Yeley, one lap down

    24. Todd Gilliland, one lap down

    25. Josh Berry, one lap down

    26. Michael McDowell, one lap down

    27. Ryan Preece, one lap down

    28. Brennan Poole, three laps down

    29. Noah Gragson, five laps down

    30. Harrison Burton, six laps down

    31. Austin Cindric, seven laps down

    32. Chase Briscoe, seven laps down

    33. Josh Bilicki, seven laps down

    34. Ty Gibbs – OUT, Accident

    35. Kyle Busch – OUT, Accident

    36. Christopher Bell – OUT, Accident, three laps led

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ first of two scheduled visits this season to Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina, for the Goodyear 400 and the sport’s throwback weekend. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, May 14, during Mother’s Day weekend at 3 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Martin Truex Jr. snaps winless drought; returns to Cup Series Victory Lane at Dover

    Martin Truex Jr. snaps winless drought; returns to Cup Series Victory Lane at Dover

    Martin Truex Jr.’s 54-race winless drought evaporated on a clear Monday afternoon following a seven-lap dash to the finish as he proceeded to win the rain-postponed Würth 400 at Dover Motor Speedway on Monday, May 1.

    The 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion from Mayetta, New Jersey, led two times for 68 of 400-scheduled laps, including the final 11, as he spent the majority of the event clashing with crew chief James Small for better adjustments and pit stops to move up to the front. After gaining ground on the leaders at the start of the final stage, Truex capitalized during a green flag pit stop sequence that started with 76 laps remaining to cycle ahead of Ross Chastain and inherit the lead with 68 laps remaining.

    Then, while trying to fend off Chastain and navigate his way through lapped traffic, a late caution period with 14 laps remaining was called for Joey Logano who was wrecking. This enabled Small to roll the dice and opt for a two-tire pit strategy that kept Truex in the lead. When the field restarted with seven laps remaining, Truex fended off a side-by-side battle against Ryan Blaney before holding off Chastain, who was charging on four fresh tires, to claim his first elusive checkered flag of the 2023 Cup season at the Monster Mile on his home track, and claim his first points victory in over a year.

    With on-track qualifying that was scheduled to occur on Saturday, April 29, being canceled due to rain, the starting lineup was determined through a metric formula per the NASCAR Rule Book. As a result, Kyle Busch, winner of last weekend’s Cup event at Talladega Superspeedway, started on the pole position. Joining him on the front row was Christopher Bell. Prior to the event, Austin Dillon dropped to the rear of the field in a backup car after wrecking his primary car during Saturday’s practice session.

    Due to the inclement weather, the main event was postponed from Sunday, April 30, to Monday, May 1, with a noon ET start time. When the green flag waved and the race commenced on Monday, Kyle Busch muscled away from Bell on the outside lane as he assumed the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. As the field behind fanned out and jostled for early positions, Busch proceeded to lead the first lap ahead of Bell as Brad Keselowski overtook Ryan Blaney for third. In addition, Chase Briscoe was in fifth ahead of William Byron as Chris Buescher pressured Byron for more.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Busch maintained the lead ahead of Bell, Keselowski, Blaney and Briscoe while Buescher, Byron, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott were in the top 10. Behind, Denny Hamlin was in 11th ahead of Kevin Harvick, Daniel Suarez, Erik Jones and Martin Truex Jr. while Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson, Josh Berry, Austin Cindric and Justin Haley occupied the top 20. With more on-track battles ensuing, Busch retained the lead at the Lap 10 mark.

    When a scheduled competition caution flew on Lap 20, Busch was scored the leader by three-tenths of a second over Bell while Keselowski, Blaney, Byron, Buescher, Stenhouse, Hamlin, Reddick and Harvick were scored in the top 10. By then, Elliott was in 13th behind Suarez and Truex, Larson was in 15th behind Chastain and Briscoe had fallen back to 20th. Meanwhile, Berry, who was filling in driving the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for the injured Alex Bowman, was in 17th.

    During the competition caution, the entire field led by Busch pitted as all took four tires, except for Berry and Todd Gilliland as both opted for two fresh tires. Following the pit stops, Busch exited first followed by Keselowski, Byron, Buescher, Hamlin and Berry. During the pit stops, teammates Byron and Berry made contact on pit road, when Berry exited his pit stall and ran into the side of Byron’s No. 24 Raptor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and Byron then made contact with the pit wall. In addition, Bell fell back to 14th after enduring a slow pit service while his crew was changing the right-front tire.

    Following the pit stops, however, Busch was sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road. Busch’s penalty allowed Keselowski and Byron to move up to the front row for the continuation of the event.

    When the race proceeded under green on Lap 27, Byron rocketed away from Keselowski with a strong start on the inside lane and with Hamlin pushing him as Byron assumed the lead. The caution, however, quickly returned when rookie Noah Gragson, who was running towards the rear, slapped the outside wall on the backstretch before spinning towards the bottom of the track and making light contact with the inside wall as he nursed his damaged No. 42 Sunseeker Resort Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to pit road.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 33, Byron rocketed away with another strong start on the outside lane as he maintained the lead ahead of Hamlin and Keselowski, both of whom battled for second in front of Blaney. With the field fanning out for nearly a lap, the caution quickly returned during the following lap when Suarez, who was running towards the top 10, snapped loose and slapped the outside wall entering the frontstretch as he then spun his No. 99 Pitbull/Freeway Insurance Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 towards the inside wall. With the field slamming on the brakes to avoid Suarez’s incident, more issues ensued as Kyle Busch ran into the rear of Ty Dillon as both he and BJ McLeod also wrecked with Dillon sustaining more damage as he backed his Spire Motorsports entry into the inside wall. The incident knocked Dillon and Suarez out of contention as McLeod and Busch, whose early pit road speeding penalty sent him to the rear of the field, pitted for repairs.

    During the following restart on Lap 41, Byron maintained the lead ahead of Hamlin as the field fanned out to three lanes entering the first two turns. Behind, Blaney overtook Keselowski for third while Ross Chastain used a three-wide move on the outside lane to move up to fifth. Shortly after, however, Truex battled his way into the top five as Keselowski fell back to sixth while Buescher, Berry, and Larson followed in pursuit.

    Through the first 50 scheduled laps, Byron was leading by half a second over Hamlin followed by Blaney, Chastain and Truex while Keselowski, Buescher, Berry, Larson and Stenhouse were running in the top 10. Behind, Elliott was in 11th ahead of Bell, Harvick, Reddick and Cindric while Justin Haley, Michael McDowell, AJ Allmendinger, Joey Logano and Todd Gilliland were in the top 20. By then, Bubba Wallace was in 22nd ahead of rookie Ty Gibbs and Erik Jones, Kyle Busch was mired in 25th, Briscoe had fallen back to 27th, Aric Almirola was in 30th and Austin Dillon was in 32nd after starting at the rear of the field.

    Ten laps later, Byron continued to lead by eight-tenths of a second over Hamlin as Blaney, Chastain and Truex remained in the top five. Byron proceeded to maintain his advantage by eight-tenths of a second over Hamlin and more than two seconds over third-place Blaney at the Lap 75 mark. By then, Larson cracked the top five in fifth while Truex fell back to seventh. In addition, Bell returned to the top 10 in 10th, Elliott was in 13th behind Berry and Reddick, Harvick was in 14th and Kyle Busch was in 17th behind McDowell.

    Then on Lap 80, the caution flew when Chastain, who was running fourth and getting pinned behind the lapped competitors of Brennan Poole and Austin Dillon, ran into Poole and sent Poole’s No. 15 Rick Ware Racing Ford Mustang sideways in Turn 1. Poole then came back across the track and collected Larson, who was running fifth, as both wrecked against the outside wall, with Larson spinning below the track and sustaining significant front-end damage to his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. The incident was one that left Larson voicing his displeasure to Chastain over the radio.

    During the caution period, nearly the entire field pitted, except for Kyle Busch as he remained on the track and inherited the lead in his damaged No. 8 Lenovo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategies, Chastain exited first after opting only for two tires followed by Reddick, who also opted for two tires, while Byron exited third and was the first competitor on four fresh tires. Blaney, Keselowski and Buescher followed suit from fourth to sixth.

    At the start of the following restart on Lap 89, Busch and Chastain battled dead even entering Turn 1 as Chastain then slid up the track towards Busch. This caused Busch to brake to avoid wrecking as Byron seized an opportunity on the inside lane to battle and overtake Chastain for the lead. With Byron leading Chastain, Hamlin and Keselowski battled for third followed by Blaney while Busch fell back to sixth in front of Reddick. Meanwhile, Harvick was in 10th behind Buescher and Bell while Truex was in 11th in front of Corey LaJoie. In addition, Logano was battling Stenhouse and Ty Gibbs for 13th.

    At the Lap 100 mark, Byron was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Chastain followed by Hamlin, Keselowski and Blaney while Reddick, Buescher, Bell, Harvick, Busch and Truex battled within the top 11. Not long after, Larson nursed his damaged No. 5 car to the garage for additional repairs.

    Just past the Lap 110 mark, Byron maintained the lead by four-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Hamlin with Chastain falling back to third on two fresh tires. Keselowski and Blaney remained in the top five while Buescher, Bell, Harvick, Truex and Reddick were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Busch was scored outside the top 20 while names that included Logano, AJ Allmendinger, Berry, Erik Jones, Elliott and Ryan Preece were running within the top 20.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 120, Byron claimed his sixth stage victory of the 2023 Cup season after fending off a last-lap charge from Hamlin. Blaney settled in third while Keselowski, Chastain, Buescher, Bell, Harvick, Truex and Stenhouse. Meanwhile, Busch, who radioed a right rear tire issue to his car and was lapped by Byron a few laps prior to the conclusion of the stage, was overtaken and edged by teammate Austin Dillon at the stage’s conclusion for the free pass spot in 25th place.

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Byron pitted. Following the pit stops, Byron retained the lead after exiting first followed by Keselowski, Blaney, Chastain, Bell and Harvick. During the pit stops, Hamlin exited ninth after enduring a slow pit stop after the jackman tripped over the pit hose. Teammate Truex also endured a slow stop after the jackman had issues jacking up the right side of Truex’s car during the pit service. In addition, Keselowski was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation for knocking a tire out of his pit box and towards the infield.

    The second stage started on Lap 129 as Byron and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Byron rocketed away with the lead followed by Blaney and Chastain while Hamlin ignited his charge back to the front as he battled Harvick for fifth while Bell was in fourth. By then, Ty Gibbs cracked the top 10 in eighth ahead of Logano and Elliott.

    Through Lap 150, Byron was leading by more than a second over Blaney followed by Chastain, Hamlin and Harvick while Bell, Buescher, Gibbs, Elliott and Berry were in the top 10. Behind, Erik Jones was in 11th ahead of Logano, LaJoie, Stenhouse and McDowell while Reddick, Truex, Wallace, Allmendinger and Preece occupied the top 20. By then, Keselowski had fallen out of the top 20 in 22nd while Kyle Busch was mired in 26th.

    Twenty-five laps later, Byron stabilized his lead by six-tenths of a second over Blaney, who started to close in on Byron for the lead, while third-place Chastain trailed by eight-tenths of a second. Behind, fourth-place Hamlin was trailing by five seconds while fifth-place Harvick trailed by six seconds. By then, 21 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while Logano, who restarted ninth during the previous restart, was lapped and mired in 22nd place.

    Another 10 laps later, the battle for the lead began to slow brew between Byron and Chastain, with the latter, who overtook Blaney earlier, closing in on the former and was trailing within five and six-tenths of a second. Meanwhile, Blaney fell back to third and was trailing by more than two seconds followed by Hamlin and Harvick, Gibbs started to battle Buescher for sixth and Bell was clinging towards the edge of the top 10. Not long after, Bell and Logano, who was a lap down, pitted. Briscoe, who was also a lap down, pitted after making contact with the Turn 4 wall.

    Just past the Lap 190 mark, names that included Elliott, Buescher, Gibbs, Reddick, Harvick, Erik Jones, Hamlin and Stenhouse pitted under green as Byron continued to fend off Chastain for the lead. Then on Lap 194, Byron surrendered the lead to Chastain as he pitted under green. Chastain would pit during the following lap along with Blaney, Cindric, Truex, Preece, Berry and others.

    At the halfway mark on Lap 200 and with nearly the entire field having made a pit stop, Keselowski, who had yet to pit, was leading while Chastain, who was trailing by a long distance in second, managed to blend back on the track ahead of Byron and Blaney. Just then, Keselowski pitted his No. 6 Wyndham Rewards Ford Mustang under green as Chastain cycled into the lead. By then, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch, both of whom were in third and fifth, had yet to pit while Byron and Blaney were in second and fourth.

    Ten laps later, Chastain was leading by two-tenths of a second over Byron followed by Blaney while Harvick and Hamlin moved back up into the top five. Buescher was in sixth ahead of Austin Dillon and Elliott while Kyle Busch was in ninth ahead of Ty Gibbs. By then, Truex was back in 12th ahead of teammate Bell while Berry was running just outside the top 15.

    Another 15 laps later, Chastain continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over Byron and more than two seconds over Blaney while Harvick and Hamlin remained in the top five. By then, Buescher, Gibbs, Elliott, Reddick and Truex were in the top 10 while Bubba Wallace moved up to 11th followed by Bell, Corey LaJoie, Erik Jones and Josh Berry. Meanwhile, Keselowski was mired in 16th, the final competitor on the lead lap.

    Just past Lap 235, Chastain extended his advantage to more than a second over Byron and more than three seconds over Blaney as 15 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 250, Chastain claimed his fourth stage victory of the 2023 Cup season. Byron settled in second followed by Blaney, Truex and Hamlin while Gibbs, Buescher, Reddick, Elliott and Bell were scored in the top 10. By then, only 12 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while Harvick, who was off the pace, had fallen back to 15th in his No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza/Realtree Ford Mustang.

    Under the stage break, the lead lap competitors led by Chastain pitted. Following the pit stops, Byron reassumed the lead after exiting pit road first ahead of Chastain while Blaney, Truex, Gibbs, Buescher and Hamlin followed suit.

    With 142 laps remaining, the final stage started as Byron and Chastain occupied the front row. At the start, Chastain received a strong push from Truex to challenge Byron for the lead, but Byron managed to use the outside lane to his advantage as he retained the lead while Truex overtook Blaney for third. As Byron continued to lead, Gibbs and Buescher were in fifth and sixth while Hamlin battled his driver Reddick for seventh.

    With 125 laps remaining, Byron stretched his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Chastain while third-place Truex trailed by a second. Blaney and Gibbs were in the top five while Buescher, Hamlin, Reddick, Bell, Keselowski, Elliott, Berry and Wallace were scored in the lead lap category within the top 13. Meanwhile, LaJoie and Harvick battled for 14th place and to emerge as the highest competitor scored a lap down while Erik Jones, Stenhouse, McDowell, Harrison Burton and Allmendinger were scored in the top 20. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch was mired in 22nd and Logano was down to 28th.

    Then 11 laps later, Chastain, who had methodically narrowed his deficit from Byron while also trying to fend off Truex, overtook Byron, who was battling loose conditions, through Turns 3 and 4 as he returned as the leader. Truex then overtook Byron for the runner-up spot two laps later as he started to ignite his charge to the front.

    Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Chastain was leading by six-tenths of a second over Truex. Behind, Blaney moved up to third along with Gibbs while Byron fell back to fifth. Meanwhile, Hamlin was in sixth ahead of Bell, Reddick, Keselowski and Buescher while Berry, Elliott and Wallace were scored on the lead lap.

    Ten laps later, Chastain continued to lead by nine-tenths of a second over Truex. Chastain proceeded to stabilize his advantage to two-tenths of a second over Truex with 80 laps remaining. By then, Byron, who earlier reported an issue to his right-rear tire, was back in seventh as Blaney, Gibbs, Bell and Hamlin occupied the top six.

    Then with 76 laps remaining, pit stops under the green flag slowly commenced as Keselowski pitted. Reddick would pit a few laps later along with Truex, Buescher, Ty Gibbs, Byron and Wallace, who shredded a tire, as Harrison Burton spun after locking his front tires while trying to enter pit road behind Truex. With Burton managing to continue to pit road despite briefly blocking the entrance, the race remained under green flag conditions. Chastain would then pit with nearly 70 laps remaining along with Hamlin and others while McDowell was penalized for speeding on pit road.

    Back on the track and with the green flag pit stops continuing to ensue, Truex, who managed to cycle ahead of Chastain, assumed the lead in his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota TRD Camry over half a second over Chastain’s No. 1 Jockey Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 with 68 laps remaining.

    With 50 laps remaining, Truex was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Chastain while third-place Blaney trailed by more than five seconds. Behind, Ty Gibbs was in fourth ahead of teammates Hamlin and Bell, thus placing all four Joe Gibbs Racing competitors in the top six. Keselowski was up in seventh while Byron was back in eighth ahead of Buescher and Reddick.

    Then with nearly 40 laps remaining, the battle for the lead reignited as Chastain narrowed the deficit to less than three-tenths of a second over the leader Truex, who was getting mired in lapped traffic. By then, Ty Gibbs had fallen back to sixth place after being reported that he would be seven laps shy on his current tank of fuel.

    With 30 laps remaining, Truex, who was trying to lap Harvick, stabilized his advantage to four-tenths of a second over Chastain. Truex, however, would manage to lap Harvick a second time and navigate his way through lapped traffic smoothly as he extended his advantage to nearly a second over Chastain, who was blocked by Larson as Larson stalled Chastain’s progress to express his continuous displeasure from the Lap 81 incident between both, with 20 laps remaining.

    A few laps later, however, Truex encountered more heavy traffic, which enabled Chastain to close the deficit to within six-tenths and half a second. As Chastain started to encounter the traffic, among which included Reddick and Gibbs, he was trailing by within four-tenths of a second as Truex continued to lead.

    Then with 14 laps remaining, the caution flew when Logano’s long afternoon came to a crashing end after he lost a tire, spun and wrecked his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang against the outside wall in Turn 4. By then, Truex had retained the lead over Chastain as both along with Blaney, Hamlin, Bell, Keselowski, Byron and Buescher were the only competitors scored on the lead lap.

    During the caution period, the remaining eight lead lap competitors led by Truex pitted. Following the pit stops, Truex retained the lead after exiting pit road first while only opting for two fresh right-side tires along with Blaney and Bell. Meanwhile, Chastain, who opted for four tires, exited fourth followed by Keselowski, Byron, Buescher and Hamlin.

    Down to the final seven laps of the event, the race restarted under green as Truex and Blaney occupied the front row in front of Bell and Chastain. At the start, Truex and Blaney, both of whom were racing on two fresh tires, battled dead even for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch while Chastain was trying to overtake Bell for third. Blaney then sent his No. 12 Wabash Ford Mustang hard into Turns 3 and 4 to assume the lead, but Truex fought back on the outside lane entering the frontstretch. Then after their side-by-side battle for more than a lap, Truex pulled away from Blaney with the lead through the backstretch with six laps remaining. Chastain then overtook Blaney for second entering the frontstretch as he tried to catch Truex despite both time and laps winding down.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Truex remained as the leader by nearly six-tenths of a second over Chastain. With Chastain unable to launch a final lap charge to get to Truex’s bumper on four fresh tires, Truex was able to cycle his way back to the frontstretch and claim his first checkered flag of the season and his first win in over a year.

    With the victory, Truex, who won the non-points Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum in February, notched his 32nd career victory in NASCAR’s premier series, his 13th driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, his sixth with crew chief James Small and his fourth at Dover (three of which, including today and also in 2007 and 2019, occurring on a Monday). The victory also snapped a 54-race winless drought for the former Cup Series champion, who last won at Richmond Raceway in September 2021, and placed him in a guaranteed spot to make the 2023 Cup Playoffs after missing it during the previous season. It was also a memorable weekend for the Truex family, with Martin’s younger brother, Ryan, notching his first Xfinity Series career victory at the Monster Mile on Saturday.

    “Man, it feels incredible,” Truex, who became the eighth different winner of 2023, said on FS1. “I felt like we’ve been close a bunch of times. We gave some [wins] away, that’s for sure. I thought today, ‘Oh man. Late caution. What’s gonna happen here?’ Just a great call by James [Small] to take two [tires] and was able to get a pretty good restart and get Blaney there. He raced me hard, but clean. Just thanks to everybody that stuck with us. We knew we could do this. We’ve showed it. We’ve led laps, we’ve dominated races and it just would never all come together, and I kept saying that we gotta just keep doing what we’re doing and not overthink it. Tough day today with a few pit stops early and then, obviously, the [pit] guys got it going at the end. Really psyched and happy for everybody. Thanks to everyone at [Joe Gibbs Racing] as well. Awesome job.”

    Chastain, who is seeking his first victory of the season and since winning at Talladega Superspeedway in April 2022, settled in second after leading 98 compared to Truex’s 68 laps led, but finishing behind Truex by half a second.

    “[I] Knew whoever got into the lead was gonna have a good shot at [winning],” Chastain, who accepted the responsibility for the incident involving Brennan Poole and Larson, said. “Gosh, so close again for our Jockey Chevy. It’s surreal to continue to do this and race against my heroes. I guess I told [Truex] a few too many of my secrets last year after we went fishing.”

    Blaney, who has not won a Cup event since Michigan International Speedway in August 2021, ended up third. Byron, who led a race-high 193 laps, came home in fourth while Hamlin finished fifth. Bell, Reddick, Keselowski, Buescher and Josh Berry finished in the top 10 followed by Chase Elliott and Bubba Wallace, all of whom finished on the lead lap.

    Notably, rookie Ty Gibbs ended up 13th, Kevin Harvick finished 19th in his final start at the Monster Mile, Kyle Busch settled in 21st, Logano retired in 31st and Larson finished in 32nd.

    There were 19 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 46 laps.

    Following the 11th event of the 2023 Cup Series season, Ross Chastain leads the regular-season standings by three points over Christopher Bell, 38 over Kevin Harvick, 40 over Martin Truex Jr. and 44 over Ryan Blaney.

    Results.

    1. Martin Truex Jr., 68 laps led

    2. Ross Chastain, 98 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    3. Ryan Blaney

    4. William Byron, 193 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    5. Denny Hamlin

    6. Christopher Bell

    7. Tyler Reddick

    8. Brad Keselowski

    9. Chris Buescher

    10. Josh Berry, three laps led

    11. Chase Elliott

    12. Bubba Wallace

    13. Ty Gibbs, one lap down

    14. Corey LaLoie, one lap down

    15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap down

    16. Erik Jones, one lap down

    17. Ryan Preece, one lap down

    18. AJ Allmendinger, one lap down

    19. Kevin Harvick, one lap down

    20. Harrison Burton, two laps down

    21. Kyle Busch, three laps down, 25 laps led

    22. Michael McDowell, three laps down

    23. Justin Haley, three laps down

    24. Aric Almirola, three laps down

    25. Todd Gilliland, four laps down

    26. Austin Cindric, four laps down

    27. Austin Dillon, five laps down

    28. JJ Yeley, seven laps down

    29. BJ McLeod, 19 laps down

    30. Chase Briscoe, 22 laps down

    31. Joey Logano – OUT, Accident

    32. Kyle Larson, 41 laps down

    33. Brennan Poole – OUT, Accident

    34. Noah Gragson – OUT, DVP

    35. Daniel Suarez – OUT, Accident

    36. Ty Dillon – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ first of two scheduled visits this season to Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, May 7, at 3 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Kyle Busch avoids final lap carnage for wild Cup victory at Talladega

    Kyle Busch avoids final lap carnage for wild Cup victory at Talladega

    In a similar scenario to the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Course a year ago, Kyle Busch found himself situated at the right place to strike at the right time as he dodged a final lap carnage involving race leaders Bubba Wallace and Ryan Blaney to net a big victory in the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, April 23, amid two overtime attempts.

    The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion from Las Vegas, Nevada, led three of 196 over-scheduled laps as he placed himself in contention to win while starting on the front row during the second of two overtime attempts. Despite being overtaken by Wallace and a hard-charging Blaney on the frontstretch and as the final lap started, the seas parted ways for Busch as Wallace, who went from the bottom to the top lane to block Blaney, got bumped and turned sideways in front of Blaney on the outside lane.

    The result triggered a multi-car pileup between Turns 1 and 2 as Busch dodged the carnage to reassume the lead before the caution flag waved to officially conclude the event on the final lap. Amid fuel concerns, Busch had enough fuel to coast his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 across the finish line first and claim his second checkered flag of the 2023 season and his first at Talladega in 15 years.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Denny Hamlin started in pole position for the first time in 2023 after posting a pole-winning lap at 180.751 mph in 52.979 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Aric Almirola, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 180.642 mph in 53.011 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Austin Cindric, AJ Allmendinger and Todd Gilliland dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Hamlin and Almirola dueled for the lead amid two tight-packed lanes entering the first turn until Almirola received a strong push from teammate Chase Briscoe to launch ahead and assume control of both lanes through the backstretch. With the field fanning out to two tight-packed lanes, Almirola proceeded to lead the first lap ahead of Briscoe, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, Hamlin and Chris Buescher.

    Then prior to the second lap and as Logano challenged Almirola for the lead, the first caution flew when Michael McDowell, who was running within the top 20, spun in the middle of the pack through Turns 3 and 4 after losing a right-rear tire. Amid the spin, the field scattered to avoid hitting McDowell as he pitted his No. 34 Love’s Travel Stop Ford Mustang for repairs.

    During the first caution period, a host of names that included Ross Chastain, Erik Jones, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, Justin Haley, Ty Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Riley Herbst, Corey LaJoie, JJ Yeley, Ryan Preece, Austin Cindric, Todd Gilliland, Zane Smith, BJ McLeod and Austin Hill pitted while the rest led by Almirola remained on the track.

    When the event restarted on the sixth lap, Almirola maintained the lead on the outside lane followed by Logano while Briscoe challenged Buescher for third. As the field returned to the frontstretch, Briscoe drew himself into a side-by-side battle with teammate Almirola for the lead as the former led a lap for himself. Then on the eighth lap, Bubba Wallace was drafted into the lead on the outside lane as he had rookie Ty Gibbs and Ryan Blaney drafting him. As Wallace fought for the lead on the outside lead, Briscoe also fought back on the inside lane with drafting help from teammate Almirola and Logano.

    At the Lap 10 mark, Wallace was leading ahead of Gibbs, Briscoe, Blaney and Almirola as the field battled amid two tight-packed lanes. Despite being pressured by Briscoe on the inside lane, Wallace maintained the lead on the outside lane through the Lap 20 mark.

    By Lap 25, Wallace continued to lead as Blaney moved up to second. Martin Truex Jr. also moved up to third followed by Gibbs and Daniel Suarez while Briscoe fell back to sixth ahead of Kyle Busch, Almirola, Harrison Burton and Ross Chastain. By then, all but one of 38 starters were separated within two seconds amid a tight pack and two lanes.

    Then as the first wave of green flag pit stops commenced approaching Lap 35 with Wallace leading his Toyota teammates to pit road, early trouble struck for teammate Tyler Reddick, who made a late dart to the left and locked up his front tires while trying to slow his car prior to entering pit road. After getting loose, Reddick then spun and hit the inside wall as he was dodged by Wallace and all four Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota competitors. Despite the incident, the race proceeded under green as Reddick navigated his No. 45 MoneyLion Toyota TRD Camry back to pit road for repairs.

    On Lap 39, another wave of competitors, mainly Chevrolet competitors, led by Chastain, who passed Kyle Busch for the lead on Lap 36, pitted as Preece cycled to the lead. Then as another wave of competitors, mainly Ford competitors, led by Preece pitted by Lap 41, trouble struck for Briscoe, who spun after locking up his tires and trying to slow his No. 14 Mahindra Tractors YOG Ford Mustang while trying to enter pit road.

    While the rest of his Ford competitors proceeded to pit, Briscoe’s event then went from bad to worse when he flattened his tires and was left stranded on pit road while the rest of his fellow competitors pitted. As a result of his mishap, the caution returned on Lap 42. By then, Erik Jones was leading ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ty Dillon, Haley, Corey LaJoie and AJ Allmendinger. During the caution period, some led by Erik Jones, who had yet to pit, pitted while the rest led by Elliott remained on the track.

    When the event restarted under green on Lap 47, teammates Elliott and Bowman dueled for the lead in front of the pack. They continued to duel for the lead through the backstretch and entering Turns 3 and 4 until Bowman peeked ahead in his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and led the following lap. While Bowman had drafting help from teammate Kyle Larson, Elliott had drafting help from Chastain as both Hendrick Motorsports teammates continued to swap back and forth for the lead.

    Nearing the Lap 55 mark, the battle for the lead continued to intensify as Elliott reassumed the top spot with drafting help from Chastain on the inside lane while Bowman fought back on the outside lane with drafting help from teammate Larson. As the field remained dead even in a tight pack, Almirola tried to start a third lane towards the outside lane entering the frontstretch. Kyle Busch would then move up in front of Almirola along with Blaney and Zane Smith towards the outside lane as Elliott retained the lead.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 60, Elliott, who swapped the lead with teammate Bowman since the previous restart amid the draft, claimed his first Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Bowman, Chastain, Byron, Larson, Cindric, Gragson, Logano, Preece and Suarez were scored in the top 10. By then, the event featured 15 lead changes for 10 different leaders while 36 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.

    Under the second stage, the field led by Elliott returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategies, Hamlin exited first after only opting for fuel. Harvick, who pitted for two fresh tires, exited second followed by Haley, Chastain on four tires, Truex and Cindric. Amid the pit stops, Todd Gilliland was penalized for having his crew members jump over the pit wall too soon. Buescher was also penalized for running over equipment along with Herbst, who was nabbed for pitting outside his pit box. JJ Yeley was also assessed a penalty for vehicle interference.

    Prior to the start of the second stage, the following names that included Buescher, Kyle Busch, Zane Smith, Erik Jones, Keselowski, Stenhouse, Austin Hill and Herbst pitted to top off on fuel.

    The second stage started on Lap 67 as Hamlin and Justin Haley occupied the front row. At the start, Hamlin pulled ahead on the outside lane in his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry through the first two turns as Haley tried to fight back on the inside lane with drafting help from Chastain. Hamlin, however, had drafting help from Harvick as he maintained the lead in front of the field battling in tight formation through two lanes.

    Four laps later, Harvick, who drew himself in a side-by-side battle with Hamlin for the lead, led a lap for himself as he tried to receive drafting assistance from Truex while Hamlin moved in front of Haley on the inside lane. With Harvick in the lead, Logano then drew himself behind Harvick’s No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang in the draft while Truex drew himself in a side-by-side battle with Harvick for the lead.

    At the Lap 75 mark, Harvick was leading ahead of Logano, Preece, Truex and Hamlin while Larson, Haley, Wallace, Chastain and Ty Dillon were scored in the top 10. By then, the top-36 competitors were separated by two seconds, with the first 21 separated by under a second.

    Two laps later, Logano was drafted into the lead as he led a lap for himself. Another lap later, however, Truex made his move to the front after receiving a draft from teammate Hamlin and Harvick on the outside lane while Logano remained on the inside lane.

    Through the first 90 scheduled laps, Truex, who had been swapping the lead with Logano since Lap 77, was out in front ahead of Logano while Hamlin, Haley and Harvick were in the top five. By then, Chastain was in sixth followed by Preece, Cindric, Wallace and Bell while Ty Dillon, Larson, Austin Dillon, Byron and LaJoie were scored in the top 15 ahead of Elliott, Almirola, Harrison Burton, Bowman and Blaney. In addition, 36 of 38 starters scored on the lead lap were separated within two seconds.

    At the halfway mark on Lap 94, Truex continued to lead ahead of teammate Hamlin while Harvick, Logano, Preece, Haley, Wallace, Chastain, Ty Dillon and Cindric were battling within the top 10. By then, the top-26 competitors were separated by less than a second while a total of 36 lead lap competitors were separated by over a second and a half.

    Three laps later, the field fanned out to three tight-packed lanes as Wallace mounted a charge on the outside lane with drafting help from Erik Jones. Another lap later, Wallace was drafted into the lead as he moved in front of Truex and Hamlin while Harvick and Logano occupied the top five. By Lap 100, Harvick moved back into the lead as he battled Truex to maintain the spot while Preece and Ty Dillon moved up into the top five.

    Three laps later, the second wave of green flag pit stops commenced as a host of competitors, mainly Chevrolet competitors, led by Chastain pitted. Another lap later, a mix of Toyota and Chevrolet competitors led by Truex and Hamlin pitted under green for service. Another wave of competitors, mainly Ford competitors, led by Harvick would then pit under green by Lap 105, mainly for fuel. Amid the pit stops, Logano was penalized for speeding on pit road.

    Nearing the Lap 106 mark, the top-four competitors led by Keselowski and followed by teammate Buescher, Yeley and Riley Herbst pitted. Once the second cycle of green flag pit stops concluded, Truex cycled his No. 19 Bas Pro Shops Toyota TRD Camry into the lead followed by Austin Dillon and Byron while Kyle Busch, Bowman and Elliott were scored in the top six. By Lap 110, however, Wallace navigated his way back into the lead over Elliott, who led the previous lap.

    Then on Lap 115, the field split Logano in the middle as Logano, who was left out of the draft prior to the field catching him, was mired a lap down following his pit road penalty. As Logano received drafting help from teammate Cindric to battle Briscoe for the free pass spot, Elliott, who spent the previous several laps battling Wallace for the lead, was out in front. By then, Almirola moved up to second followed by Harvick, Burton and Preece while Wallace was left battling Truex for sixth.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 120, Almirola executed a move on Elliott with drafting help from teammate Harvick on the outside lane to claim his first Cup stage victory since 2020. Elliott settled in second followed by Harvick, Wallace and Burton while Truex, Preece, Hamlin, Stenhouse and Gragson were scored in the top 10. By then, the event featured 33 lead changes for 16 different leaders. In addition, Logano was the beneficiary of the free pass and cycled back to the lead lap after managing to remain ahead of Briscoe and BJ McLeod, both of whom were a lap down, on the track.

    Under the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Almirola returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Almirola exited first to retain the lead followed by Hamlin, Wallace, Elliott, Burton and Harvick.

    With 62 laps remaining, the final stage started as Almirola and Wallace occupied the front row. At the start, Wallace peeked ahead with the lead on the inside lane with drafting help from Burton as he then darted up the track to block Almirola. This enabled Burton to be drafted into the lead on the inside lane followed by Gragson as Wallace battled Truex for third. Burton would then maintain the lead in front of Gragson, Wallace, Truex, Blaney and Almirola as the event reached its final 60-lap mark.

    With 50 laps remaining, Blaney was leading NY a hair over Burton and followed by Wallace, Gragson and Almirola while Hamlin, Truex, Reddick, Elliott and Harvick were running in the top 10. By then, the top-22 competitors were separated by under a second while 35 lead lap competitors were separated by less than two seconds amid the tight two-lane packed racing.

    Then with 47 laps remaining, the caution flew when Burton, who was being drafted by Gragson while battling for the lead, spun off the front nose of Gragson as he spun his No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang below the Turn 3 apron, though he managed to sustain no significant damage. As the field checked up to avoid Burton’s spin, however, Logano got into the rear of Zane Smith, who then collected Austin Dillon as Dillon spun his No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 below the apron and the grass while Smith made more contact with Austin Hill.

    During the caution period, the field led by Blaney pitted, mainly for fuel, and Blaney retained the lead after exiting first followed by Almirola, Wallace, Hamlin, Truex and Gragson. Prior to the restart, names that included Keselowski, Buescher, Erik Jones, Logano and Hill pitted to top off with enough fuel for the finish.

    With the event restarting with 41 laps remaining, Blaney and Wallace dueled for the lead before Wallace received a draft from his owner Hamlin to move into the lead on the outside lane. With Blaney remaining on the inside lane and in front of Almirola, Wallace maintained his momentum and lead on the outside lane in front of Hamlin and Truex as the field fanned out to three tight-packed lanes.

    With 38 laps remaining, the outside lane led by Wallace briefly stacked up, which enabled Preece to try to ignite a drafting charge on the outside lane as Blaney was pushed clear to the lead followed by Almirola, Gragson and Harvick. As the field continued to fan out through three tight-packed lanes, Gibbs charged his way into third in front of Gragson, Wallace, Hamlin and Harvick as Blaney retained the lead. Gibbs then started to challenge Blaney for the lead with 35 laps remaining while running in the middle lane while Preece launched another bid for the front on the outside lane.

    A lap later, the battle for the lead fanned out to three tight-packed lanes amid the draft as Blaney, Gibbs and Preece, all of whom were the front-runners of each of the three lanes, dueled for the lead. As Gibbs managed to peek ahead to lead a lap for himself, Blaney and Preece fought back from their respective lanes, with Blaney receiving a strong push from Almirola on the inside lane to move ahead. With Preece slowly falling back on the outside lane, Gibbs received drafting help from Wallace and his Toyota teammates to keep Blaney within his sights under the final 30-lap mark.

    Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Blaney was leading ahead of Almirola, Gragson, Gibbs and Harvick while Wallace, Chastain, Hamlin, Truex and Larson were scored in the top 10. By then, the top 20 competitors were separated by less than a second, with the top 33 separated by one-and-a-half seconds amid the tight-packed draft racing fanning out to three lanes.

    Five laps later and with the field still fanned out to three lanes, Blaney and Gibbs continued to duel for the lead ahead of Almirola, Wallace and Gragson while Stenhouse tried to form a third drafting lane to the front. Another two laps later, the inside lane gained momentum as Blaney started to pull ahead followed by Almirola, Gragson, Harvick, Chastain, Larson, Kyle Busch and Allmendinger while Gibbs, Wallace and Hamlin were losing touch with the leaders while running on the outside lane. With 15 laps remaining, however, the outside lane led by Gibbs and followed by Wallace, Hamlin and Truex regained their momentum as Gibbs started to challenge Blaney for the lead.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event and with fuel becoming questionable for the front-runners, the top-33 competitors were separated within a second and in tight formation amid the draft as both Blaney and Gibbs continued to fight for the lead followed by Wallace, Hamlin, Almirola, Gragson, Truex, Harvick, Haley and Chastain.

    With seven laps remaining, the top-four competitors that included Blaney, Almirola, Gragson and Harvick broke away from the tight pack while Gibbs was trying to maintain momentum as the lead competitor on the outside lane. Then as the intensity toward the front continued, the caution flew with five laps remaining when Logano, who darted to the outside lane to ignite a charge to the front while running in the middle of the pack, got bumped and loose by LaJoie as he briefly bounced off of Suarez before making contact with the backstretch’s outside wall and spinning below the track. Stenhouse and Herbst also sustained damage along with Byron, who made contact with Burton as Burton spun and slapped the inside wall, as the event was sent into overtime.

    During the caution period, select names that included Byron, Bell, Stenhouse and Ty Dillon pitted for fuel while the rest led by Blaney remained on the track.

    At the start of the first overtime attempt, where Blaney and Gragson occupied the front row, Gragson received a push from Chastain to peek ahead of Blaney entering the first turn. Then through Turns 1 and 2, Chastain tried to make a move between Blaney and Gragson for the lead. Amid the tight racing, Chastain and Gragson ended up making contact as Gragson’s No. 42 Wendy’s Beef is in the Bag Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ended up shooting back across the track and hitting the outside wall. In the ensuing process, Larson got turned by Harvick as he spun below the apron. Larson then came back across the track and despite being dodged by most of the oncoming field, he was T-boned by Preece’s No. 41 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang as both of their events came to an end.

    Under the caution period, Harvick, Hamlin, Chastain and Haley pitted for fuel while the rest led by Blaney remained on the track.

    During the start of the second overtime attempt, where Blaney and Kyle Busch occupied the front row, the momentum occurred on the outside lane as Busch was drafted into the lead followed by Wallace and Keselowski while Blaney was left to battle Truex for fourth. By then, Gibbs pulled his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry below the track after running out of fuel. Through the backstretch, the inside lane led by Busch continued to gain more momentum while Truex was mired back in sixth despite remaining on the outside lane.

    Then through the frontstretch, Wallace made his move on Busch and assumed the lead on the outside lane in his No. 23 Columbia Toyota TRD Camry with drafting help from Blaney’s No. 12 Wurth Ford Mustang as he started the final lap of the event. Through Turn 1, however, Blaney tried to make a move beneath Wallace for the lead but was blocked. He then moved up the track along with Wallace and the two made contact, which resulted in Wallace getting loose and spinning sideways as he came down the track and clipped Keselowski before spinning within the middle of the pack and towards oncoming competitors. Among those involved on the final lap included Keselowski, Truex, Allmendinger, Cindric, Gilliland and Byron while the rest of the field scattered to avoid the carnage.

    With the caution waving and the race deemed official, Kyle Busch was back in front ahead of Blaney. Amid concerns of not having enough fuel to finish, Busch was able to have enough to remain ahead of Blaney and navigate his No. 8 McLaren Custom Grills Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the frontstretch before claiming the checkered flag and the official victory.

    With the victory, Busch, who won earlier at Auto Club Speedway in late February, notched his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season, which makes him the third multi-time winner of this season. He also notched his 62nd career win in NASCAR’s premier series, which makes the 2023 season Busch’s 13th of 19 full-time seasons with multiple Cup victories. The Talladega victory was also Busch’s second of his Cup career, with his first dating back to April 2008, and the 13th overall for Richard Childress Racing. Ironically, Busch’s Talladega victory marked his first restrictor-plate victory since winning at Daytona International Speedway in July 2008.

    “Sometimes, you got to be lucky,” Busch said on FOX. “Some of these races come down to that. You gotta take’em when they come your way. The seas kind of parted there when [Wallace and Blaney] went up the racetrack. They were trying to push draft. These cars are just not stable enough to do that. Seeing [Wallace] just turn a little bit sideways, I was like get out of the way, just miss it and try to see if I was ahead of [Blaney] by the time [the race] was called. Just a great day for another new sponsor at [Richard Childress Racing] with McLaren Custom Grills. We have a great time being able to come out here and race and be a part of Team Chevy and get this Camaro in Victory Lane.”

    “We were sweating it being close [on fuel],” Busch added. “I thought back to California, Fontana, earlier this year where we have a win. I’m like we gotta gamble. We’re up here, you gotta take the track position when you have it and go give it what you can on the restarts and see what happens. Low and behold, it worked out. Knock on wood for this one.”  

    Following an extensive review of the finishing order amid the final lap chaos, Blaney settled in second place after leading a race-high 47 laps. Buescher made his way to third followed by Briscoe, who rallied from losing a lap to the leaders, while Keselowski ended up fifth.

    “You get big runs and you take’em when you can,” Blaney said. “I’m glad everyone’s OK, but on my mind, you kind of triple move like that, triple block and you can’t block three times. Just the runs are so big and as the leader, with Bubba, he’s trying to block, which is the right thing to do, but I think he kind of moved three times. You don’t really get a lot of those. I gotta go somewhere, so I hate that good cars got torn up. I hate for us being so close for the win. I’m not blaming anybody. It’s just hard racing at the end of this thing. Unfortunate [that] cars got tore up and we just missed out on another win.”

    Erik Jones, Byron, Bell, Suarez and Todd Gilliland finished in the top 10. Notably, Elliott finished 12th in front of Bowman, Ty Dillon and Stenhouse while Hamlin ended up 17th behind Reddick. Almirola fell back to 22nd behind teammate Harvick, who made his 800th Cup career start, while Truex ended up 27th. Meanwhile, Wallace, who led 35 laps, was left in 28th place while Ty Gibbs ended up 31st after not having enough fuel to finish.

    There were 57 lead changes for 21 different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 34 laps. In addition, 27 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Following the 10th event of the 2023 Cup Series season, Christopher Bell leads the regular-season standings by 12 points over Ross Chastain, 20 over Kevin Harvick, 36 over Kyle Larson, 41 over Kyle Busch and 45 over Tyler Reddick.

    Results.

    1. Kyle Busch, three laps led

    2. Ryan Blaney, 47 laps led

    3. Chris Buescher

    4. Chase Briscoe, one lap led

    5. Brad Keselowski, two laps led

    6. Erik Jones, three laps led

    7. William Byron, one lap led

    8. Christopher Bell

    9. Daniel Suarez, five laps led

    10. Todd Gilliland

    11. JJ Yeley

    12. Chase Elliott, 18 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    13. Alex Bowman, eight laps led

    14. Ty Dillon

    15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    16. Tyler Reddick

    17. Denny Hamlin, seven laps led

    18. BJ McLeod

    19. Justin Haley

    20. Riley Herbst

    21. Kevin Harvick, 11 laps led

    22. Aric Almirola, 11 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    23. Ross Chastain

    24. Austin Hill

    25. Corey LaJoie

    26. Austin Cindric

    27. Martin Truex Jr., 19 laps led

    28. Bubba Wallace – OUT, Accident, 35 laps led

    29. AJ Allmendinger – OUT, Accident

    30. Joey Logano, one lap down, three laps led

    31. Ty Gibbs – OUT, Fuel, four laps led

    32. Noah Gragson – OUT, Accident, one lap led

    33. Kyle Larson – OUT, Accident

    34. Ryan Preece – OUT, Accident, two laps led

    35. Michael McDowell, 13 laps down

    36. Harrison Burton – OUT, Accident, 11 laps led

    37. Zane Smith – OUT, Accident

    38. Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ lone visit of this season to Dover Motor Speedway in Dover, Delaware. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, April 30, at 2 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Martinsville

    NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Martinsville

    Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

    1. Kyle Larson: Larson charged early at Martinsville, and was into the top 10 by lap 20 after starting 19th. Larson surged again in the latter part of the race, holding off Joey Logano while leading.

    “I was just in a hurry to get to Ryan Preece,” Larson said, “to see if he was for real after winning the pole and to get some payback for his treatment of me at Bristol. But as soon as I got near the front, he started dropping like a fly, proving that instead of running with the big dogs, he runs from them.”

    2. Joey Logano: Logano started at the back of the field

    “I have mostly fond memories of Martinsville,” Logano said, “and one not-so-fond memory. That’s thanks to Matt Kenseth. But I’ve mostly gotten over that situation, through therapy and positive imagery, in which I picture Matt Kenseth as himself, and I picture myself as Carl Edwards bullying him.”

    3. Christopher Bell: Bell started 22nd and finished 16th in the NOCO 400.

    “Every driver dreams of raising the grandfather clock trophy at Martinsville,” Bell said. “Now, Kyle Larson has his, and he’s won two of the last three races. He looks like the favorite to win the championship. Larson may have the clock, but everybody knows what time it is.”

    4. William Byron: Byron finished 23rd in the NOCO 400 at Martinsville.

    “Chase Elliott returned after missing the last six weeks recovering from a broken leg suffered while snowboarding,” Byron said. “Now, every time Chase vows to do something, he’ll hear the same three words from everyone at Hendrick: no, not ‘Break a leg.’ I’m talking about ‘Don’t go snowboarding.’”

    5. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex finished third in the NOCO 400 at Martinsville.

    “That’s my first top-five of the season,” Truex said. “Except for Christopher Bell, it’s been a pretty slow start for everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing. With Kyle Busch gone, I’d say Christopher is JGR’s top driver. The rest of us, we’re the B-team. In short, with Kyle gone, Christopher’s taken over the job of ‘A’-hole.”

    6. Ross Chastain: Chastain led 31 laps and finished 13th at Martinville, and is second in the points standings, 13 behind Christopher Bell.

    “I feel pretty good about finishing 13th,” Chastain said, “especially since I started the race 34th. So, much like Denny Hamlin’s championship-less career, I feel like I won the battle, even though I didn’t win the war.”

    7. Ryan Blaney: Blaney finished seventh at Martinsville.

    “It’s amazing that Chase Elliott was able to return so quickly after breaking his leg,” Blaney said. “Kudos to the doctors who performed the surgery. Heck, there’s no telling what kind of hardware Chase has in his leg. It’s the same thing NASCAR inspectors say about Hendrick cars.”

    8. Kevin Harvick: Harvick won Stage 2 at Martinsville but faded late and came home 20th.

    “We were in contention,” Harvick said, “but we blew that when I had to return to the pits to tighten a lug nut. Seeing your chances evaporate like that is tough to swallow and hard to digest, much like a famous Martinsville hot dog.”

    9. Kyle Busch: Busch finished a disappointing 21st at Martinsville.

    “To make things even more frustrating,” Busch said, “I had to deal with Corey LaJoie. Corey’s earned a reputation as a real douchebag in this sport. So, he’s like a less-talented, less-successful version of me.”

    10. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin led 36 laps and finished 4th at Martinsville, posting his first top-five result of the season.

    “I’m pleased,” Hamlin said, “but the real story here for me is Bubba Wallace bumping me during the race. Did he forget that I’m his team owner? Ironically, it was a totally ‘boss’ move by Bubba.”