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  • Daniel Suarez earns first NASCAR Cup Series victory at Sonoma

    Daniel Suarez earns first NASCAR Cup Series victory at Sonoma

    In his sixth full-time season as a competitor in NASCAR’s premier series, Daniel Suarez achieved his first career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series following a dominant run in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday, June 12.

    The 30-year-old Suarez from Monterrey, Mexico, led twice for a race-high 47 of 110 laps and fended off Chris Buescher during a 23-lap run to the finish to capture his first victory in his 195th start in the Cup circuit. The victory made Suarez the first Mexican-born competitor to win in the Cup Series as Suarez added his name to the 2022 Cup Series Playoff picture with a guaranteed spot based on his victory in Sonoma, California.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Kyle Larson notched his fifth consecutive pole position at Sonoma after posting a pole-winning lap at 92.111 mph in 77.776 seconds. Joining him on the front row will be teammate Chase Elliott, who clocked in a qualifying lap at 92.083 mph in 77.799 seconds. 

    Prior to the event, AJ Allmendiner, Christopher Bell and Erik Jones dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective cars.

    At the start of the event, Cody Ware was assessed a pass-through penalty through pit road at the start of the event due to his No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford Mustang failing pre-qualifying technical inspection four times. The issue prevent Ware from qualifying on Saturday as his car chief Steve Gray was suspended for the remainder of the weekend.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, teammates Larson and Elliott dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Larson managed to pull ahead approaching Turn 3 as the field behind jostled for positions. As the field made their way through the 11-turn circuit, Larson went on to lead the first lap ahead of Elliott while Michael McDowell, Chris Buescher and Cole Custer were scored in the top five. By then, Ware served his drive-through penalty through pit road.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Larson remained as the leader by more than a second over teammate Elliott followed by McDowell, Buescher and Daniel Suarez while Tyler Reddick, Cole Custer, Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain and Kyle Busch were in the top 10. Joey Logano was in 11th followed by Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Kurt Busch, Justin Haley, Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski, Austin Dillon, Joey Hand and Alex Bowman while Kevin Harvick, rookie Todd Gilliland, Aric Almirola, rookie Harrison Burton, rookie Austin Cindric, Christopher Bell, Corey LaJoie, Bubba Wallace, Martin Truex Jr. and AJ Allmendinger occupied the top 30. The first competitor scored outside of the top 30 was Erik Jones followed by teammate Ty Dillon and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    Four laps later, the first caution of the event flew due to possible fluid on the circuit when smoke billowed out of the No. 23 DoorDash Toyota TRD Camry piloted by Bubba Wallace, who parked his car in Turn 4 and retired due to an engine failure.

    Under caution, some led by Tyler Reddick pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track. During the pit stops, Allmendinger’s pit crew went under the hood to work on the power steering pump.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 12, Larson managed to quickly clear teammate Elliott to retain the lead through the first two turns and approaching the uphill climb to Turns 3 and 3A. As the field fanned out and scrambled for positions through the Chute corner from Turns 4 to 7, Reddick muscled his way into the top five ahead of Suarez while keeping McDowell within his sights.

    On Lap 15, Erik Jones, who was in 20th, got loose and spun his No. 43 FocusFactor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Turn 2, but the race remained under green flag conditions as Larson stabilized his advantage to more than a second over teammate Elliott. Behind, Buescher was in third followed by McDowell and Reddick while Suarez, Chastain, Custer, Logano and Hamlin were scored in the top 10.

    By the Lap 20 mark, Larson continued to lead by two seconds over teammate Elliott, who had Buescher starting to reel him in for the spot as McDowell and Reddick remained in the top five. Meanwhile, Chastain overtook teammate Suarez for sixth place while Logano, Custer and Hamlin were in the top 10.

    Nearly two laps later, the first round of pit stops under green commenced as Suarez led a bevy of competitors to pit road, a group that included Blaney, Custer, Hamlin, Keselowski, Briscoe, Harvick, Bowman, Austin Dillon, Cindric, Ty Dillon, Gilliland, Truex, Joey Hand and Allmendinger. Not long after, Buescher, who was in the runner-up spot, led another wave of competitors to pit road that included Elliott, McDowell, Reddick and Chastain. During both processes, Larson remained on the track as the leader.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 25, Larson captured his second stage victory of the 2022 Cup Series season. Logano settled in second followed by Kyle Busch, Justin Haley, Aric Almirola, Harrison Burton, Josh Bilicki, Kurt Busch, Stenhouse and Cody Ware. By then, Christopher Bell, who was a lap down and would have received the free pass to return on the lead lap during the stage break, was penalized for pitting outside of his pit box.

    Under the stage break, some led by Larson pitted while the rest led by Elliot remained on the track.

    The second stage started on Lap 29 as Elliott and Buescher occupied the front row. At the start, Elliott took off with the lead entering the first turn while Chastain challenged Buescher for the runner-up spot, with the former managing to hold the spot entering Turns 3 and 3A. As the field made their way through the series of left and right-hand turns from Turn 7 to 10 before the sharp right-hand turn in Turn 11, Elliott retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over Buescher with Chastain trailing by less than a second. 

    By Lap 35, Elliott stabilized his advantage to two-tenths of a second over Buescher, who continued to stalk Elliott through every turn and every corner. Chastain remained in third place while one-and-a-half seconds behind while Suarez, Reddick, Harvick, McDowell, Custer, Bowman and Blaney were in the top 10 ahead of Austin Dillon, Cindric, Hamlin, Keselowski and Truex.

    Through the first 40 laps, Elliott continued to lead by more than seven-tenths of a second over Buescher followed by Chastain, Suarez and Reddick while Harvick, McDowell, Bowman, Blaney and Custer were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Larson, who was rubbing fenders with Joey Hand, was mired in 15th behind Custer, Cindric, Keselowski and Hamlin. Notably, Truex was in 16th, Byron was in 19th, Logano was back in 23rd in front of Justin Haley and Kyle Busch, Almirola was in 26th and Kurt Busch was in 30th behind Harrison Burton and Erik Jones.

    Five laps later, Elliott remained as the leader by more than a second over Buescher while Suarez was up in third place ahead of teammate Chastain and Reddick, who had Harvick and McDowell stalking him for the spot.

    Another two laps later, Erik Jones spun for a second time of the day, this time entering Turn 7, after he locked up his front tires while trying to overtake Kurt Busch in the top 30. Then during the following lap, Chastain met the same fate as he got loose and spun on his own while trying to overtake teammate Suarez in Turn 7. While the event remained under green, Chastain managed to fall back to seventh in front of Blaney and Elliott remained as the leader.

    With 50 laps complete, Elliott stabilized his advantage to nearly two seconds over Buescher followed by Suarez and Reddick while Harvick moved into fifth place. Not long after, Truex pitted under green. During the following lap, Reddick led a bevy of competitors that included Bowman, Cindric, Blaney, Keselowski, Chastain, Austin Dillon and Custer to pit road for service under green. Another lap later, names led by Elliott and including teammate Larson, Briscoe, Cindric, McDowell, Harvick, Suarez and Buescher pitted. During the pit stops, Elliott, who was about to leave his pit stall following his service, came to a stop and reversed his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 back to his pit stall to have a loose wheel tightened. During the process, however, Elliott’s front nose was still sticking out of his pit box, which drew himself a penalty.

    During the cycle of green flag pit stops, Logano emerged out in front followed by Buescher, Suarez, Almirola and Harvick. Along with Elliott, Reddick was penalized for speeding on pit road while Buescher was penalized for having an equipment thrown over his pit box.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 55, which marked the halfway point of the event, Logano claimed his second stage victory of the season. Almirola settled in second followed by Buescher, Suarez, Harvick, Todd Gilliland, Burton, Elliott, McDowell and Stenhouse. With Elliott penalized following his pit road miscue, however, Suarez, who was in 11th following the second stage’s conclusion, was awarded the final stage point.

    Under the stage break, some led by Logano pitted while the rest led by Buescher remained on the track. By then, NASCAR rescinded the penalty to Buescher with Buescher, who was also allowed to retain his stage points following the second stage’s conclusion, out in front followed by Suarez.

    With 50 laps remaining, the final stage commenced under green. At the start, Buescher and Suarez dueled for the lead through the first four turns until Suarez managed to pull ahead with the lead followed by McDowell while Buescher locked up the front tires entering Turn 7. Through the series of turns from Turns 7 to 10 and through Turn 11, Suarez retained the lead followed by McDowell, Harvick, Buescher and Keselowski while Blaney, Cindric, Chastain, Austin Dillon and Larson were in the top 10.

    During the following lap, Suarez’s No. 99 Onx Homes/Renu Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was ahead of McDowell’s No. 34 Love’s Travel Stop Ford Mustang by half a second and the top-seven competitors broke away from the field that was fanned out to multiple lanes while Chastain and Larson duked for eighth place.

    Nearing the final 45 laps of the event, Reddick pitted after spinning in Turn 10. In the midst of his spin, Josh Bilicki also spun while the race remained under green. Shortly after, Harvick moved his No. 4 Gearwrench Ford Mustang into the runner-up spot through the first two turns while Buescher challenged McDowell for third place.

    With 40 laps remaining, Suarez continued to lead while Buescher made a bold move beneath Harvick in Turn 11 to take over the runner-up spot in his No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang. McDowell and Keselowski remained in the top five followed by Blaney, Chastain, Cindric, Larson and Bowman while Briscoe, Austin Dillon, Custer, Byron, Truex, Allmendinger, Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Joey Hand and Logano were in the top 20. Meanwhile, Elliott was mired back in 23rd place. By then, Reddick, who pitted multiple times following his spin, took his car to the garage. In addition, Corey LaJoie pitted under green.

    Five laps later, Suarez stabilized his advantage to nearly a second over Buescher followed by Harvick, McDowell and Keselowski. By then, Kyle Busch, Hamlin and Harrison Burton pitted under green as the sun was starting to emerge from the cloudy conditions. Not long after, Truex pitted along with teammate Bell, Justin Haley, Briscoe and Elliott, who endured a slow pit stop.

    Down to the final 30 laps of the event, Suarez remained as the leader by more than two seconds over Buescher followed by Harvick while McDowell and Keselowski were in the top five. By then, Blaney pitted under green along with teammate Cindric.

    During the following lap, Buescher pitted along with Harivck, Bowman, Custer, Byron and Chastain, who backed his car back to his pit stall following his pit stop to have the lug nut on his left-rear tire tightened. In addition, Suarez surrendered the lead to pit followed by McDowell, Larson, Allmendinger, Kurt Busch, Todd Gilliland and Scott Heckert while Keselowski moved into the lead.

    Then with 28 laps remaining, the caution flew when the right-front tire from Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 came off in Turn 2 just as Larson had exited pit road. During the caution period, some led by Keselowski pitted while the rest led by Suarez and Buescher remained on the track.

    With 23 laps remaining, the race proceeded under green. At the start, Suarez pulled away entering the first two turns while Buescher and McDowell battled for the runner-up spot ahead of Blaney and Cindric while Harvick was back in sixth. Then in Turn 7, Kyle Busch, who was in sixth, spun his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota TRD Camry after locking up his tires and slipping sideways while Bowman went wide to avoid hitting Busch, but the race remained under green as Suarez remained as the leader.

    Three laps later, Suarez retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Buescher, who was stalking the leader and trying to close in, while McDowell, Blaney, Cindric, Harvick, Briscoe, Elliott, Byron and Truex were in the top 10. Allmendinger was in 11th followed by Bell, Chastain, Hamlin, Ty Dillon, Keselowski, Burton, Kurt Busch, Austin Dillon and Aric Almirola. By then, Larson was in 23rd, Logano was mired back in 25th ahead of Bowman and Kyle Busch was all the way back in 32nd.

    With 15 laps remaining, Suarez stabilized his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Buescher while McDowell, Blaney and Harvick were scored in the top five.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Suarez continued to lead by seven-tenths of a second over Buescher followed by McDowell, Harvick and Blaney while Cindric, Elliott, Byron, Chastain and Allmendinger were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Truex was in 13th ahead of Kurt Busch, Larson was mired in 17th, Logano was back in 21st and Kyle Busch was in 31st. Soon after, teammates Bell and Hamlin pitted their respective Toyotas.

    With five laps remaining, Suarez, who was trying to track Hamlin and put him a lap behind, was leading by more than two seconds over Buescher while third-place McDowell trailed by more than six seconds. Fourth-place Harvick trailed by eight seconds while fifth-place Cindric trailed by more than 12 seconds. By then, Truex pitted.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Suarez remained as the leader by nearly four seconds over Buescher. Earlier, Allmendinger, who was in position for a top-10 run despite his power steering issues, spun in Turn 3, but the race remained under green. With Buescher unable to narrow the deficit between himself and Suarez, Suarez was able to smoothly navigate his way through the 11-turn circuit and back to the finish line for his first checkered flag in the series.

    With the victory, Suarez, a graduate of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program and the 2016 Xfinity Series champion, became the fourth first-time winner of the 2022 Cup Series season, the first competitor to achieve a first Cup win at Sonoma since Juan Pablo Montoya made the last accomplishment in 2007 and the 202nd overall to win in NASCAR’s premier series. In addition to becoming the first Mexican-born competitor to win in the Cup Series, he also became the fifth foreign-born competitor overall to win in the Cup circuit, joining Italy’s Mario Andretti, Columbia’s Juan Pablo Montoya, Canada’s Earl Ross and Australia’s Marcos Ambrose. As a bonus, Suarez became the 40th different competitor to achieve a victory across NASCAR’s top three national touring series (Camping World Truck, Xfinity and Cup).

    The victory was also the third overall for Trackhouse Racing in the team’s second season in NASCAR competition, but first as a two-car organization as both competitors have achieved victories and guaranteed spots to the 2022 Cup Playoffs. Along with Suarez, crew chief Travis Mack achieved his first victory as a Cup crew chief.

    Photo by David Myers for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “It’s crazy,” Suarez, who received a chorus of cheers from the crowd and the Mexican fans, said on FS1. “I have so many thoughts in my head right now. It’s been a rough road. It’s been a rough journey in the Cup Series. These guys believing in me, Trackhouse Racing, [owner] Justin Marks, [team president] Ty Norris, everyone that helped me to get to this point. A lot of people in Mexico: Jay Morales, Carlos Slim. My family, they never gave up on me. A lot of people did, but they didn’t. Just very happy that we’re able to make it work. It’s the energy. [the team] believe in me since day one. They believe in me and they put all the people, resources, everything to make it happen…This is the first [win] of many.”

    “[The win] feels good,” Suarez added in the media room. “My team’s been working. They’ve been working very hard. To be able to finally get the first [win], I feel like that is gonna make us feel more relaxed. Now, we’re gonna do things more calm. I told my team, ‘Hey, just stay calm, let’s do our thing’. We’re capable of winning races. But one thing is to say it and another thing is to do it. Today, we did it, so now, we’re gonna be able to do things more relaxed that way victories and success is gonna be able to find us much easier.”

    “This one’s difficult to put into words,” Justin Marks added on FS1. “Daniel Suarez, Travis Mack helped build Trackhouse [Racing]. They’ve been working so hard together. They’ve been so focused, so dedicated trying to get to Victory Lane. The No. 1 car winning two races with this year was tough on them, but they never gave up. They knew that they were gonna be in Victory Lane. I’m so proud and happy for them.”

    “Coming up through the ranks at Hendrick [Motorsports] to being a car chief, just working hard for this first win,” Travis Mack, crew chief for Suarez, added in the media center. “This is actually [the place of] my first win with Jeff Gordon I believe in [2004]. Sonoma was my first win on a Cup team, so it’s really exciting to get my very first win as a crew chief at Sonoma.”

    Buescher rallied from being absent last weekend at Gateway due to a positive COVID-19 test to finish in second place for his first top-five result since finishing third at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course in October 2021 while McDowell earned his first top-five result of the season with a stellar third-place result.

    “I’m just disappointed in myself,” Buescher said. “[I] Didn’t get the job done there. I apologize to these guys because they put an awesome Fifth Third Bank Mustang underneath me this weekend. It’s a heck of a return. We had a lot of speed. Just struggled for a little bit on the long-run speed. Just wearing rears [tires] out. Ultimately, just didn’t get it done when it counted, so it’s an awesome run. Had great speed. That’s an awesome recovery from [Circuit of the Americas] and what we had there. Everybody back at [Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing]’s doing a great job. Hurts to be that close, but congratulations to Suarez. We’re trying. Just trying to get him and just ran out of steam there.” 

    “Yeah, I’m really proud of everybody at Front Row [Motorsports],” McDowell said. “Obviously, we want to win the race. Finishing third doesn’t get you in the Playoffs, but really thankful to everybody. [Team owner] Bob Jenkins, everybody at Front Row Motorsports. This Love’s Travel Stop Ford Mustang was fast all weekend. I keep telling my guys [that] we gotta run second, third, fourth, fifth week in and week out, and we’ll eventually get a win. [I] Felt like we were close today. Just needed a little bit more fire-off speed off the front end, but really proud of my team…We’re getting closer, so we’ll keep pushing hard. We wanna get this car in the Playoffs, so we’ll keep fighting.”

    Harvick, who was trying to return to Victory Lane since winning at Bristol Motor Speedway in September 2020, came home in fourth place while rookie Austin Cindric completed the top five in fifth place. Blaney, Chastain, Elliott, Byron and Keselowski finished in the top 10.

    Notably, Larson finished 15th, Logano settled in 17th in front of Kurt Busch, Allmendinger fell back to 19th following his late spin, Truex ended up 26th in front of teammate Bell and Kyle Busch concluded his long run in 30th in front of teammate Hamlin.

    There were six lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 14 laps. A total of 31 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With 10 regular season races remaining to this season, Chase Elliott leads the regular season standings by 16 points over Ross Chastain, 23 over Kyle Busch, 25 over Ryan Blaney and 30 over Joey Logano.

    Ross Chastain, Joey Logano, William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman, Chase Briscoe, Daniel Suarez, rookie Austin Cindric and Kurt Busch are currently guaranteed spots for the 2022 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning once throughout the regular-season stretch while Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr., Christopher Bell and Aric Almirola are above the top-16 cutline based on points. Kevin Harvick trails the top-16 cutline by seven points, Tyler Reddick trails by 42, Austin Dillon trails by 47, Erik Jones trails by 55, Michael McDowell trails by 93, Chris Buescher trails by 105, Justin Haley trails by 113, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. trails by 135, Bubba Wallace trails by 139 and Ty Dillon trails by 153.

    Results.

    1. Daniel Suarez, 47 laps led

    2. Chris Buescher, four laps led

    3. Michael McDowell

    4. Kevin Harvick

    5. Austin Cindric

    6. Ryan Blaney

    7. Ross Chastain

    8. Chase Elliott, 26 laps led

    9. William Byron

    10. Brad Keselowski, three laps led

    11. Austin Dillon

    12. Justin Haley

    13. Chase Briscoe

    14. Aric Almirola

    15. Kyle Larson, 26 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    16. Alex Bowman

    17. Joey Logano, four laps led, Stage 2 winner

    18. Kurt Busch

    19. AJ Allmendinger

    20. Joey Hand

    21. Cole Custer

    22. Erik Jones

    23. Ty Dillon

    24. Todd Gilliland

    25. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    26. Martin Truex Jr.

    27. Christopher Bell

    28. Harrison Burton

    29. Josh Bilicki

    30. Kyle Busch

    31. Denny Hamlin

    32. Cody Ware, one lap down

    33. Scott Heckert, one lap down

    34. Corey LaJoie, nine laps down

    35. Tyler Reddick, 13 laps down

    36. Bubba Wallace – OUT, Engine

    The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season will enter a one-week break period before returning to action at Nashville Superspeedway in Nashville, Tennessee, on Sunday, June 26. The event is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. ET on NBC with FOX’s 2022 NASCAR coverage concluded.

  • Logano grabs Cup Series win in overtime in inaugural event at Gateway

    Logano grabs Cup Series win in overtime in inaugural event at Gateway

    With winning on new circuits starting to become a new habit of his in recent years, Joey Logano scratched another new circuit off of his bucket list after fending off Kyle Busch during an overtime shootout to win the inaugural Enjoy Illinois 300 at the World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on Sunday, June 5.

    The 32-year-old Logano from Middletown, Connecticut, led 20 of 242 over-scheduled laps as he swapped the lead with Busch at the start of the event’s lone overtime attempt before reclaiming it for good prior to the final lap and pulling away from Busch and the field to grab his second victory of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.

    With on-track qualifying occurring on Saturday, Chase Briscoe recorded the first Cup pole position at Gateway after clocking in a pole-winning lap at 138.274 mph in 32.544 seconds. Joining him on the front row was rookie Austin Cindric, who clocked in a qualifying lap sat 137.775 mph in 32.662 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Parker Kligerman started at the rear of the field in a backup car along with Daniel Suarez, who had unapproved adjustments made to his car. AJ Allmendinger also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his car and due to the driver being absent for Saturday’s qualifying session as Truck Series competitor Ben Rhodes filled in while Allmendinger went on to win Saturday’s inaugural Xfinity event at Portland International Raceway.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Briscoe fended off Cindric to lead the field through the backstretch as he went on to lead the first lap while Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney battled for third place ahead of the field.

    Through the first five laps and with the field fanning out and jostling early for positions, Briscoe was leading by four-tenths of a second ahead of Cindric, Reddick, Blaney, Denny Hamlin, Aric Almirola, Chastain, Logano, Harrison Burton and Bell.

    By Lap 10, Briscoe stabilized his advantage to two-tenths of a second over Cindric while Blaney, Reddick and Hamlin remained in the top five.

    At the Lap 20 mark, Briscoe remained as the leader by half a second ahead of Cindric. Third-place Blaney trailed by more than two seconds followed by Reddick and Hamlin while Chastain Almirola, Logano, Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Chase Elliott was in 11th ahead of Martin Truex Jr., Harrison Burton, Bell and Kyle Larson while Cole Custer, Bubba Wallace, Michael McDowell, Erik Jones and William Byron were in the top 20. 

    Seven laps later, early disaster struck for Briscoe, who fell off the pace after he cut a left-rear tire as he made an unscheduled pit stop under green. With Briscoe out of contention, Cindric took the lead followed by teammate Blaney while Reddick, Hamlin and Chastain were in the top five. 

    By Lap 35, Cindric was ahead by two seconds over teammate Blaney followed by Reddick, Hamlin and Chastain while Almirola, Logano, Kyle Busch, Elliott and Kurt Busch occupied the top 10. Meanwhile, Briscoe was mired in last place of the 36-car field and two laps behind the leaders.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 45, Cindric claimed his first Cup stage victory of the season. Teammate Blaney settled in second, trailing by more than a second, followed by Reddick, Hamlin, Chastain, Almirola, Logano, Kyle Busch, Elliott and Bell. 

    Under the stage break, the field led by Cindric pitted and Cindric retained the lead following his service followed by teammate Blaney, Reddick, Kyle Busch and Hamlin. Following the pit stops, Chase Elliott pitted his No. 9 Hooters Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for a second time to have the lug nut on his car checked.

    The second stage started on Lap 53 as teammates Cindric and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, both Team Penske teammates dueled for the lead as Cindric continued to lead by a hair over Blaney before the latter prevailed. With Blaney out in front, Cindric was left to battle Kyle Busch for the runner-up spot as Busch prevailed in his No. 18 Snicker Toyota TRD Camry. Behind, Reddick was in fourth ahead of Hamlin and Logano, both of whom were left bitter over a pit road incident last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

    By Lap 60, Blaney was leading by more than a second over Kyle Busch followed by Cindric, Reddick and Hamlin while Logano, Chastain, Almirola, Bell and Kurt Busch were in the top 10.

    Four laps later, the caution flew when a bump from Chastain sent Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry into the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2. During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Blaney pitted while Kyle Busch, Logano, Chastain and Elliott remained on the track. 

    When the race proceeded under green on Lap 69, Kyle Busch received a draft from Chastain as he fended off both Chastain and Logano to retain the lead while Logano battled and overtook Chastain for the runner-up spot. With all three Team Penske competitors in the top five, Blaney soon battled Chastain for third place while Cindric pursued in fifth. 

    At the Lap 75 mark, Kyle Busch retained a narrow advantage, three-tenths of a second, over Logano followed by Blaney, Chastain and Cindric while Elliott remained in sixth ahead of Michael McDowell, Truex, Almirola and Reddick. By then, Briscoe, who cycled his way back to the lead lap during the previous caution, was up in 26th behind AJ Allmendinger. 

    Fifteen laps later, Kyle Busch extended his advantage to more than a second over Logano  followed by Blaney, Cindric and Chastain, who earlier was nearly wrecked by the lapped car of Hamlin with Hamlin expressing his displeasure over the incident involving Chastain that spoiled Hamlin’s run toward the front.

    Another three laps later, the on-track feud between Chastain and Hamlin ignited again as Hamlin blocked and briefly stalled Chastain’s progress through Turns 4 and 1.

    Four laps later, the caution flew when Blaney cut a left-rear tire, spun and backed his No. 12 Dent Wizard Ford Mustang into the outside wall between Turns 1 and 2. Under caution, some led by Kyle Busch pitted while the rest led by McDowell and Reddick remained on the track.

    When the race resumed under green on Lap 100, McDowell retained the lead through the first two turns while Almirola and Bell overtook Reddick in a bold three-wide pass to move up to second and third. Not long after, however, the caution flew when Chastain bumped and sent Elliott spinning entering Turn 4, where he was hit by Harrison Burton while Bubba Wallace also spun to avoid sustaining any significant damage to his No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota TRD Camry.

    With the race restarting under green on Lap 106, McDowell retained the lead ahead of Almirola and the field through the backstretch. Meanwhile, Elliott expressed his displeasure to Chastain over the contact during the previous caution by bumping and sending Chastain’s No. 1 Moose Fraternity Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 up the track through Turns 1 and 2. At the same time, Hamlin feigned another sideswipe move on Chastain with the latter falling below the leaderboard. With Chastain remaining on the track, Hamlin continued to stall Chastain’s progress by running in front of him and not letting him pass.

    Back at the front on Lap 110, McDowell retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over Almirola followed by Reddick, Bell and Erik Jones while Kurt Busch, Daniel Suarez, Kyle Busch, Cindric and Kevin Harvick were scored in the top 10.

    At the halfway mark on Lap 120, McDowell was leading by half a second over Almirola while Reddick, Kurt Busch, Bell, Kyle Busch, Erik Jones, Suarez, Cindric and Kyle Larson were scored in the top 10. Logano was in 11th ahead of Truex, Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Blaney while Briscoe, Ty Dillon, Allmendinger, Todd Gilliland and Austin Dillon were in the top 20. Alex Bowman was in 21st ahead of Cole Custer, Zane Smith, Harrison Burton and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. while Bubba Wallace, Justin Haley, William, Byron, Chase Elliott and Cody Ware were in the top 30. Meanwhile, Chastain was mired back in 32nd while Hamlin was in 35th.

    Nearly five laps later, Elliott and Chastain briefly dueled through the frontstretch as Elliott tried to pursue Chastain again to express his displeasure towards him. In Turn 1, however, BJ McLeod got into the rear of Elliott, which knocked Elliott sideways as he proceeded under green.

    Nearing the Lap 130 mark, the caution flew when Wallace got bumped and turned into the Turn 3 outside wall by Stenhouse. Under caution, Hamlin, who witnessed the incident in front of him, ran Stenhouse’s No. 47 SunnyD Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 up the track in Turn 1 to express his displeasure over his competitor getting wrecked.

    During the caution period, names like Kurt Busch, Larson, Cole Custer, Stenhouse, Byron, Haley, Cody Ware and McLeod remained on the track while the rest pitted. During the pit stops, Reddick was penalized for dragging his gas can out of his pit box.

    With six laps remaining in the second stage, the race proceeded under green. At the start, Kurt Busch fended off Larson to retain the lead while Truex, who restarted in the top 10, bolted his No. 19 Reser’s Fine Foods Toyota TRD Camry into third place as he quickly went to work on Larson for more. 

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 140, Kurt Busch, piloting the No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry, captured his second stage victory of the season. Truex settled in second place, trailing by four-tenths of a second, followed by Kyle Busch, Larson, Almirola, Bell, Suarez, Cole Custer, Erik Jones and Blaney.

    Under the stage break, some led by Kurt Busch pitted while the rest led by Truex and Kyle Busch remained on the track.

    With 93 laps remaining, the final stage started as teammates Truex and Kyle Busch occupied the front row. At the start and with the field jostling for positions, Truex retained the lead ahead of Busch while Almirola, Bell and Suarez were in the top five. 

    Down to the final 75 laps of the event, Truex retained the lead by half a second over teammate Kyle Busch as they were pursued by Almirola, Blaney and Bell. Suarez was back in sixth ahead of Erik Jones, McDowell, Briscoe and Cindric while Bowman, Logano, Reddick, Harvick, Ty Dillon, Chastain, Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Allmendinger and Larson occupied the top 20.

    Fifteen laps later, Truex continued to lead by seven-tenths of a second over teammate Kyle Busch while Blaney, Almirola and Bell remained in the top five. Also remaining in the top 10 were Suarez, Erik Jones, McDowell, Briscoe and Cindric, respectively.

    Another three laps later, the caution flew when Reddick spun in Turn 2. During the caution period, the leaders led by Truex pitted as Erik Jones exited with the lead following a quick two-tire pit stop followed by Kyle Busch, Logano, Bowman, Larson and Almirola while Truex was back in seventh.

    With 51 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Erik Jones and Kyle Busch dueled for the lead through the backstretch until Busch muscled his way into the lead through Turn 3 while Logano made his move into the runner-up spot. Not long after, Almirola launched his attack on Jones for third place as the field jostled for late positions.

    Eleven laps later, Kyle Busch was leading by three-tenths of a second over Logano followed by Almirola while Erik Jones was in fourth ahead of Truex. During the following lap, however, the caution flew when Stenhouse spun in the backstretch. Under caution, some like Keselowski, Elliott, Justin Haley, Ty Dillon, Suarez, Byron and Bubba Wallace pitted while the rest led by Kyle Busch remained on the track.

    Down to the final 34 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Kyle Busch took off with the lead ahead of Logano while the field scrambled for positions. During the following lap, however, Logano, who dueled Busch for the lead through the frontstretch, pulled a slide job on Busch to take the lead in Turn 1 as Almirola tried to close in on the two leaders.

    With 20 laps remaining, Logano stabilized his advantage to nearly a second over Kyle Busch followed by Almirola, Blaney and Erik Jones while Kurt Busch, Truex, Bowman, Bell and Chastain were in the top 10. Cindric was in 11th ahead of Harvick, Larson, McDowell and Allmendinger while Briscoe, Austin Dillon, Harrison Burton, Zane Smith and Custer were in the top 20.

    Two laps later, the caution returned when Custer got bumped by Todd Gilliland entering Turn 1 as he spun and made contact with the outside wall. During the caution period, some like Wallace, Haley, Byron and Custer pitted while the rest led by Logano remained on the track.

    Down to the final 13 laps of the event, the race restarted under green as Kyle Busch utilized the outside lane to reassume the lead over Logano through the backstretch. 

    Three laps later, Kyle Busch was leading by a tenth of a second over Logano with Blaney joining the battle. Behind, Kurt Busch moved his way to fourth place while Almirola, Erik Jones, Chastain, Truex, Bell and Cindric were in the top 10.

    With five laps remaining, Kyle Busch continued to fend off Logano with the lead while Blaney was starting to fall back and trail by less than a second in third place ahead of Kurt Busch and Almirola.

    Then, the caution flew when Harvick slipped sideways and pounded the outside wall in Turn 3. The incident was enough to send the event into overtime as some like Keselowski, Suarez, Ty Dillon and Harrison Burton pitted while the rest led by Kyle Busch and Logano pitted.

    At the start of the first overtime attempt, Logano, who restarted beneath Kyle Busch, ignited his challenge by trying to force Busch up the track, but Busch pulled a crossover move to challenge and reassume the lead beneath Logano through the backstretch. Then in Turn 3, Kyle Busch got loose and washed up the track in Turn 3, which allowed Logano to cross over to the bottom lane and take the lead back as he started the final lap of the event. 

    With Logano out in front, Kyle Busch could not close the gap between himself and Logano, nor could he ignite a final charge on him. That all enabled Logano to drive away as he cycled his way back to the finish line and crossed the finish line to first place.

    By winning the inaugural Cup victory at Gateway in Madison, Illinois, Logano notched his second victory of the 2022 Cup season, thus becoming the fourth multi-winner of this season, and the 29th of his career. This marked the third new circuit added to the Cup schedule that was won by Logano after he won the inaugural events at the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Course in March 2021 and the Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in February 2022.

    “Oh, packed house,” Logano said on FS1. “Thanks for coming out, [fans]. I hope you guys enjoyed that race. It doesn’t get much better than that. Racing for the lead like that with Kyle [Busch] with him is a lot of fun. Crossing each other back and forth. I knew it was coming because I did it to him. I knew he was gonna do it with me and was able to cross back and forth there a couple of times in the last lap there. Good Shell/Pennzoil Mustang, for sure. Nice to get a few wins on the season here. Start collecting those Playoffs points. What a great car. Really fast…[Crew chief] Paul [Wolfe] made a great call putting two tires on. [Teammate Ryan] Blaney did a great job with the push down into [Turn] 1, which kept me close, at least, to be able to make the move. Good racing there…It was a lot of fun to race here and looking forward to coming back.”

    Kyle Busch trailed Logano to the finish line by six-tenths of a second in the runner-up spot followed by brother Kurt while Blaney and Almirola finished in the top five.

    “[The crossover move was] Not even close,” Busch said. “You see me just about wreck off of [Turn] 4? Way better than Phoenix, though, I guess. For as bad as Phoenix was, [Joe Gibbs Racing], the Toyota guys did a good job of getting us some improvements there, at least being able to keep up and have a shot at the win. Our car just took too long to come in. Better on the long run, better up top [lane]. Top’s not good to fire off on, but good job by the Snickers guys. We stayed in the running all day long and fought hard. Though maybe we could, but that was it.”

    Truex, who made his 600th Cup career start, came home in sixth place while Erik Jones, Chastain, Bell and Allmendinger completed the top 10.

    Chastain, who rallied from adversity and his share of run-ins with Hamlin, Elliott and McDowell to finish eighth, took the time to acknowledge his cause of the on-track incidents and place the blame towards himself while Hamlin issued his warning towards the Floridian.

    “Just terrible driving,” Chastain said. “It’s one thing to do it once, but I just kept driving into guys. At this level, I’m supposed to be better than that. [My sponsors and owners] deserve better. I owe half the field an apology. Words aren’t gonna fix it, so I’ll have to pay for it on the track. [I] Almost did today and I deserve everything they do. I can’t believe I continue to make the same mistakes and over-drive the corners and drive into guys. I like had time under caution to get reset and we go green and I drive into somebody. It’s terrible.”

    “It’s good that [Chastain] takes responsibility, but ultimately, [the incident] ruined our day,” Hamlin said. “I think we were racing hard there for a while on the inside [lane]]. He tried to keep sliding up in front of us and wasn’t able to because I wasn’t willing to just back off and let him slide up in front. It didn’t take long, after he tucked in behind us, that it wrecked us. The unfortunate part is that it didn’t look that he got too shy after that because I think he got into [Elliott] after that one. We have to learn the hard way. We’ve all had it come back around on us and it will be no different.”

    Notably, Cindric was the highest-finishing rookie in 11th, Larson finished 12th, Byron settled in 19th, Elliott ended up 21st, Wallace was mired in 26th and Hamlin concluded his event in 34th, one spot behind Harvick. In addition, Zane Smith, who filled in as an interim competitor for Chris Buescher with Buescher out after testing positive for COVID-19, finished 17th in his Cup debut.

    There were 12 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured 10 cautions for 53 laps.

    With 11 regular season races remaining to this season, Chase Elliott leads the regular season standings by nine points over Kyle Busch, 17 over Ross Chastain, 28 over Ryan Blaney, 37 over Martin Truex Jr. and 40 over Joey Logano. 

    Ross Chastain, Joey Logano, William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe, Kurt Busch and rookie Austin Cindric are currently guaranteed spots for the 2022 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning once throughout the regular-season stretch while Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr., Christopher Bell, Aric Almirola and Tyler Reddick occupy the remaining vacant spots to the Playoffs on points. Kevin Harvick trails the top-16 cutline by two points, Erik Jones trails by 26, Austin Dillon trails by 29, Daniel Suarez trails by 60, Michael McDowell trails by 86, Bubba Wallace trails by 96, Justin Haley trails by 101, Chris Buescher trails by 104 and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. trails by 107. 

    Results.

    1. Joey Logano, 22 laps led

    2. Kyle Busch, 66 laps led

    3. Kurt Busch, 12 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    4. Ryan Blaney, 12 laps led

    5. Aric Almirola

    6. Martin Truex Jr., 42 laps led

    7. Erik Jones, four laps led

    8. Ross Chastain

    9. Christopher Bell

    10. AJ Allmendinger

    11. Austin Cindric, 26 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    12. Kyle Larson

    13. Alex Bowman

    14. Justin Haley

    15. Austin Dillon

    16. Tyler Reddick

    17. Zane Smith

    18. Michael McDowell, 34 laps led

    19. William Byron

    20. Brad Keselowski

    21. Chase Elliott

    22. Todd Gilliland

    23. Daniel Suarez

    24. Chase Briscoe, 27 laps led

    25. Harrison Burton

    26. Bubba Wallace

    27. Ty Dillon

    28. Josh Bilicki

    29. Cole Custer

    30. BJ McLeod

    31. Parker Kligerman

    32. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., four laps down

    33. Kevin Harvick – OUT, Accident

    34. Denny Hamlin, 11 laps down

    35. Cody Ware – OUT, Power

    36. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Engine

    Next on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California, for the series’ second road course event of the season. The event is scheduled to occur on Sunday, June 12, at 4 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Charlotte

    NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Charlotte

    Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

    1. Kyle Busch: Busch suffered several spins at Charlotte, but attrition and a big crash in the first overtime restart opened the door for Busch to contend for the win. He finished second to Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin.

    “I was frustrated for most of the race,” Busch said. “But when the going gets tough, you can do one of two things–either stay positive and hope for the best, or whine, complain, and moan and pray you get lucky. I chose the latter.”

    2. Ross Chastain: Chastain ran up front consistently, winning Stage 3, and was in line for a certain top-five finish before being collected in an accident after the first overtime restart. Chastain finished 15th.

    “I’m disappointed,” Chastain said. “Luckily, I already have two wins this season. I come from a family of watermelon farmers. So, qualifying for the NASCAR playoffs is important to me and my family. The last thing we want is for me to be ‘seedless’ once the post-season starts.”

    3. Kyle Larson: Larson found trouble on many occasions early at Charlotte, but bounced back and was leading with a lap to go when Chase Briscoe lost control while chasing Larson, bringing out a caution. Larson spun on an overtime restart, and eventually finished ninth.

    “Let’s see,” Larson said. “I wrecked in Saturday practice, had two equipment violations during Sunday’s race, hit the wall twice, had a fire in the pits, and spun a few times. Just a disastrous weekend. Heck, I don’t know what to say. I do know what not to say.”

    4. Chase Elliott: Elliott won Stage 1 and led 86 laps, but a spin on lap 186 caused damage when he hit the wall. Elliott retired on Lap 193 and finished 33rd.

    “I wasn’t around for all of it,” Elliott said, “but that race lasted more than five hours. To put that into perspective, it lasted as long as what Michael Waltrip’s ‘Grid Walk’ feels like.”

    5. Alex Bowman: Bowman finished 10th at Charlotte.

    “You saw an abundance of tire issues at Charlotte,” Bowman said. “There were blown tires, flat tires, runaway tires, and if you looked in the stands, plenty of spare tires.”

    6. Ryan Blaney: Blaney got loose and tapped the wall on Lap 164, then lost control and triggered a big pileup on Lap 191, which involved 12 cars. Blaney finished 29th.

    “I won $1,000,000 in the All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway,” Blaney said. “So, much like in Texas, I cost several drivers $1,000,000 at Charlotte.”

    7. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex finished 12th at Charlotte.

    “The Sunday before Memorial Day is the greatest day in auto racing,” Truex said. “You can wake up to the Monaco Grand Prix, have lunch with the Indianapolis 500, and get put to sleep by the Coca-Cola 600.”

    8. Joey Logano: Logano finished 20th in the Coca-Cola 600.

    “Like many other drivers,” Logano said, “I got taken out by a driver who made a dumb mistake. Charlotte was the long-time home of NASCAR’s All-Star Race. As you saw in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600, the drivers in NASCAR are not all-stars. Some are scrubs.”

    9. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin started on the pole at Charlotte, but faded quickly and was not much of a factor until a big wreck on an overtime restart left Hamlin with the lead. Hamlin battled Kyle Busch in the second overtime and edged his teammate by 0.014 seconds.

    “That crash on the first overtime restart damaged the cars of a lot of contenders,” Hamlin said. “So, I have to thank Austin Dillon for ‘going for ‘broke.’”

    10. William Byron: Byron was a victim of a Lap 191 crash triggered by Ryan Blaney, who lost control near the apron and veered into traffic. Byron’s day was done, and he finished 32nd.

    “Six hundred miles is a long way,” Byron said. “It’s a physically draining race for the drivers, but even more mentally draining, especially for the fans who have to watch it.”

  • Hamlin claims a wild, caution-filled Coca-Cola 600 victory at Charlotte

    Hamlin claims a wild, caution-filled Coca-Cola 600 victory at Charlotte

    In one of stock car’s longest events on Memorial Day weekend spanning more than five hours and mired with a bevy of cautions and on-track carnages, Denny Hamlin survived two overtime attempts to storm to the lead and fend off teammate Kyle Busch to win the Coca-Cola 600 victory of this season at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 29.

    The 41-year-old Hamlin from Chesterfield, Virginia, led four times for 15 of 413 over-scheduled laps and was able to assume the lead during the first of two overtime attempts just as a multi-car wreck ensued behind him on the frontstretch. Then during the second overtime attempt, he came out on top over a late battle with teammate Kyle Busch, including overtaking and clearing his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate on the final lap, before having enough horsepower to cross the finish line in first place and claim his first 600 triumph.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Denny Hamlin notched his first pole position of the season after clocking in a pole-winning lap at 183.680 mph in 29.399 seconds. Joining him on the front was Kurt Busch, who clocked in a qualifying lap at 183.661 mph in 29.402 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Kyle Larson, Aric Almirola, Cole Custer, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kaz Grala dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective cars. In addition, Corey LaJoie started at the rear of the field in a backup car.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Hamlin launched ahead with the lead on the outside lane through Turn 1 before Kurt Busch drew himself in a side-by-side battle against his owner. As the field returned to the start/finish line, Hamlin managed to lead the first lap by a hair before Kurt Busch issued another early challenge for the lead. 

    During the following lap, Kurt Busch managed to edge Hamlin to lead the following lap before Hamlin returned the favor during the following lap. Then by the fourth lap, Hamlin managed to pull his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry ahead of Busch’s No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry to clear the field for the lead while Kyle Busch was in third. Behind, Bubba Wallace muscled his way into third place ahead of William Byron, Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Kyle Busch, who overtook teammate Hamlin for the lead during the previous lap, was leading followed by Bubba Wallace, Reddick and Byron while Kurt Busch, Daniel Suarez, Bell, Martin Truex Jr. and Alex Bowman. Rookie Austin Cindric was back in 11th ahead of Chase Elliott, Chase Briscoe, Ryan Blaney, Michael McDowell, Austin Dillon, Ross Chastain, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano and Erik Jones while Kyle Larson was up in 21st ahead of Justin Haley, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Preece, Chris Buescher and rookie Harrison Burton.

    Seven laps later, the first caution of the event flew when Ryan Preece spun entering Turn 4 on the outside lane. Just behind, Buescher and Noah Gragson spun separately to avoid Preece with Buescher making contact with Preece. By then, Kyle Busch was leading by more than a second over Bubbaa Wallace followed by Reddick and Byron while Hamlin and Kurt Busch slipped back to fifth and eighth, respectively. In addition, Kyle Larson was up to 18th.

    Under caution, the leaders led by Kyle Busch pitted for the first time Kyle Busch, Byron, Reddick, Hamlin, Suarez and Wallace. Following the pit stops, Martin Truex Jr. was penalized for speeding on pit road. In addition, rookie Todd Gilliland was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 22, Kyle Busch rocketed his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota TRD Camry away with the lead while Reddick and Byron battled for the runner-up spot. Not long after, Wallace made his way into third place over Reddick and Hamlin while Larson was trying to work his way into the top 15.

    By Lap 30, Kyle Busch was leading by half a second over Wallace followed by Byron, Reddick and Hamlin while Chase Elliott, Daniel Suarez, Bell, Kurt Busch and Bowman were in the top 10.

    Two laps later, the caution returned when Josh Bilicki spun in Turn 3. Under caution, some led by Byron pitted while the rest led by Kyle Busch remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Larson was penalized for removing equipment out of his pit box.

    When the race proceeded under green on Lap 38, Kyle Busch and Wallace battled for the lead as the field fanned out through the backstretch with fourth-place Briscoe briefly losing momentum in the top five.

    Two laps later, Wallace led a lap for himself before Kyle Busch cleared Wallace’s No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota TRD Camry to assume full control of the field.

    Another three laps later, Suarez, who overtook Wallace a few laps ago for the runner-up spot and was gaining ground on Kyle Busch, made a move beneath Busch as he issued his challenge for the lead from the fronstretch to Turn 1. Then as Suarez just emerged ahead while pinning Kyle Busch towards the Turn 1 outside wall, Busch slipped sideways and spun through Turn 2 without sustaining any damage as the caution flew.

    Under caution, some who did not pit under the previous caution like Wallace and Kyle Busch pitted while the rest led by Suarez remained on the track.

    As the race proceeded under green on Lap 50, Suarez launched ahead on the outside lane to retain the lead while Hamlin battled Bowman for the runner-up spot in front of Byron, Elliott and Reddick. 

    By Lap 60, Suarez was leading by more than two seconds over Bowman followed by Elliott, Byron and Hamlin while Cindric, Reddick, Kurt Busch, Ryan Blaney and Truex were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Larson was in 12th behind Joey Logano while Ross Chastain, Bell and Buescher were in the top 15.

    A lap later, the caution returned when Corey LaJoie got loose, spun and backed his car against the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2, a wreck that was reminiscent of Saturday’s practice session and was enough to eliminate him from the event. During the caution period, the leaders led by Suarez pitted and Elliott exited with the top spot followed by Byron, Bowman, Suarez and Reddick. Following the pit stops, Larson, who got into the wall during the previous restart, was penalized for a second time due to an equipment interference along with Justin Haley. In addition, Cindric made another pit stop to ensure that the wheels on his car were tightened.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 67, teammates Elliott and Byron dueled for the lead for half a lap until Elliott managed to pull his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ahead of Byron’s No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 while Suarez was in third place in his No. 99 CommScope Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Behind, Bowman was in fourth while Reddick overtook Hamlin for a spot in the top five.

    Through the first 75 scheduled laps, Elliott was leading by a tenth of a second over Byron followed by Reddick, Bowman and Suarez while Chastain, Bell, Hamlin, Blaney and Wallace were in the top 10. Kurt Busch was mired in 11th ahead of Logano, Stenhouse, Austin Dillon, Truex, Aric Almirola, Erik Jones, Chris Buescher, Chase Briscoe and Gilliland while Larson, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch were mired outside of the top 25.

    Fifteen laps later, Elliott continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over Reddick while Byron, Bell and Chastain were in the top five as Bowman fell back to sixth. Behind, Wallace worked his way back to seventh followed by Blaney, Truex and Stenhouse.

    On Lap 93, Byron got loose entering the backstretch and fell off the pace due to a flat tire, but he continued to run on the track as the race remained under green.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 100, Elliott captured his third stage victory of the season over Reddick, who settled in second followed by Bell, Chastain, Wallace, Blaney, Stenhouse, Truex, Bowman and Hamlin. By then, Byron was in 11th and Kyle Busch was in 17th while Larson and Suarez were mired back in 28th and 29th.

    Under the stage break, the leaders led by Elliott pitted and Elliott retained the lead after exiting with the lead followed by Bell, Wallace, Chastain, Truex and Blaney. Following the pit stops, Kevin Harvick pitted again to address a steering issue.

    The second stage started on Lap 107 as Elliott and Bell occupied the front row. At the start, Elliott received a draft from Chastain to retain the lead while Chastain and Bell duked for the runner-up spot. With Chastain making his way into the runner-up spot over Bell, Wallace and Blaney battled in the top five while Truex was in sixth.

    On Lap 110, Chastain muscled his No. 1 Advent Health Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead following a brief battle with Elliott while Bell, Wallace and Blaney remained in the top five. Behind, Hamlin was in seventh followed by Byron and Stenhouse, Kyle Busch was in 11th ahead of Reddick, Logano was in 17th behind teammate Cindric and Larson was back in 20th in between Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola and Briscoe.

    By Lap 125, Chastain was leading by half a second over Elliott followed by Bell, Wallace and Blaney while Truex, Byron, Hamlin, Reddick and Stenhouse were in the top 10. 

    Just then, the caution flew when Wallace spun through the Turn 4 infield and he was quick to nurse his car to his pit stall with the right-front tire flat. During the caution period, the leaders returned to pit road as Elliott retained the top spot after exiting in first.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 131, Elliott and Chastain dueled for the lead until Elliott retained the lead as the field behind scrambled for positions.

    On Lap 145, the caution returned when Cindric blew a left-rear tire and backed his No. 2 Menards Ford Mustang hard into the Turn 3 outside wall. During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by Elliott returned to pit road and Elliott exited with the top spot followed by Chastain, Kurt Busch, Truex, Reddick and Erik Jones while Blaney and Larson remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Bell was penalized due to a crew member jumping over the wall too soon while Stenhouse and Gilliland were penalized for speeding on pit road.

    On Lap 151, the race proceeded under green as Blaney and Larson occupied the front row. At the start, Blaney held a brief advantage through the first two turns until Elliott muscled his way back into the lead through Turns 3 and 4. With Elliott checking out, Chastain moved back into the runner-up spot followed by Blaney, Kurt Busch and Reddick while Larson fell back to sixth.

    By Lap 160, Elliott was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Chastain while Kurt Busch, Blaney, Reddick, Briscoe, Logano, Suarez, Hamlin and Larson were in the top 10. By then, Harvick, Kyle Busch, Byron, Erik Jones and Michael McDowell were in the top 15 while Bowman was in 16th. By then, Brad Keselowski was in the top 20 while Wallace was in 22nd behind Austin Dillon.

    Then on Lap 165, the caution flew when Larson got loose and spun his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the Turn 4 infield as he was dodged by Harvick. Under caution, some led by Blaney pitted while the rest led by Elliott remained on the track.

    When the race proceeded under green on Lap 170, Chastain used the inside lane to his advantage as he cleared Elliott to lead while Kurt Busch, Reddick, Briscoe and Suarez battled towards the front. Soon after, Trackhouse Racing’s Chastain and Suarez battled for the lead with the former retaining the top spot. 

    At the Lap 175 mark, Chastain was leading by nearly three-tenths of a second over teammate Suarez while Elliott, Briscoe and Kurt Busch were in the top five. Reddick was in sixth ahead of Logano, Byron and Hamlin while Buescher and Truex challenged spots in the top 10.

    Eleven laps later, the caution flew when Elliott got loose and briefly touched the outside wall between Turns 1 and 2 before he spun through the Turn 4 infield. Under caution, some led by Kurt Busch while the rest led by Chastain remained on the track.

    With nine laps remaining in the second stage, the race restarted under green and Chastain took off with the lead ahead of Suarez and Briscoe. Shortly after, however, the caution returned when Blaney hit the apron, got loose and spun as he ignited a multi-car wreck that collected Kurt Busch, Keselowski, McDowell, Byron, Harvick, Hamlin, Gragson, Truex, Harrison Burton, Gilliland and Wallace.

    Following an extensive cleanup, the race restarted under green with four laps remaining in the second stage. At the front, teammates Chastain and Suarez battled for the lead until Suarez managed to pull ahead through Turns 3 and 4. Behind, Erik Jones was in third place followed by Briscoe and Stenhouse.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 200, Suarez managed to fend off teammate Chastain and Erik Jones to captured his second stage victory of the season. Chastain held off Erik Jones to settle in second followed by Briscoe, Stenhouse, Logano, Harvick, Reddick, Truex and Bell.

    During the stage break, the race was placed on a brief hiatus and the NASCAR community paused for a moment of silence to pay tribute in remembrance of the fallen servicemen and women on Memorial Day weekend. When the field returned to pit road for service, Suarez retained the lead after exiting with the top spot followed by Chastain, Briscoe, Erik Jones, Reddick and Harvick. Back on the track, however, names like Logano, Kyle Busch, Truex, Hamlin and Bell chose to restart at the front without pitting.

    The third stage started on Lap 208 as Logano and Truex, both of whom did not pit, occupied the front row. At the start, Logano rocketed his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang clear of the field with the lead while teammates Kyle Busch and Truex battled for the runner-up spot ahead of Hamlin and Chastain while Bell slipped to sixth.

    Six laps later, Suarez reassumed the lead over Logano as he brought teammate Chastain with him. Behind, Briscoe overtook Truex for fifth while Kyle Busch was in fourth.

    Then on Lap 220, the caution flew when Harvick, who was just overtaken by Stenhouse for 11th place, got loose and scraped the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2, an incident that prompted Harvick to express his displeasure to Stenhouse under caution. Soon after, some led by Suarez returned to pit road for service while the rest led by Chastain remained on the track.

    Another four laps later, the race proceeded under green. At the start, Chastain retained the lead ahead of Logano while Briscoe, Kyle Busch and Bell occupied the top five.

    By Lap 235, Chastain extended his advantage to nearly two seconds over Logano while Briscoe, Suarez and Kyle Busch were in the top five. Bell was in sixth ahead of Stenhouse, Hamlin, Reddick and Noah Gragson while Larson was in 11th ahead of Harvick, Truex, Buescher, McDowell and Erik Jones.

    At the Lap 250 mark, Chastain continued to lead by more than half a second over teammate Suarez while Briscoe, Logano, Bell, Kyle Busch Stenhouse, Hamlin, Reddick and Harvick were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Larson and Truex remained in the top 15 while Erik Jones, Austin Dillon and Almirola were running in the top 20.

    Two laps later, Suarez overtook teammate Chastain to return to the lead. Not long after, however, the caution flew when Gragson spun his No. 16 Charlotte Knights Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the Turn 4 infield. Under caution, the leaders led by Suarez pitted and Chastain reassumed the lead upon exiting pit road ahead of Briscoe, Reddick, Buescher, Hamlin, Stenhouse and the field. Following the pit stops, Kyle Busch was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation.

    When the race resumed under green on Lap 258, Chastain cleared the field entering the first turn to lead ahead of Briscoe and Reddick. Two laps later, however, Briscoe hustled his No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang to the lead from Turns 3 and 4, but Chastain returned the favor and cleared Briscoe for the lead during the following lap. While Chastain, Briscoe and Reddick battled for the lead, Larson rallied his way up to fifth behind Buescher.

    By Lap 275, Chastain continued to lead by more than a second over Briscoe and Larson while Reddick and Hamlin were in the top five. Suarez was in sixth followed by Buescher, Logano, Cole Custer and Stenhouse. Prior to this, Bell made a pit stop under green after suffering a flat tire and falling off the pace.

    With 10 laps remaining in the third stage, Chastain remained as the leader by a healthy margin over Briscoe while Kyle Busch pitted under green due to an issue to the right rear of Busch’s car.

    When the third stage concluded on Lap 300, Chastain captured his fourth stage victory of the season. Briscoe settled in second, trailing by more than two seconds, while Larson, Reddick, Suarez, Logano, Custer, Buescher, Austin Dillon and Hamlin were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Reddick exited with the top spot followed by Chastain, Larson, Briscoe, Custer and Buescher.

    With 93 laps remaining, the final stage commenced. At the start, Reddick took off with the lead on the inside lane in front of Chastain while Custer and Larson battled for third place. 

    With 77 laps remaining, the battle for the lead ignited as Chastain dueled and overtook Reddick for the lead through the fronstretch.

    Nearing the final 60 laps of the event, the caution flew due to debris in Turn 1 when Reddick cut a left-tire tire as he limped his No. 8 Cheddar’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 back to pit road. At the moment of caution, Chastain was leading by more than two seconds over Larson while Suarez, Briscoe and Custer were in the top five. 

    Under caution, the leaders led by Chastain pitted as Chastain retained the lead followed by Larson, Briscoe, Custer, Austin Dillon and Bell.

    Down to the final 55 laps of the event, the race restarted under green as Chastain and Larson occupied the front row. At the start, Chastain managed to pull away from Larson and the field to retain the lead.

    Then as the field made its way to the frontstretch, the caution flew for a major wreck when Suarez, who made the slightest of contact in front of Briscoe, got loose and slipped sideways in front of the field. As the field scattered, he was hit by Todd Gilliland and Buescher, who looped around the frontstretch grass before his No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang went airborne and barrel rolled multiple times before coming to rest on his roof. Despite the incident, all competitors, including Buescher, emerged uninjured.

    Following a red flag period of 11 minutes, the race restarted under green with 48 laps remaining. At the start, Chastain took the lead before Larson muscled his way to the front two laps later. Another lap later, Briscoe made his way into the runner-up spot as he went to work to pursue Larson for the lead.

    With 40 laps remaining, Larson was leading by nearly eight-tenths of a second over Briscoe while Chastain, Logano and Hamlin occupied the top five. 

    Ten laps later, Larson extended his advantage to more than a second over Briscoe while Chastain, Hamlin and Custer were in the top five. Behind, Logano fell back to sixth ahead of Kyle Busch, Bell, Erik Jones and Austin Dillon.

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Larson continued to lead while runner-up Briscoe only trailed by six-tenths of a second. Chastain, Hamlin and Custer remained in the top five ahead of Logano, Bell, Kyle Busch, Erik Jones and Austin Dillon while Truex, Harvick, Almirola, Stenhouse, McDowell, Ty Dillon and Harrison Burton were scored on the lead lap.

    Five laps later, Briscoe cut the deficit down to two-tenths of a second over Larson with the latter still leading while the former kept the leader within his sight.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Larson retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Briscoe while third-place Chastain trailed by more than two seconds. Behind, Hamlin and Custer remained in the top five.

    With five laps remaining, the battle for the lead ignited as Briscoe closed in and challenged Larson for the top spot. As both went dead even when the field returned to the frontstretch, Briscoe tried to squeeze himself ahead, but Larson retained the lead on the outside lane. 

    Then with two laps remaining, the caution flew when Briscoe, who made another move beneath Larson in another bid for the lead, got loose and spun from the outside wall to below the apron in Turn 1 as he punctured his tires. Briscoe’s incident was enough for the event to be sent into overtime as Chastain, Hamlin, Custer and Logano moved into the top five.

    Under caution, the leaders led by Larson pitted as Larson, Chastain, Logano and Stenhouse opted for a two-tire pit stop while the rest took four tires.

    At the start of the first overtime attempt, Larson and Chastain dueled dead even for the lead entering the first turn until Larson cleared the field entering the backstretch. As the field fanned out and scrambled for positions, Austin Dillon suddenly bolted his way towards the front and was able to draw himself even with Larson in a bid for the lead through Turn 3. 

    Then entering the frontstretch, Chastain and Hamlin drew Larson and Austin Dillon into a four-wide battle for the lead until Dillon made contact with Larson and spun in the middle of the field as he made contact with the wall. In the process, Larson, Logano and Chastain clipped one another and were sent spinning and sliding sideways along with Custer, Truex and Stenhouse while Hamlin escaped with the lead followed by Chastain, Kyle Busch, Harvick, Stenhouse and McDowell. With the wreck occurring just before the final lap could initiate, the field was sent into another overtime attempt.

    At the start of the second overtime attempt, Hamlin rocketed with the lead on the inside lane and was quickly pressured by teammate Kyle Busch for the lead while Chastain was losing ground and speed due to suffering front-nose damage from the previous incident.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, teammates Kyle Busch and Hamlin dueled for the lead dead even until Hamlin managed to pull ahead through Turns 1 and 2. Though Kyle Busch kept Hamlin close to his front bumper, he could not execute a final lap pass for the win as Hamlin claimed the checkered flag by 0.119 seconds to win for the first time at Charlotte and in the Coca-Cola 600 in his illustrious Cup career.

    In addition, Hamlin notched his second victory of the season since winning at Richmond Raceway in early April, thus becoming the third multi-winner of this year’s Cup season, and his 48th career win in the NASCAR Cup Series, which placed him in a tie with the late NASCAR Hall of Famer Herb Thomas for 16th place on the all-time wins list in the sport’s premier series. Since winning at Richmond in April, Hamlin had finished no higher than fourth during the following seven events prior to the 600. Mired during the seven-race span were four results outside of the top 20.

    Photo by Ted Seminara for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “It’s so special,” Hamlin, who became the newest winner of the 600 since Kyle Larson won it a year ago, said on FOX. “It’s the last big one that’s not on my resume. It meant so much. Man, [I] Can’t thank this whole FedEx team enough. I’ve been a Coke Family driver for 18 years and never have won the Coke 600 before, so this means a lot. Man, we weren’t very good all day and just got ourselves in the right place at the right time. What a battle there.” 

    Teammate Kyle Busch rallied from his early spin and late pit road penalty to finish in the runner-up spot while Harvick, who endured steering issues and a handful of on-track incidents, came home in third place. 

    “We didn’t have a good enough day to even be in that position,” Busch said. “Just a strong fight all night long by this M&M’s team and give honor to those that we remember here on Memorial Day weekend. Appreciate the opportunity of being able to do that. We had [U.S. Army] St. [William R.] Theim on [the car] this weekend. [I] Tried to come out with Victory Lane and honor them, but unfortunately, one spot short.”

    “That was not pretty,” Harvick said. “I think we went to the back eight times tonight, so everybody on our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang did a good job battling. We didn’t necessarily do a good job with everything else, but in the end, came home with a third-place finish. I knew this race was just gonna be a battle of attrition and forever. Almost six hours. ”

    Following his late spin, Briscoe made a late charge to finish fourth, five spots ahead of Larson as Larson rallied from his wreck during the first overtime attempt for a top-10 result while Bell rallied from a late unscheduled pit stop to finish fifth.

    “I was driving 110 percent,” Briscoe said. “I should’ve been only running 90 to 100. I just overstepped. It’s a crown jewel race and it was dangling right there in front of me. I tried too hard. Plain and simple. I was able to drive it in so much farther than Kyle [Larson] almost every time into [Turn] 1. I felt like I went to the same mark I had been. As soon as I went in there, I just got super loose…I saw a Coke 600 win right there in front of me, went for it and obviously, overstepped. To have speed like that’s really good. Wished we could’ve gotten the Mahindra Tractors Ford in Victory Lane, but we were fast and I guess that’s all that matters.”

    “Long race, thankfully,” Larson said. “The first half was a struggle for all of us, but I was especially frustrated with myself. To rebound from that and have a shot to win there late was something to be proud of. Our team fought really hard, so happy with that. Briscoe’s really good that long run there. [I] Wished we would’ve been just a little bit better so he never would’ve gotten to me to work really hard and ultimately, spin. You’re kind of gambling on tire stuff there. We took two [tires] to try and get ourselves the front row, which we did. I think the four tires were just a little bit better than me and [Austin Dillon] got to my inside there through [Turns] 3 and 4. It was just really tight racing off of [Turn] 4…Again, proud of my Hendrick team. The day would’ve been a lot easier if I just didn’t hit the wall yesterday [during practice].”

    “The only reason we got up there is ‘cause everyone crashed at the end of the race and gave us an opportunity,” Bell said. “This Yahoo Camry, just every bit is capable of the guys that beat us. Disappointing day, for sure, because I feel like we had something to contend for the win, but a top five’s nothing to hang our head about.”

    Reddick, Stenhouse, McDowell, Larson and Bowman finished in the top 10. Harrison Burton was the highest-finishing rookie candidate in 11th place, thus notching his second top-15 result in the Cup circuit, while Chastain, who restarted on the front row during the second overtime attempt, fell back to 15th with a damaged front nose from his car.

    There were 31 lead changes for 13 different leaders. The race featured 18 cautions for 90 laps. This marked the longest-held event in NASCAR history at 413 laps (619.5 miles), which occurred in five hours, 16 minutes and 16 seconds.

    With 12 races remaining in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series regular-season stretch, Chase Elliott continues to lead the regular-season standings by 34 over Ross Chastain, 37 over Kyle Busch, 53 over Ryan Blaney and 59 over Martin Truex Jr.

    Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe, rookie Austin Cindric and Kurt Busch are currently guaranteed spots for the 2022 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning once throughout the regular-season stretch. Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr., Christopher Bell, Kevin Harvick and Tyler Reddick occupy the remaining spots in the Playoffs as winless competitors while Aric Almirola trails the top-16 cutline by eight points, Austin Dillon trails by 23, Erik Jones trails by 29, Daniel Suarez trails by 49, Chris Buescher trails by 75, Michael McDowell trails by 76, Bubba Wallace trails by 78, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. trails by 83 and Justin Haley trails by 95.

    Results.

    1. Denny Hamlin, 15 laps led

    2. Kyle Busch, 36 laps led

    3. Kevin Harvick

    4. Chase Briscoe, two laps led

    5. Christopher Bell

    6. Tyler Reddick, 19 laps led

    7. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    8. Michael McDowell

    9. Kyle Larson, 51 laps led

    10. Alex Bowman

    11. Harrison Burton

    12. Martin Truex Jr.

    13. Ty Dillon 

    14. Erik Jones

    15. Ross Chastain, 153 laps led, Stage 3 winner

    16. Todd Gilliland

    17. Aric Almirola, one lap down

    18. Cody Ware, one lap down

    19. BJ McLeod, six laps down

    20. Joey Logano – OUT, Accident, nine laps led

    21. Cole Custer – OUT, Accident

    22. Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident

    23. Kaz Grala, 13 laps down

    24. Noah Gragson – OUT, Throttle

    25. Daniel Suarez – OUT, Accident, 36 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    26. Chris Buescher – OUT, Accident

    27. Justin Haley – OUT, Engine

    28. Bubba Wallace – OUT, Dvp, one lap led

    29. Ryan Blaney – OUT, Accident, two laps led

    30. Brad Keselowski – OUT, Accident

    31. Kurt Busch – OUT, Accident, two laps led

    32. William Byron – OUT, Accident, one lap led

    33. Chase Elliott – OUT, Dvp, 86 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    34. Austin Cindric – OUT, Accident

    35. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Accident

    36. Josh Bilicki – OUT, Accident

    37. Ryan Preece – OUT, Dvp

    Next on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ inaugural event at the World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in Madison, Illinois. The event is scheduled to occur on Sunday, June 5, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Blaney survives for first NASCAR All-Star Race victory at Texas

    Blaney survives for first NASCAR All-Star Race victory at Texas

    From having the race won to not having it won before officially emerging triumphant under the lights, Ryan Blaney outlasted Denny Hamlin and the field during an overtime shootout to win the 2022 NASCAR All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 22.

    The 28-year-old Blaney from High Point, North Carolina, led a race-high 84 of 140 over-scheduled laps and was initially within striking distance of claiming the checkered flag and the win during the final 50 scheduled laps.

    However, an untimely caution due to an incident involving Ricky Stenhouse Jr. sent the event into overtime as part of the All-Star Race format that stated the event could not finish under caution.

    Despite initially having issues re-attaching his window net after having it partially down prior to overtime, Blaney managed to streak away from the competition that included his Team Penske teammates and Denny Hamlin to win NASCAR’s annual exhibition event with a million dollars on the line for the first time in his career.

    The starting lineup for the event was based on a newly-formatted qualifying session, consisting of a single qualifying lap session before the top-eight competitors transferred to the second round, which was an elimination bracket session. In this session, the drivers competed against one another in a side-by-side four-tire pit stop before drag-racing off of pit road and cycling for a full lap, where the first competitor across the start/finish line would transfer to the following round.

    Following all qualifying sessions and rounds, Kyle Busch started in the pole position for the third time in his career. Joining him on the front row was Ryan Blaney. Twenty competitors earned guaranteed spots for the main event and they were joined by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chris Buescher, Daniel Suarez and Erik Jones (fan vote), all of whom transferred from the All-Star Open.

    Prior to the event, Alex Bowman dropped to the rear of the field after unapproved adjustments were made to his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Kyle Busch broke ahead with an early advantage followed by Blaney while teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson battled for third place. Behind, Kurt Busch and Ross Chastain raced one another for fifth place.

    Following the first lap, Kyle Busch was out in front ahead of Blaney, Byron, Larson, Chastain, Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, AJ Allmendinger and Chase Briscoe.

    Through the first five laps of the event, Kyle Busch continued to lead by nearly half a second over Blaney followed by Larson, Byron and Kurt Busch while Truex, Chastain, Logano, Allmendinger and Briscoe were in the top 10. Chase Elliott was in 11th followed by Kevin Harvick, Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, Aric Almirola, Denny Hamlin, rookie Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Alex Bowman, Brad Keselowski, Michael McDowell, Erik Jones and Chris Buescher.

    At the Lap 10 mark, Kyle Busch stabilized his advantage to half a second over Blaney while Larson, Byron, Kurt Busch, Chastain, Truex, Logano, Allmendinger and Briscoe remained in the top 10.

    Ten laps later, Kyle Busch remained as the leader and led by four-tenths of a second over Blaney while third-place Larson trailed by nearly two seconds. Byron remained in fourth followed by Kurt Busch, Chastain and Truex. By then, Christopher Bell was in ninth behind Logano while Elliott cracked the top 10 ahead of Bubba Wallace, Hamlin, Allmendinger, Suarez and Briscoe.

    At the start of the final lap of the first stage, Kyle Busch was leading by nearly half a second over Blaney. Remaining uncontested at the front, Busch was able to cruise his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota TRD Camry back to the start/finish line and win the first stage on Lap 25. With the stage win, Busch was guaranteed to start with the lead for the final stage as long as he remained in the top 15 for the following two stages.

    Under the stage break, some of the drivers, led by Kyle Busch, remained on the track while others, led by Byron, pitted.

    The second stage started on Lap 26 as Kyle Busch and Blaney occupied the front row once again. At the start, Kyle Busch received a strong push from Chastain to maintain the lead. Blaney got loose behind Chastain entering the first turn, which allowed Kyle Larson to rocket into the runner-up spot while Cindric and Bell also moved into the top five. In the midst of the restart, Blaney was left battling Byron for sixth place.

    On Lap 30 and while Kyle Busch remained as the leader. Blaney got into the rear of Chastain through the frontstretch in a bid for third place but got loose and shot up the track toward the outside wall. As a result, Blaney dropped from fourth to sixth. By then, Bubba Wallace had made an unscheduled pit stop under green and was a lap behind the leaders.

    By Lap 35, Kyle Busch continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over Larson followed by Chastain, Byron and Cindric. Running in sixth was Suarez followed by Hamlin, Bell, Truex and Elliott.

    Just then, the caution flew when Larson, winner of the last two All-Star events, lost a right-front tire and pounded the outside wall hard in Turn 4. Despite limping back to pit road, the damage to his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was terminal as Larson retired in his pit stall.

    “[I] Hate that that happened,” Larson, who was released from the infield care center, said on FS1. “I felt like our car was good enough, depending on restarts since you can’t pass at all, especially the leader anyways. It’s pretty impossible to pass. Yeah, we’ll move on and look forward to the [Coca-Cola] 600 and hopefully, put on some good racing there.”

    During the caution period, names like McDowell, Wallace, Almirola, Briscoe and Erik Jones pitted while the rest led by Kyle Busch remained on the lead lap.

    Following an extensive cleanup, the race proceeded under green on Lap 43. At the start, Kyle Busch and Chastain dueled for the lead for a full lap until Busch managed to pull ahead and clear Chastain for the lead during the following lap. Soon after, Cindric moved his No. 2 Keystone Ford Mustang into the runner-up spot while Blaney and Byron were in the top five. 

    By Lap 45, Kyle Busch was leading by nearly half a second over Cindric and Chastain while Blaney and Elliott were in the top five. 

    Two laps later, trouble ensued when Kyle Busch cut a right-rear tire and was off the pace through the frontstretch. Just as Busch moved his slow car to the inside lane, he was T-boned by an oncoming Chastain, whose No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 got airborne and nearly flipped as he shot up the track, clipped Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and sent him hard against the Turn 1 wall while Chastain came to a stop below the apron. The incident, which knocked out all three competitors, was enough for NASCAR to cease the competition for more than 14 minutes.

    “I felt like the driver of the No. 1 car chose the wrong lane to go,” Chastain said. “I saw Kyle have an issue, like a tire down, and I guessed left [lane] and I should’ve guessed right. Big hits. Tough break, but fast cars.”

    “Just got a flat tire off of [Turn] 4,” Kyle Busch said. “Right rear’s flat. Unfortunate for our guys. Everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota, M&M’s. We had a really fast race car. Led all the laps up until that point. Disappointing not to be able to finish it out and go race for the million bucks.”

    The second stage resumed with a two-lap, overtime dash and teammates Cindric and Blaney dueled for the lead through the backstretch until the former pulled ahead through Turns 3 and 4 as the field behind jostled for positions. When the second stage concluded on Lap 54, Cindric claimed the second stage victory.

    During the stage break, a pit stop competition occurred as all the remaining competitors on the track led by Cindric pitted for four tires. Following the pit stops, Team Penske’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang team, piloted by Joey Logano and led by crew chief Paul Wolfe, was awarded $100,000 for performing the fastest pit stop during the stage break and won the pit stop challenge. With that, Logano was given a guaranteed starting spot toward the front for the fourth and final stage so long as he remained in the top 15 during the third stage.

    During the pit stops, Kurt Busch was penalized for driving through too many pit boxes.

    The third stage started on Lap 55 as Byron and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Suarez gave Byron a bump to enable Byron’s No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to the lead while Blaney dueled against Suarez to retain the runner-up spot. With the field stacked up and dueling for spots, Bell was in fourth followed by Cindric.

    Two laps later, Blaney moved his No. 12 Menards/Wrangler Ford Mustang to the front ahead of Byron as Bell tried to close in on the two leaders. 

    At the halfway mark between Laps 64 and 65, Blaney was leading by more than half a second over Bell followed by Byron, Suarez, Truex, Cindric, Buescher, Hamlin, Stenhouse and Logano while Kurt Busch, Keselowski, Bowman, McDowell, Wallace, Harvick, Erik Jones, Allmendinger, Almirola and Briscoe were still running on the track and on the lead lap.

    By Lap 70, Blaney stabilized his advantage to nearly eight-tenths of a second over Bell followed by Byron, Suarez and Truex. Soon after, Stenhouse, who was in ninth, dropped off the pace after his No. 47 Viva Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 sustained a flat right-rear tire.

    On Lap 75, the caution returned when Bell, who was in the runner-up spot, got his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota TRD Camry loose as he made contact against the outside wall between Turns 3 and 4.

    Under caution, a majority of the field led by Byron pitted while the rest, including Blaney, Cindric, Logano and McDowell remained on the track.

    With the third stage sent into another two-lap, overtime shootout, Blaney rocketed away with the lead entering the first turn while his teammates Logano and Cindric struggled to go as they briefly stacked up the field. 

    At the start of the final lap of the third stage on Lap 80, Blaney was leading by half a second over teammate Logano, who had Suarez pressuring him for the runner-up spot. By then, Blaney was long gone as he went on to claim the third stage victory on Lap 82. Behind, Suarez was able to overtake Logano for the runner-up spot followed by McDowell, Cindric, Byron, Hamlin, Buescher, Truex and Kurt Busch.

    During the stage break and amid the reshuffling of the field, Cindric emerged with the top starting spot for the final stage followed by teammates Logano and Blaney. In addition, names like Cindric, Logano, Blaney, Michael McDowell and Stenhouse pitted while the rest remained on the track.

    With the race entering the final stage comprised of 50 laps, the race proceeded under green. At the start, teammates Cindric and Blaney dueled for the lead while Suarez and Logano battled against one another for third place. As Blaney started to pull ahead of Cindric and Logano, Hamlin moved his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry against Suarez’s No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in a bid for fourth place.

    Down to the final 40 laps of the event, Blaney was leading by nearly a second over teammate Cindric while teammate Logano trailed by nearly two seconds. Suarez and Hamlin were in the top five followed by Truex, Byron, Kurt Busch, Buescher and Brad Keselowski while Allmendinger, Bowman, Harvick, Erik Jones, Wallace, Bell, McDowell, Almirola, Stenhouse and Briscoe were still running on the track and on the lead lap.

    Just past the final 35 laps of the event, Wallace pitted his No. 23 Dr. Pepper Dark Berry Toyota TRD Camry under green after he suffered a flat tire while Blaney continued to lead ahead of his Team Penske teammates.

    With 30 laps remaining, Blaney stabilized his advantage to more than a second over teammate Cindric while teammate Logano trailed in third place by more than three seconds. Suarez and Hamlin remained in the top five ahead of Truex, Byron, Kurt Busch, Buescher and Keselowski.

    Two laps later, the caution flew when Erik Jones, the Fan Vote winner, got loose and spun his No. 43 Focus Factor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 against the outside wall entering Turn 4, with Jones’ car suffering significant damage as the driver retired.

    Under caution, a majority of the field led by Hamlin pitted while eight competitors led by Blaney and including Cindric, Logano, Suarez, Buescher, Keselowski and Almirola remained on the track.

    With 21 laps remaining, the race resumed under green. At the start, teammates Blaney and Cindric dueled for the lead until Blaney managed to clear the field entering the backstretch. Behind, Suarez moved up to third place while Logano and Hamlin battled for fourth place in front of Buescher, Keselowski and Byron.

    Six laps later, Blaney extended his advantage to more than a second over teammate Cindric, who had Hamlin closing in for the spot.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Blaney continued to lead by more than two seconds over Hamlin, who overtook Cindric for the runner-up spot three laps earlier. Behind, Suarez and Logano remained in the top five ahead of Buescher, Keselowski, Alex Bowman, Bell and Kurt Busch. Meanwhile, Byron was back in 11th ahead of Harvick, Stenhouse, Allmendinger and Truex.

    With five laps remaining, Blaney extended his advantage to nearly three seconds over Hamlin while Cindric, Suarez and Logano were running in the top five. 

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Blaney remained as the leader by nearly three seconds over Hamlin. Just as Blaney was within reach of crossing the finish line to capture the victory, the caution flew when Stenhouse got into the wall. As part of NASCAR’s policy for this year’s All-Star event to conclude under green, the event was sent into overtime.

    During the caution period, some like Harvick, Truex, Almirola and Kurt Busch pitted while the rest led by Blaney, who was struggling to get his window net secured, remained on the track.

    During the start of the first overtime attempt, Blaney, who was able to attach his window net to an acceptable rate without having to pit, received a push from teammate Cindric to take off with the lead ahead of Hamlin.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Blaney was still out in front of Hamlin and the field. As he cycled his way back to the finish line and with no cautions in the air, Blaney officially crossed the finish line in first place as he cashed in a million dollars.

    With the victory, Blaney became the 26th different competitor to win the All-Star Race and recorded the fourth All-Star victory for Team Penske while Ford earned its first All-Star win since 2016 with Joey Logano. The victory was also a first in the Cup Series for crew chief Jonathan Hassler as Blaney also won for the first time in 2022.

    “It was about to be real bad for us,” Blaney said on FS1. “I thought the race was over. Everyone thought the race was over. I already had my window net down. I do wanna thank NASCAR for letting me kind of fix it and not make us come down pit road. Yeah, that was really tough and then, having to do it all over again after trying to get that window net back up there. Great car. [Crew chief] Jonathan Hassler, everybody on this No. 12 group did a great job. Can’t thank Menards, Ford enough…This is cool! I know it’s not a points race win, but it’s gonna be a lot of fun. The party’s gonna be pretty big.” 

    Hamlin, who won the All-Star Race in 2015, settled in second place but was left fuming over NASCAR’s decision to not penalize Blaney for having his window net not properly secured prior to the overtime attempt.

    “You know, it’s tough because he deserved to win the race, but if you mess up and you break a rule – not intentionally, but there’s rules and we have rules in place for safety,” Hamlin said on MRN. “My crew chief is taking four weeks off [a penalty from a pit road infraction earlier in the season] because of safety. I nearly crashed him off of Turn 2 when I got squeezed there. If I send him into traffic and he’s got no window net, then what, right? Luckily, that didn’t happen.”

    Cindric, who made his All-Star debut, came home in third place followed by teammate Logano while Suarez, the All-Star Open winner, completed the top five. 

    Finishing in the top 10 were Bowman, Allmendinger, Buescher, Keselowski and Bell.

    There were three lead changes for four different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 31 laps. Nineteen of the 24 starters finished the event, with 18 finishing on the lead lap.

    Results.

    1. Ryan Blaney, 84 laps led

    2. Denny Hamlin

    3. Austin Cindric, seven laps led

    4. Joey Logano

    5. Daniel Suarez

    6. Alex Bowman

    7. AJ Allmendinger

    8. Chris Buescher

    9. Brad Keselowski

    10. Christopher Bell

    11. William Byron, two laps led

    12. Aric Almirola

    13. Kurt Busch

    14. Martin Truex Jr.

    15. Michael McDowell

    16. Bubba Wallace

    17. Kevin Harvick

    18. Chase Briscoe

    19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap down

    20. Erik Jones – OUT, Accident

    21. Kyle Busch – OUT, Accident, 47 laps led

    22. Ross Chastain – OUT, Accident

    23. Chase Elliott – OUT, Accident

    24. Kyle Larson – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, for the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday, May 29, during Memorial Day weekend. The event is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. ET on FOX.

  • Kyle Busch claims pole position for the 2022 NASCAR All-Star Race

    Kyle Busch claims pole position for the 2022 NASCAR All-Star Race

    With his pit crew executing three flawless services and the driver prevailing through three head-to-head drag races from pit road to the finish line, Kyle Busch earned the pole position for the 2022 NASCAR All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 21.

    The two-time Cup Series champion from Las Vegas, Nevada, was one of eight competitors along with William Byron, Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain, Kurt Busch and Kyle Larson to transfer from the single-car qualifying session as part of the sport’s new qualifying format for those already guaranteed a spot for the annual All-Star event. He then went head-to-head and prevailed against teammate Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson through two rounds of the new elimination bracket qualifying session that placed heavy emphasis towards the pit crew performing a four-tire pit stop in a side-by-side duel with two competitors before the competitors exited pit road with no speed limit and raced one another back to the start/finish line to transfer to the following round.

    After transferring all the way to the third and final elimination bracket qualifying session, Busch received another strong pit stop from his pit crew before he outlasted a single-lap duel from the pit road exit against Ryan Blaney to beat Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang back to the start/finish line and claim the top-starting spot for the sport’s annual All-Star event scheduled for Sunday, May 22, with a million dollars on the line.

    Busch’s pole for the 2022 All-Star event marks his third time starting on pole for the event and his first since 2012. He will attempt to win his second All-Star event since winning his first at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2017.

    “Anytime you’re able to showcase the pit crew’s ability and have them and their athleticism in this competition, in this qualifying format, I enjoy that,” Busch, whose best qualifying lap occurred at 189.115 mph in 28.554 seconds, said. “I think that’s my most favorite part of the year is coming to the All-Star Race, and whether it’s been Charlotte and coming down pit road and sliding into the box and whatnot. But having those guys go over the wall certainly means a lot, especially the No. 18 bunch that I’ve had a lot of success with over the years. It’s obviously changed up a few times, most recently, but you know, we’ve always been a threat to be reckoned with when it comes to getting on the pole for the All-Star Race. So it feels good to have that today.”

    “This is a cool event,” Ben Beshore, crew chief for Kyle Busch, added. “It’s something new. A good way to showcase our pit crew. They did a great job. They put in a lot of hard work this offseason and throughout the beginning of the year. and they clicked off three really good stops there and got it. So that’s exciting.”

    Blaney, who lost to Kyle Busch in the final elimination bracket session, will start on the front row in second place as he pursues his first All-Star victory.

    Teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson, both of whom were eliminated following the second elimination bracket round, will start third and fourth, respectively.

    Kurt Busch, Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr. and Aric Almirola, all of whom were eliminated following the first elimination bracket round, will start fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively.

    Joey Logano, the first competitor who did not transfer to the elimination round bracket, will start the All-Star event in ninth place as he will share the fifth row with AJ Allmendinger. They will start in front of Chase Briscoe, rookie Austin Cindric, Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, Brad Keselowski, Michael McDowell and Alex Bowman, respectively.

    Results:

    1. Kyle Busch, 189.115 mph, 28.554 seconds

    2. Ryan Blaney, 189.043 mph, 28.565 seconds

    3. William Byron, 189.288 mph, 28.528 seconds

    4. Kyle Larson, 188.600 mph, 28.632 seconds

    5. Kurt Busch, 188.679 mph, 28.620 seconds

    6. Ross Chastain, 188.003 mph, 28.723 seconds

    7. Martin Truex Jr., 187.679 mph, 28.620 seconds

    8. Aric Almirola, 187.715 mph, 28.767 seconds

    9. Joey Logano, 187.650 mph, 28.777 seconds

    10. AJ Allmendinger, 187.454 mph, 28.807 seconds

    11. Chase Briscoe, 187.357 mph, 28.822 seconds

    12. Austin Cindric, 187.305 mph, 28.830 seconds

    13. Chase Elliott, 187.298 mph, 28.831 seconds

    14. Christopher Bell, 187.279 mph, 28.834 seconds

    15. Kevin Harvick, 187.084 mph, 28.864 seconds

    16. Denny Hamlin, 186.909 mph, 28.891 seconds

    17. Bubba Wallace, 186.825 mph, 28.891 seconds

    18. Brad Keselowski, 186.800 mph, 28.908 seconds

    19. Michael McDowell, 186.625 mph, 28.935 seconds

    20. Alex Bowman, 186.136 mph, 29.011 seconds

    *Bold indicates finalists of elimination bracket qualifying session.

    Earlier in the day, Tyler Reddick, who is one of 16 competitors that are currently not eligible for the main event, claimed the pole position for the 2022 NASCAR All-Star Open after posting a pole-winning, single qualifying lap at 186.981 mph at 28.880 seconds. Joining him on the front row will be Daniel Suarez, who posted a fast qualifying lap at 186.903 mph in 28.892 seconds.

    Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Erik Jones, Chris Buescher, Justin Haley, Austin Dillon, Corey LaJoie, rookie Harrison Burton and Cole Custer will start the Open in the top 10, respectively.

    The All-Star Open, which will occur prior to the All-Star Race, will consist of three stages: 20 laps, 20 laps and 10 laps, respectively. The winner of each stage along with the Fan Vote winner will transfer their way into the All-Star Race, with the main event featuring a total of 24 competitors.

    Results:

    1. Tyler Reddick, 186.981 mph, 28.880 seconds

    2. Daniel Suarez, 186.903 mph, 28.892 seconds

    3. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 186.490 mph, 28.956 seconds

    4. Erik Jones, 186.323 mph, 28.982 seconds

    5. Chris Buescher, 186.188 mph, 29.003 seconds

    6. Justin Haley, 186.027 mph, 29.028 seconds

    7. Austin Dillon, 185.503 mph, 29.110 seconds

    8. Corey LaJoie, 184.963 mph, 29.195 seconds

    9. Harrison Burton, 184.780 mph, 29.224 seconds

    10. Cole Custer, 184.767 mph, 29.226 seconds

    11. Landon Cassill, 184.382 mph, 29.287 seconds

    12. Ty Dillon, 183.698 mph, 29.396 seconds

    13. Cody Ware, 183.014 mph, 29.506 seconds

    14. Todd Gilliland, 181.519 mph, 29.749 seconds

    15. Garrett Smithley, 180.632 mph, 29.895 seconds

    16. BJ McLeod, 180.439 mph, 29.927 seconds

    The All-Star Open is scheduled to occur at 5:30 p.m. ET on FS1 while the All-Star Race will follow suit at 8 p.m. ET on FS1 on Sunday, May 22.

  • Kurt Busch reigns supreme with first Cup victory of 2022 at Kansas

    Kurt Busch reigns supreme with first Cup victory of 2022 at Kansas

    In a season mired with constant trials and struggles both on and off the track, Kurt Busch and 23XI Racing triumphed at the Heartland State after emerging victorious in the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, May 15.

    The 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion from Las Vegas, Nevada, led five times for a race-high 116 of 267 laps as he prevailed after a fierce battle with Kyle Larson during the final 10 laps to snatch the lead and claim his first Cup Series victory of the season and his first driving for 23XI Racing. 

    With on-track qualifying occurring on Saturday, Christopher Bell notched his third pole position of his career and of the season after posting a pole-winning lap at 179.575 mph in 30.071 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Tyler Reddick, who recorded a qualifying lap at 178.855 mph in 30.192 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Denny Hamlin, rookie Todd Gilliland and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective cars. In addition, Chris Buescher and Joey Logano also dropped to the rear in backup cars.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Bell and Reddick dueled for the top spot through the first three turns until Bell managed to clear Reddick and the field entering Turn 4 to lead the first lap. With Reddick settling in second in front of Kyle Larson, rookie Austin Cindric battled with Kurt Busch for fourth place as Kyle Busch joined the battle. Meanwhile, Aric Almirola and Alex Bowman dueled for seventh place in front of Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain and Ryan Blaney.

    During the fifth lap of the event, the first caution flew when Briscoe got loose and spun across the frontstretch grass, though he continued without sustaining any significant damage to his No. 14 Rush Truck Center/Cummins Ford Mustang.

    Four laps later, the race restarted under green. At the start, Reddick received a push from Kyle Busch to assume the lead as Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson battled Bell for the runner-up spot, with Larson taking the spot. 

    At the Lap 10 mark, Reddick was leading ahead of Larson, Kyle Busch, Bell and Cindric while Chastain, Daniel Suarez, Aric Almirola, Blaney and Kurt Busch were in the top 10.

    Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Reddick extended his advantage to more than a second over Larson while Bell, Kyle Busch, Cindric, Suarez, Chastain, Almirolam Kurt Busch and Blaney were in the top 10. Running in 11th place was Martin Truex Jr. followed by Bowman, Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Kevin Harvick and Michael McDowell. Cole Custer was in 21st ahead of Justin Haley, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ty Dillon and Corey LaJoie while Brad Keselowski, rookie Harrison Burton, Noah Gragson, Briscoe and Chris Buescher were in the top 30. Meanwhile, Joey Logano, winner of last weekend’s Cup event at Darlington Raceway, was mired in 31st while rookie Todd Gilliland was in 33rd.

    Fourteen laps later and just as Larson overtook Reddick for the lead, the caution flew due to BJ McLeod spinning and stalling his car past the frontstretch. At the moment of caution, Logano dodged losing a lap to the leaders. In addition, Chris Buescher made a pit stop.

    Under caution, the leaders pitted and Bell reassumed the lead after exiting pit road with the top spot followed by Reddick, Kyle Busch, Suarez, Chastain and Truex. During the pit stops, Hamlin and Austin Dillon were penalized for equipment interference while Cindric was penalized for an uncontrolled tire penalty. In addition, Justin Haley, who was having his pit service complete, had a left-rear tire fall off of his car as he exited his pit stall and caught on fire.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 39, Bell cleared the field entering the first turn to assume the lead. Through the backstretch, Kyle Busch took over the runner-up spot while Trackhouse Racing’s Chastain and Suarez overtook Reddick for third and fourth. Soon after, Truex mounted a challenge on Reddick for a top-five spot.

    Through the first 50 scheduled laps, Bell was leading by six-tenths of a second over teammate Kyle Busch while Chastain, Suarez and Reddick were in the top five. Truex, meanwhile, settled in sixth followed by Bowman, Bubba Wallace, Almirola and Byron while Larson, who endured a slow pit stop during the previous caution, was in 12th behind teammate Chase Elliott. In addition, Kurt Busch was back in 14th ahead of Kevin Harvick while Blaney was back in 18th ahead of Denny Hamlin and Logano.

    Eleven laps later, the caution flew when Suarez, who was being pressured by Truex for fourth place, got loose, spun and made contact with the outside wall entering Turn 4 as his No. 99 CommScope Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 stalled at the entrance of pit road. Things then went from bad to worse for Suarez as he needed a wrecker to have his car towed back to his pit stall due to flat-spotting his tires. During the caution period, Almirola pitted when pit road was not open for the field. 

    Under caution, the majority of the field, led by Bell who had a flat left-rear tire, pitted while Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Corey LaJoie and Austin Dillon remained on the track.

    When the race restarted on Lap 67 amid a jumble and scramble within the field, Kyle Busch drove his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota TRD Camry to the lead on fresh tires while Chastain rocketed to the runner-up spot as Austin Dillon drifted toward the middle of the pack. As the field continued to scramble for positions while fanning out to multiple lanes, Elliott was up in third place followed by Reddick, Byron and Truex while Erik Jones was getting shuffled back to seventh in front of Wallace, Blaney and Stenhouse.

    Under the final 10 laps of the first stage, Kyle Busch was leading by more than a tenth of a second over Chastain while Elliott trailed by seven-tenths of a second.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 80, Kyle Busch notched his first stage victory of the season while leading by more than a second over Chastain. Chastain settled in second followed by Elliott, Reddick, Byron, Truex, Wallace, Erik Jones, Blaney and Bowman.

    Under the stage break, the leaders returned to pit road and Elliott exited with the top spot ahead of Chastain, Truex, Byron and Reddick. Disaster struck, however, for Elliott as he dropped to the rear of the field due to equipment interference. During the pit stops, Hamlin was also penalized for equipment interference while Wallace was penalized for having too many crew members over the wall during his service. In addition, Kyle Busch dropped from first to 10th after parking his car too close to his pit wall as he endured a slow pit stop. Following the pit stops, Harvick, Almirola and Buescher made another trip to pit road. Among those who pitted for a second time was Erik Jones as his crew was enduring constant issues removing the right-rear tire of his No. 43 Focus Factor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

    The second stage started on Lap 87 as Chastain and Truex occupied the front row. At the start, Chastain and Truex dueled for the top spot through the backstretch before Byron made a bold three-wide move on both entering the frontstretch to take the lead. Behind, Reddick fended off Blaney for fourth place while brothers Kurt and Kyle Busch battled for sixth.

    At the Lap 100 mark, Byron was leading by more than a second over Chastain followed by Reddick, Truex, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Blaney, Bowman, Bell and Larson. Cindric was in 11th ahead of Stenhouse, Keselowski, Elliott, Harvick, Logano, Custer, Wallace, Hamlin and Buescher while Michael McDowell, Briscoe, Ty Dillon, Austin Dillon, Harrison Burton, Corey LaJoie, Noah Gragson, Josh Bilicki, Gilliland and Almirola were in the top 30.

    Eleven laps later, Kurt Busch leaped his No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota TRD Camry way into the runner-up spot after rocketing past Chastain as Byron stretch his advantage to nearly three seconds. By then, names like Almirola and Erik Jones were lapped by the leader.

    On Lap 113, disaster struck for Byron as his No. 24 Raptor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 suffered a flat left-rear tire while leading as he fell off the pace below the frontstretch apron. With Byron out of contention, Kurt Busch took over the lead followed by Chastain, Truex, Reddick and Kyle Busch.

    Shortly after, disaster then struck for Reddick as he blew a right-rear tire and smacked the outside wall as he limped his way to pit road. Reddick’s misfortune allowed Kyle Busch and Blaney to gain spots in the top five.

    Nearing the Lap 125 mark, green flag pit stops occurred as Truex pitted. In the midst of the pit stops, the caution flew on Lap 126 when Harvick, who was just exiting pit road following his pit stop, spun his No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang due to a shifter issue.

    During the extended caution period, some drivers including Elliott, Logano, Cole Custer, Michael McDowell, Ty Dillon, Harrison Burton, Noah Gragson, Todd Gilliland and Josh Bilicki pitted as they had not yet pitted prior to the previous caution while the rest, led by Kurt Busch, remained on the track.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 136, Kurt Busch and Blaney dueled for the lead as the field fanned out entering the first two turns. Through the frontstretch Kurt Busch and Blaney made contact as they continued to battle for the lead before the former managed to clear the latter during the following lap. In the midst of the battles, Kyle Busch overtook Blaney for the runner-up spot while Truex and Keselowski were in the top five.

    By Lap 150, Kurt Busch remained as the leader by half a second over brother Kyle while Blaney, Truex and Cindric were in the top five. Elliott, meanwhile, was in sixth followed by teammate Larson, Chastain, Keselowski and Logano while Stenhouse, Hamlin, McDowell, Wallace, Gragson, Bell, Burton, Bowman, Custer and Ty Dillon occupied the top 20. Byron was back in 22nd ahead of Harvick while Reddick was in 28th, a lap behind the leaders.

    With five laps remaining in the second stage, Kurt Busch extended his advantage to more than one-and-a-half seconds over brother Kyle while Blaney, Truex and Cindric remained in the top five.

    Then, during the final lap of the second stage, Truex dropped off the pace due to a flat left-rear tire of his No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota TRD Camry. Despite the issue, Truex elected to nurse his car around the circuit for a final lap. In the midst of the issue, Kurt Busch went on to capture his first stage victory of the season on Lap 165. Brother Kyle settled in second followed by Blaney, Cindric, Elliott, Larson, Chastain, Hamlin, Logano and Wallace.

    Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Kurt Busch retained the lead after exiting pit road with the top spot followed by Blaney, Kyle Busch, Larson and Cindric.

    With 94 laps remaining, the final stage started. At the start, Kurt Busch and Blaney dueled for the top spot for a full lap before the former managed to clear the field entering the backstretch. Behind, Larson and Cindric battled for third place in front of Hamlin. During the pit stops, Kyle Busch, who endured a slow pit stop, was penalized for speeding on pit road.

    Under the final 90 laps, the battle for the lead intensified between Kurt Busch and Larson as the former continued to retain the top spot over the latter. Then with 86 laps remaining, Larson, who made a move beneath Busch for the lead through Turn 1, slid up and got super loose in front of Busch, but Larson managed to straighten his car through the backstretch as Busch reassumed the lead.

    With 75 laps remaining, Kurt Busch continued to lead by more than two seconds over his owner Denny Hamlin while Larson was back in third place. Blaney and Elliott occupied the top five in front of Wallace, Bowman, Cindric, Chastain and Bell.

    Four laps later, the caution flew when Elliott lost a left-rear tire and spun in Turn 3 as he ended up getting his No. 9 UniFirst Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 stuck in the infield grass.

    Under caution, the leaders pitted and Kurt Busch retained the lead after exiting his pit stall with the top spot followed by Larson, Blaney, Hamlin and Bell. During the pit stops, Wallace was penalized for an uncontrolled tire penalty as his tire was hit by Bowman and Chastain while Harvick was penalized for speeding on pit road.

    With 67 laps remaining, the race restarted under green as Kurt Busch and Larson dueled for the lead through the first two turns and entering the backstretch. Then exiting the backstretch, Blaney attempted to make a three-wide move on both for the lead, but Larson managed to assume the top spot briefly until Busch rallied back on the inside lane and through the frontstretch. 

    Then with 63 laps remaining, Larson bounced off the outside wall entering the frontstretch while battling intensely against Kurt Busch for the lead, which allowed Busch to clear the field with the top spot. Despite the contact with the wall, Larson retained the runner-up spot in front of Bell, Hamlin, Blaney and Kyle Busch.

    Under the final 60 laps of the event, Kurt Busch extended his advantage to more than a second over Bell while Larson and Kyle Busch battled for third place in front of Hamlin.

    Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Kurt Busch stabilized his advantage to two-and-a-half seconds over Bell while Kyle Busch was in third ahead of Larson and Hamlin. Blaney was back in sixth ahead of Bowman, Chastain, Stenhouse and Byron while Cindric was in 11th ahead of teammate Logano, Truex, Austin Dillon and Brad Keselowski.

    Ten laps later, Kurt Busch continued to lead by more than two seconds over brother Kyle while Bell, Larson and Hamlin remained in the top five.

    A lap later, the caution flew due to possible fluid coming out of Harvick’s car. Prior to the caution, Harvick had gotten loose entering the frontstretch. During the caution period, the field pitted for fuel and Kyle Busch exited with the top spot followed by Larson, Kurt Busch, Bell, Hamlin and Blaney.

    With 33 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Kyle Busch and Larson dueled for the top spot for nearly a full lap until Larson managed to pull his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 out in front with the lead entering the fourth turn. Meanwhile, Kurt Busch was locked into a battle with Bell for third place as Hamlin joined the battle.

    Under the final 30 laps of the event, Larson was leading by three-tenths of a second over Kyle Busch while Kurt Busch trailed by less than a second. 

    Then with 22 laps remaining, Kurt Busch, who methodically narrowed the deficit between himself and the two Kyles, overtook brother Kyle for the runner-up spot as he went to work to track Larson.

    With 15 laps remaining, Larson continued to lead by more than two-tenths of a second over Kurt Busch, who continued to pressure the former for the top spot.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Larson remained as the leader by less than three-tenths of a second over Kurt Busch as the leaders approached lapped traffic.

    Then with nine laps remaining, the battle for the lead intensified as Kurt Busch drew himself beneath Larson for the top spot from the backstretch through the frontstretch. Then during the following lap, Larson, who continued to rim-ride towards the outside wall, scrapped the wall entering the backstretch, which allowed Busch to drive away with the lead while Larson retained second ahead of Kyle Busch.

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Kurt Busch was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Larson while brother Kyle trailed by more than a second and a half. Meanwhile, Hamlin stabilized his No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota TRD Camry in fourth ahead of teammates Bell and Truex.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Kurt Busch was ahead by more than a second over Larson and nearly two seconds over Kyle Busch. With no traffic interfering with his progress and Larson not able to make up the deficit, Kurt Busch cycled his way back around to the frontstretch as he claimed his first checkered flag of the season.

    With the victory, Kurt Busch, who has now won in at least 19 seasons, notched his first victory at Kansas and his 34th career win in the NASCAR Cup Series, which placed him in sole possession of 25th place on the all-time Cup wins list. The victory was also the third of the season for Toyota, the second for returning crew chief Billy Scott, the second for 23XI Racing in the team’s second season of NASCAR competition and the first for Busch since he won at Atlanta Motor Speedway in July 2021. 

    In addition, the Kansas victory made 23XI Racing the fifth different organization that Kurt Busch has won with throughout his Cup career. It also made Toyota the fourth overall manufacturer that Busch has won with after having previously won in the Cup circuit with Dodge, Ford and Chevrolet. 

    KANSAS CITY, KANSAS – MAY 15: Kurt Busch, driver of the #45 Jordan Brand Toyota, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway on May 15, 2022 in Kansas City, Kansas. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images).

    “It’s all about teamwork,” Busch said on FS1. “I don’t do this alone and the way that Toyota’s helped us, [Joe Gibbs Racing]. My little brother’s [Kyle Busch] been so important just on the family side of, ‘Hey, you gotta get through these steps.’ Bubba’s [Wallace] a tremendous teammate, but this is 23XI [Racing]. This is our first win for the No. 45 car. With Jordan Brand on the hood, I felt like I had to race like the GOAT [Michael Jordan] and I had to beat the Kyles. I beat both…I can get one Kyle, I’m like, ‘I can get both.’ I just had the confidence to know that our setup would do things on the short-run and long-run. This No. 45 car’s a winner now!”

    “It’s the most gratifying [feeling] to work from the ground up with a brand new number,” Busch added. “Yes, I’ve been with a lot of teams, a lot of manufacturers, but it’s about family. I love my family at home, I love my KBI employees and everybody at 23XI. This is for us. This is what the hard work is all about no matter if you lose a couple spots on pit road, no matter if our car was a basket or whatever to start…I’m in Kansas! I’m loving it!”

    Larson, who led 29 laps and won at Kansas in October 2021, settled in second place for the second time this season and for his sixth top-five result of the 2022 season.

    “We were racing for the win there,” Larson said. “[Kurt Busch] never got into me, so I’m trying to squeeze throttle to get position on him. Just got tight. That was fun racing with Kurt. The last half of the race, I was trying hard to hold time. I about spun out in front of him at some point in the third stage. We just kept fighting through it. Thanks to my team for building me a war machine. I hit the wall a lot today. Just struggled like people could put air on me and get me really tight and then, I hit the wall. We’ll work on that and figure it out, but happy with my car. The Toyota’s are extremely good today. I think they’re all in the top 10. They had the handling as well as a lot of raw speed. It was hard to hold off Kyle [Busch] and then, I knew when Kurt got by him, it was gonna be really hard to hold him off. I did my best, but came up one spot short.”

    Filling in positions third through sixth were all four Joe Gibbs Racing competitors led by Kyle Busch while Hamlin, Bell and Truex followed suit. To go along with his top-five run, Hamlin was left beaming and emotional over his first victory of the season as an owner.

    “We, as an organization, let these guys down,” Hamlin, who congratulated Busch on pit road, said. “I’m talking about Bubba [Wallace] and Kurt. So many mistakes that we made on pit road and whatnot. Bubba got let down again on the last stop, but he was fast. I thought he was a little bit better than I was. We had to go to the back again three times today, but let’s talk about the positives. Just can’t thank Kurt enough. Jordan Brand’s first race [as a sponsor]. So jealous he gets to drive that car and to have that thing so fast there. I’ve never had this kind of feeling even for a win for me much less when I did win. Just different.”

    Chastain, Stenhouse, Bowman and Bubba Wallace finished in the top 10. Austin Cindric was the highest-finishing rookie in 11th place ahead of teammate Blaney while Harvick settled in 15th ahead of Byron and Logano.

    There were 18 lead changes for 10 different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 47 laps.

    With the first half of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series regular-season stretch complete, Chase Elliott continues to lead the regular-season standings by 52 points over Ryan Blaney, 58 over Kyle Busch, 60 over William Byron and 68 over Ross Chastain.

    Currently, William Byron, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe, rookie Austin Cindric and Denny Hamlin are tentatively locked into the 2022 Cup Playoffs based on winning at least once throughout the regular-season stretch. Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr., Christopher Bell, Kevin Harvick and Aric Almirola are above the top-16 cutline to the Playoffs as winless competitors with Austin Dillon trailing by 11 points, Tyler Reddick by 22, Erik Jones by 32, Daniel Suarez by 49, Chris Buescher by 61, Bubba Wallace by 65, Justin Haley and Michael McDowell both by 77, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. by 95 and Ty Dillon by 100.

    Results.

    1. Kurt Busch, 116 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    2. Kyle Larson, 29 laps led

    3. Kyle Busch, 18 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    4. Denny Hamlin

    5. Christopher Bell, 37 laps led

    6. Martin Truex Jr.

    7. Ross Chastain, four laps led

    8. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., three laps led

    9. Alex Bowman

    10. Bubba Wallace 

    11. Austin Cindric

    12. Ryan Blaney, one lap led

    13. Austin Dillon

    14. Brad Keselowski

    15. Kevin Harvick

    16. William Byron, 25 laps led

    17. Joey Logano

    18. Noah Gragson

    19. Corey LaJoie

    20. Ty Dillon

    21. Harrison Burton

    22. Cole Custer

    23. Michael McDowell

    24. Chase Briscoe, one lap down

    25. Todd Gilliland, one lap down

    26. Aric Almirola, one lap down

    27. Chris Buescher, two laps down

    28. Josh Bilicki, two laps down

    29. Chase Elliott, three laps down, 10 laps led

    30. Tyler Reddick, four laps down, 24 laps led

    31. JJ Yeley, four laps down

    32. Erik Jones, six laps down

    33. Daniel Suarez, 11 laps down

    34. Cody Ware, 12 laps down

    35. Justin Haley – OUT, Electrical

    36. BJ McLeod – OUT, Chassis

    Next on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ annual All-Star Open and Race events at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. Coverage of the All-Star Open is scheduled to occur on Sunday, May 22, at 5:30 p.m. ET on FS1 with the All-Star Race to follow at 8 p.m. ET on FS1. 

  • Elliott conquers Dover for first Cup victory of 2022

    Elliott conquers Dover for first Cup victory of 2022

    The one-day wait was worth the wait for Chase Elliott, who rose to the occasion in the late stages to win the rain-postponed DuraMAX Drydene 400 at Dover Motor Speedway on Monday, May 2, for his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season.

    The 2020 Cup champion from Dawsonville, Georgia, led three times for 73 of 400-scheduled laps and rocketed away from Ross Chastain during a 53-lap dash to the finish before beating Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to conquer the Monster Mile in Dover, Delaware, for the second time in his career.

    With on-track qualifying occurring on Saturday, Chris Buescher notched his first NASCAR Cup Series career pole after turning in a pole-winning lap at 160.149 mph in 22.479 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Denny Hamlin, who recorded a fast lap at 159.744 mph in 22.536 seconds. 

    Prior to the event, William Byron and Josh Bilicki dropped to the rear of the field in backup cars along with Kurt Busch due to a steering adjustment. Rookies Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland also started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their cars.

    When the green flag waved and the race started on a cloudy afternoon on Sunday, Buescher rocketed with an early advantage over the field as he went on to lead the first lap while Chase Elliott moved up to second place over Hamlin, who was under threat by Kyle Larson for more. Behind, Ryan Blaney was able to settle into fifth place ahead of Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain.

    Through the first 10 laps, Buescher continued to lead ahead of Elliott, Hamlin, Larson and Blaney while Bowman, Suarez, Chastain, Kyle Busch and Bubba Wallace occupied the top 10.

    Nine laps later, Hamlin moved his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry into the lead over Buescher’s No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang. 

    On Lap 40, a scheduled competition caution flew with Hamlin retaining the lead over Larson, Buescher, Elliott, Blaney and the rest of the field. By then, 27 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap. 

    Under the competition caution, the leaders pitted and Hamlin retained the lead ahead of Larson, Buescher, Elliott and Chastain.

    When the event restarted under green on Lap 45, Larson and Hamlin dueled for the lead until Hamlin used the outside lane to retain the top spot. Behind, Chastain moved into third place followed by Buescher, Elliott and Blaney while Suarez and Kyle Busch battled for seventh place as more battles ensued behind in the field. 

    By Lap 50, Hamlin was leading by nearly a second over Larson followed by Chastain, Buescher and Elliott while Blaney, Kyle Busch, Suarez, Bowman and Stenhouse were scored in the top 10.

    On Lap 68, the caution flew due to precipitation on the track. During the caution period, the competitors remained on track under a cautious pace. Soon after, nearly the entire field led by Hamlin pitted while Larson, Elliott, Blaney, Martin Truex Jr., Christopher Bell, Aric Almirola and William Byron remained on the track.

    Then on Lap 78, the field led by Larson was brought down to pit road and the race was red-flagged due to the precipitation intensifying around the circuit. More than an hour later and with the jet dryers unable to enter the circuit due to the increased precipitation, NASCAR declared that the event would be postponed to Monday.

    When the field returned to action on Monday under a cautious pace, Blaney surrendered third place to make a pit stop and for adjustments to his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang.

    By Lap 83, the race resumed under green. At the start, Larson retained the lead over teammate Elliott and Truex while Hamlin bolted his way into the top five on four fresh tires as he challenged Byron for fourth place, which he succeeded. Soon after, Hamlin was challenged by teammate Truex for the spot while Byron and Bell battled for fifth place in front of Kyle Busch and Aric Almirola. 

    Four laps later, however, the caution flew when rookie Austin Cindric got loose and smacked the outside wall in Turn 3. In the process, rookie Todd Gilliland was hit and spun into the wall by Blaney.

    Another five laps later, the race proceeded under green. At the start, teammates Larson and Elliott dueled for the top spot through the first turn until Elliott managed to assume the lead for the first time. Behind, Hamlin, who rocketed to third place during the previous restart, retained the spot ahead of teammates Christopher Bell and Truex. Behind, Byron was in sixth while Kyle Busch and Chastain battled for seventh place.

    At the Lap 100 mark, Elliott was leading by more than seven-tenths of a second over Hamlin while Larson, Bell and Truex occupied the top five. Byron retained sixth ahead of Chastain, Kyle Busch, Buescher and Bowman while Brad Keselowski, Aric Almirola, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kevin Harvick and Justin Haley were in the top 15. Bubba Wallace was back in 16th ahead of Daniel Suarez, Ryan Preece, Kurt Busch and Erik Jones while Blaney was back in 27th behind Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano, Michael McDowell and Chase Briscoe. By then, Cindric retired to the garage.

    By Lap 110, Hamlin trailed Larson by two-tenths of a second in a bid for the lead while Larson and Bell battled for third place in front of Truex and Chastain. Two laps later, Hamlin overtook Elliott to reassume the lead. At the same time. Chastain made a bold three-wide move on Truex and Larson to move into fourth place.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 120, Hamlin claimed his second stage victory of the season. Elliott settled in second followed by Bell, Chastain, Truex, Larson, Byron, Buescher, Kyle Busch and Keselowski.

    Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Hamlin, who exited pit road with the lead, lost the left-front wheel as the wheel came off of his car. With Hamlin returning to pit road, Chastain assumed the lead followed by Bell, Truex, Elliott, Byron and Buescher.

    The second stage started on Lap 128 as Chastain and Bell occupied the front row, At the start, Chastain retained the lead while Truex, Buescher and Elliott all overtook Bell for positions in the top five. In the process, Bell made an unscheduled pit stop after falling off the pace with the driver suspecting a loose wheel on his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota TRD Camry. The issue cost Bell two laps, though he continued.

    Back on the track on Lap 135, Chastain’s No. 1 Pitbull Tour 2022 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was leading by four-tenths of a second over Truex’s No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota TRD Camry while third-place Buescher trailed by less than a second. Elliott and Kyle Busch occupied the top five ahead of Byron, Larson, Keselowski, Harvick and Stenhouse.

    On Lap 156, the caution returned when Larson spun his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 on the frontstretch and made light contact with the inside wall after cutting a tire. At the moment of caution, Chastain retained the lead by six-tenths of a second over Truex while Buescher, Elliott and Kyle Busch remained in the top five.

    Under caution, the leaders returned to pit road and Chastain exited with the top spot ahead of Truex, Justin Haley, Elliott and Keselowski.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 163, Chastain retained the lead while Haley moved his No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into second place ahead of Truex, Elliott, Keselowski and Kyle Busch while Harvick and Buescher battled for seventh place.

    By Lap 175, Chastain was leading by nearly nine-tenths of a second over Truex while Haley, Elliott and Keselowski were scored in the top five. Kyle Busch retained sixth ahead of Buescher, Harvick, Byron and Blaney.

    On Lap 188 and just as Truex issued a challenge on Chastain for the lead, the caution flew when AJ Allmendinger made contact with Kurt Busch entering Turn 2, which got Busch’s No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry loose before the car spun and made contact with the inside wall. 

    Under caution, some competitors like Haley, Bowman, Allmendinger, Tyler Reddick, Wallace, Suarez, Austin Dillon and Ty Dillon remained on the track while the rest led by Truex pitted.

    When the race proceeded under green on Lap 194, Haley assumed the lead while teammate Allmendinger overtook Bowman for the runner-up spot, thus placing both Kaulig Racing competitors in the top-two spots. 

    A lap later, however, the caution returned when Joey Logano, who was struggling with pace, slid sideways and made contact with the outside wall in Turn 1 following contact with Erik Jones exiting the frontstretch. 

    As the race restarted at the halfway mark on Lap 200, Haley retained the lead over teammate Allmendinger while Bowman muscled his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the runner-up spot. Way behind the field, Ty Dillon got bumped and loose in Turn 3, but the race proceeded under green as Dillon continued to lose spots on the track. 

    Back at the front, Haley was leading by two-tenths of a second over Bowman while Reddick was locked in a battle with Kyle Busch for fourth place behind Allmendinger.

    By Lap 210, Bowman made a bold move through Turn 2 to move into the lead over Haley as Kyle Busch joined the battle. Two laps later, however, Busch rocketed his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota TRD Camry from third to first after overtaking both Haley and Bowman on the frontstretch. With Elliott and Allmendinger remaining in the top five, Truex, Chastain and Hamlin battled within the top-10 mark.

    At the Lap 225 mark, Kyle Busch, who celebrated his 37th birthday, was leading by nearly two seconds over Elliott while Bowman, Truex and Byron were in the top five. Behind, Hamlin, following his early pit road issues, was in sixth ahead of Haley, Allmendinger, Chastain, Reddick, Harvick, Stenhouse, Erik Jones, Wallace, Buescher, Blaney, Almirola, Suarez, Chase Briscoe and Keselowski. By then, Larson was in 23rd behind Bell while Harrison Burton was the highest-running rookie candidate in 27th.

    Seven laps later, Reddick made an unscheduled pit stop under green due to a shredded right-front tire as he lost two laps in the process. Shortly after, Ty Dillon made an unscheduled pit stop to address a flat right-front tire. 

    Just past the Lap 240 mark and while Kyle Busch maintained a one-and-a-half second advantage over Elliott, the caution flew when Cody Ware got loose and smacked the outside wall on the frontstretch. In the process of his spin, Ware clipped Hamlin as Hamlin was sent backward against the inside wall with right-side damage to his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry, thus making his afternoon tougher to overcome. 

    Under caution, Blaney and Harrison Burton remained on the track while the rest led by Kyle Busch pitted.

    With three laps remaining in the second stage, Blaney retained the lead while teammates Kyle Busch and Truex overtook Burton for second and third. Behind, Elliott nearly made contact with the outside wall on the frontstretch while battling Chastain. 

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 250 in a flurry of late jostling for positions, Blaney fended off Kyle Busch to claim his fifth stage victory of the season. Bowman settled in third ahead of Truex, Stenhouse, Chastain, Erik Jones, Burton, Buescher and Elliott.

    Under the stage break, Blaney, whose strategy to win the second stage worked, pitted along with Burton and Austin Dillon, whose pit crew lifted the hood of Dillon’s No. 3 Breztri Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for adjustments, while the rest led by Kyle Busch remained on the track.

    With 143 laps remaining, the final stage started under green. At the start and with the field fanning out to multiple lanes, Kyle Busch retained the lead over Bowman while Stenhouse moved into third place. Shortly after, Chastain overtook Truex for fourth place in front of Erik Jones. By then, Larson was back in the top 10 in ninth place ahead of teammate Elliott. 

    With 125 laps remaining, Kyle Busch continued to lead by more than half a second over Bowman while Stenhouse, Chastain and Truex remained in the top five. Erik Jones remained in sixth place ahead of Larson, Elliott, Buescher and Aric Almirola while Allmendinger, Bell, Harvick, Keselowski, Byron, Corey LaJoie, Michael McDowell, Haley, Preece and Wallace. By then, Reddick and Blaney were mired outside of the top 20 while Hamlin was back in 27th ahead of Austin Dillon.

    Fifteen laps later, Kyle Busch, who lapped Austin Dillon, stabilized his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Bowman while Chastain, Truex and Stenhouse remained in the top five.

    Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Kyle Busch was leading by more than a second over Bowman while Chastain, Truex, Stenhouse, Elliott, Larson, Erik Jones, Buescher and Bell occupied the top 10. Almirola was in 11th ahead of Allmendinger, Harvick, LaJoie, McDowell, Preece, Haley, Byron, Blaney and Wallace while Briscoe, Suarez, Keselowski and Hamlin were scored on the lead lap. By then, names like Reddick, Custer, Austin Dillon and Harrison Burton were lapped. In addition, Logano was mired in 30th and three laps behind the leaders while Kurt Busch was in 32nd and eight laps behind.

    Just as Kyle Busch and Bowman peeled off the track to pit under green, the caution flew when the right-front tire off of Allmendinger’s No. 16 Action Industries Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 came off in Turn 1. 

    Under caution, the majority of leaders that did not pit prior to the caution led by Truex pitted and Chastain assumed the lead after exiting with the top spot ahead of Truex, Elliott, Bell, Stenhouse and Larson. Prior to the restart, Kyle Busch and Bowman took the wave around to return to the lead lap.

    Down to the final 70 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Chastain took off with a brief advantage until he was pressured by Elliott for more. 

    Four laps later, the caution flew when Suarez and LaJoie made contact entering Turn 3, which sent LaJoie into the outside wall while Suarez spun and forced the field to scatter. 

    With 61 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Chastain and Elliott dueled for the lead through the first two turns with Elliott briefly peaking ahead until Chastain fought back on the outside lane. 

    During the following lap, both Chastain and Elliott made contact through Turn 2, but both continued to battle dead even for the top spot. They made contact again during the next lap, but both continued to battle for the lead in a heated battle until the caution returned when Reddick spun and wrecked his No. 8 Guaranteed Rate Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 on the backstretch. At the moment of caution, Chastain retained the lead over Elliott.  

    With 53 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Elliott prevailed on the inside lane to move his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for the lead while Chastain was left in a battle against Stenhouse for the runner-up spot. Following an intense battle for a few laps, Stenhouse took the runner-up spot while Chastain settled in third ahead of Truex and Bell.

    Under the final 50 laps of the event, Elliott was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Stenhouse while Chastain, Truex, Bell, Erik Jones, Larson, Bowman, Buescher and Kyle Busch occupied the top 10. 

    With 35 laps remaining, Elliott extended his advantage to more than a second over Stenhouse while Chastain, Truex and Bell remained in the top five. 

    Fifteen laps later, Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 continued to lead by more than a second over Stenhouse’s No. 47 Kroger/Frozen Farmer Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, who started to have Chastain and Truex reel in on him for the runner-up spot. With Bell in fifth, Bowman and Kyle Busch were up in sixth and seventh followed by Larson, Erik Jones and Buescher. Meanwhile, Harvick was in 11th ahead of teammate Briscoe, Haley, Wallace, Suarez and Cole Custer.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Elliott remained the leader by more than two seconds over Stenhouse while Chastain and Truex battled for third place ahead of Bell. By then, 17 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap.

    With five laps remaining, Elliott stabilized his advantage to less than two seconds over Stenhouse while working his way through lapped traffic. Meanwhile, Chastain continued to fend off Truex for third place.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Elliott continued to lead by nearly two seconds over Stenhouse. Having no competition closing in on him for a final circuit, Elliott cycled his way back around to the frontstretch and streaked across the finish line for his first victory of the season as the caution flag flew for a final lap incident involving Chastain and Truex.

    With his first victory of the season, Elliott became the ninth different winner through the first 11 events of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season. The Dover victory marked Elliott’s second at the Monster Mile, the 14th of his Cup career, his first since winning at Road America in July 2021 and his first oval victory since winning the 2020 season finale at Phoenix Raceway, where he celebrated his first Cup championship. 

    In addition, Hendrick Motorsports achieved its 22nd overall win at Dover Motor Speedway, leaving the team 15 victories shy of reaching 300 Cup career victories, as all four HMS competitors have recorded a victory this season. 

    “[I] Just had some good circumstances finally,” Elliott said on FS1. “Really appreciate [crew chief] Alan [Gustafson] and our entire team. We were just sticking with it. We’ve had some tough races over the last four or five months and just great to get NAPA back to Victory Lane. Great to get Hendrick Motorsports back to Victory Lane. Just so proud. This one means a lot in a lot of different ways. Just appreciate all the effort. Thanks to all the fans for coming out. You are always awesome. Hope to see this big crowd here next year. Just a huge thanks to everybody involved. It’s been a fun day and we’re certainly gonna enjoy it. Like I told [the crew] after the race, they’ve been deserving of one for a while. Glad we could get it across the line first. We’ll enjoy it for a few days and go to work next week.”

    Finishing two-and-a-half seconds behind Elliott with a stellar runner-up result was Stenhouse, who notched the first top-five result of the season for himself and JTG-Daugherty Racing following a difficult start to the year. 

    “It’s been a rough start to the season,” Stenhouse said. “Our short track program’s been off and then all of our other good races that we’ve had good runs going, something always happens. Really good to put this all together. It was a really great day for us. I felt like we had a car capable of winning. The pit crew did a great job keeping us up front all day. This feels good. Hopefully, we can carry this momentum on the big tracks. The tracks we got coming forward are really good tracks for us. That was a lot of fun. Lot of battling. It was tough to pass, but it was fun running through lapped traffic. I really wished we had a 70-lap run to the end there, but all in all, our Kroger team’s doing a great job and looking forward to carrying that momentum on.”

    Meanwhile, Chastain came home in third place despite making contact with Truex on the final lap that sent Truex sideways and into the inside wall on the backstretch. The incident dropped Truex to 12th place in the final running order while Bell, who rallied from his early issues, and Bowman finished in the top five. 

    Following the event, Chastain and Truex met on pit road and exchanged words before Truex walked away.

    “[Truex and I] were talking about where we were gonna go finishing next week,” Chastain said. “Super proud of this effort. I thought we were a fifth-place car and a couple of guys had misfortune with the caution coming out. That cycled us to the lead. The pit crew was incredible. They were just picking up spots every stop and got us the lead. I’m racing with champions and I got beat.”

    Larson, Kyle Busch, Buescher, Harvick and Erik Jones finished in the top 10 as 15 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

    There were 17 lead changes for 10 different leaders. The race featured 13 cautions for 75 laps.

    With his first victory of the season, Chase Elliott leads the regular-season standings by 50 points over Ryan Blaney, 65 over William Byron and Kyle Busch, 69 over Alex Bowman, 80 over Ross Chastain, 82 over Martin Truex Jr. and 83 over Kyle Larson.

    Results.

    1. Chase Elliott, 73 laps led

    2. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    3. Ross Chastain, 86 laps led

    4. Christopher Bell

    5. Alex Bowman, two laps led

    6. Kyle Larson, 19 laps led

    7. Kyle Busch, 103 laps led

    8. Chris Buescher, 18 laps led

    9. Kevin Harvick

    10. Erik Jones

    11. Justin Haley, 19 laps led

    12. Martin Truex Jr., five laps led

    13. Chase Briscoe

    14. Daniel Suarez

    15. Cole Custer

    16. Bubba Wallace, one lap down

    17. Michael McDowell, one lap down

    18. Corey LaJoie, one lap down

    19. Aric Almirola, one lap down

    20. Brad Keselowski, one lap down

    21. Denny Hamlin, one lap down, 67 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    22. William Byron, one lap down

    23. Austin Dillon, two laps down

    24. Harrison Burton, two laps down

    25. Ryan Preece, two laps down 

    26. Ryan Blaney, three laps down, eight laps led, Stage 2 winner

    27. Ty Dillon, four laps down

    28. Todd Gilliland, four laps down

    29. Joey Logano, four laps down

    30. Tyler Reddick, 10 laps down

    31. Kurt Busch, 12 laps down

    32. Josh Bilicki, 19 laps down

    33. AJ Allmendinger – OUT, Brakes

    34. Cody Ware – OUT, Dvp

    35. BJ McLeod – OUT, Brakes

    36. Austin Cindric – OUT, Dvp

    Next on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is Darlington Raceway, the first of two series events at the venue in Darlington, South Carolina, on Sunday, May 8, which marks Mother’s Day and the sport’s annual Official Throwback weekend. The event is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Chastain executes final lap pass for second Cup career triumph at Talladega

    Chastain executes final lap pass for second Cup career triumph at Talladega

    From losing a lap to the leaders to rallying his way back to the front and having the seas parting way for him with the finish in sight, Ross Chastain overtook Erik Jones at the tri-oval on the final lap to win the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, April 24.

    The 29-year-old Chastain from Alva, Florida, was penalized for speeding on pit road during an exchange of green-flag pit stops nearing the Lap 40 mark, but he was able to cycle his way back on the lead lap following the first stage’s conclusion. From there, he muscled his way to the front and remained within sight of the lead pack. Then on the final lap and entering the tri-oval, Chastain was lined up in third place while awaiting his moment to strike. With the field fanning out and initial leader Erik Jones trying to prevent a run from Kyle Larson in the outside lane, Chastain had the inside lane to himself. He seized the opportunity to snatch the lead and emerged victorious for the second time in his NASCAR Cup Series career. 

    With on-track qualifying occurring on Saturday, Christopher Bell notched his second Cup Series pole position of the season and of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 180.928 mph in 52.927 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Martin Truex Jr., who posted a fast lap at 180.652 mph in 53.008 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Landon Cassill was forced to serve a pass-through penalty through pit road at the start due to his No. 77 Spire Motorsports entry failing pre-qualifying technical inspection three times. Noah Gragson, the winner of Saturday’s Xfinity event at Talladega, also dropped to the rear of the field due to an unapproved adjustment to his No. 62 Beard Motorsports entry.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Bell moved his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota TRD Camry in front of teammate Truex’s No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota TRD Camry as he maintained the lead through the first two turns while Daniel Suarez charged as the lead competitor on the outside lane. 

    When the field returned to the start/finish line, Bell led the first lap. Suarez, however, fought back on the outside lane in his No. 99 Tootsies Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 with drafting help from Kurt Busch, but Bell maintained his line on the inside lane. Suarez, though, was able to lead the second lap as he and Bell were locked dead even for the lead. By then, the entire field was stacked up through two long double lines.

    Through the first 10 laps of the event and with the field fanning out to multiple lanes, Suarez received a draft from William Byron to overtake Bell for the lead followed by Truex, Kurt Busch, Daniel Hemric, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson and Joey Logano. By then, Bell had led seven of the first 10 laps while Suarez led the remaining three. In addition, Cassill, who served his pass-through penalty at the start, was lapped by the field. 

    By Lap 20, eight competitors broke away from the pack fanning out to two packed lanes as Suarez continued to lead ahead of Byron, Bell, Truex, Hemric, Larson, Haley and Kurt Busch while Ty Dillon and Erik Jones were in the top 10.

    Five laps later, the top-10 competitors led by Suarez had broken away from the rest of the pack stacked through two lanes while 11th-place Kevin Harvick initiated a charge as the lead competitor on the outside lane. By then, all but one of the 39 starters were separated by less than three seconds.

    By Lap 30, Suarez continued to lead on the inside lane ahead of Byron, Bell and Truex while Chase Elliott, who was in fifth ahead of Hemric, mounted a charge on the outside lane with drafting help from Kevin Harvick and the field.

    On Lap 32, Reddick pitted as the crew lifted the hood up on the No. 8 Bet MGM Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 due to a mechanical issue.

    By Lap 34, the Ford competitors peeled off the track to pit under green. During the Ford pit stops, Keselowski was penalized for speeding on pit road. In addition, Cody Ware spun his No. 51 Nurtec ODT Ford Mustang while entering pit road, but he was able to proceed without drawing a caution. Soon after, the Toyota competitors along with Chevrolet competitor Alex Bowman pitted. During the Toyota pit stops, Hamlin slid his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry through his pit box. By the end of Lap 36, the Chevrolet competitors pitted. During the Chevrolet pit stops, Ross Chastain was penalized for speeding while exiting pit road. 

    At the Lap 40 mark and with the pit stops complete, Larson cycled his way to the lead followed by teammates Byron and Elliott while Erik Jones and Hemric were in the top five. Harvick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Logano, Ty Dillon, rookie Harrison Burton, Bubba Wallace, Bell, Truex, Chris Buescher, Kurt Busch, Bowman, Ryan Blaney, Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch and Aric Almirola. By then, Suarez had fallen back to 23rd while Reddick retired in the garage.

    Through the first 50 scheduled laps, Larson continued to lead ahead of teammates Byron and Elliott while Wallace mounted a charge on the outside lane in fourth place. By then, Keselowski was lapped by the field.

    Soon after, Wallace drew himself into a side-by-side against Larson for the lead through the backstretch. Despite the field having to fan out while lapping Chastain and Michael McDowell, they gathered themselves through the tri-oval as Wallace received a push from Bell to briefly lead until Larson fought back on the inside lane. By Lap 53, Wallace led a lap for himself and had both lanes in control through the backstretch until Larson mounted another challenge on the inside lane with drafting help from teammate Byron.

    With four laps remaining in the first stage and while the field fanned out, the first caution flew when Hemric fell off the pace and was bumped sideways by Austin Dillon through Turns 3 and 4 as he radioed engine issues to his No. 16 Majestic Steel Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. While trying to straighten his car below the apron, Hemric then shot back across the track and made heavy contact against Chris Buescher and Chase Briscoe, whose No. 14 Mahindra Ford Mustang burst into flames. At the moment of caution, Chastain received the free pass to return on the lead lap due to being the first competitor that was scored a lap behind which left Keselowski still trapped a lap behind.

    The three-car wreck between Turns 3 and 4 was enough for the first stage scheduled on Lap 60 to conclude under caution as Bubba Wallace claimed his first stage victory of the season and third at Talladega. Larson settled in second followed by Bell, Byron, Truex, Elliott, Kurt Busch, Erik Jones, Bowman and Stenhouse.

    Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Larson reassumed the lead following his pit service followed by Byron, Elliott, Erik Jones, Truex and Wallace. During the pit stops, Kyle Busch was penalized for dragging his gas can out of his pit box.

    The second stage started on Lap 64 as teammates Larson and Byron occupied the front row. At the start, Larson moved in front of teammates Byron and Elliott to maintain the lead on the inside lane while Erik Jones was the lead competitor on the outside lane as he received a push from Wallace to battle and overtake Larson for the lead when the field returned to the start/finish line.

    By Lap 67, Erik Jones was out in front while Wallace and Larson battled for second place. Soon after, Larson challenged for the lead on the inside lane while Jones maintained his ground on the outside lane. 

    At the Lap 75 mark, Erik Jones’ No. 43 Air Force Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was still leading by 0.013 seconds over Wallace’s No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota TRD Camry while Larson, Kurt Busch, Byron, Harvick, Elliott, Truex, Bowman and Logano were scored in the top 10.

    Six laps later, the caution returned when Greg Biffle fell off the pace with no power and was unable to limp his No. 44 Morehouse College Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 back to pit road as he stalled in Turn 4. At the moment of caution, Keselowski received the free pass to return to the lead lap due to being the first competitor scored a lap behind.

    Under caution, the field returned to pit road for service, mainly for fuel, and Byron emerged with the lead followed by Truex, Elliott, Larson, Blaney and Erik Jones.

    On Lap 85, the race proceeded under green as Byron maintained the lead ahead of the packed field. Shortly after, however, the caution returned when BJ McLeod spun in Turn 2 as the right-rear wheel of McLeod’s car came out.

    Another four laps later, the race restarted under green. The caution, however, followed suit for a multi-car wreck that sparked due to a stack-up at the front and resulted in Logano receiving a bump from Wallace that turned Logano into the outside wall in Turn 1. With Logano’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang then slowly creeping towards the straightaway amid the ongoing field, he was hit by Ty Dillon as rookies Austin Cindric, Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland along with Suarez, Kyle Busch, Cole Custer and Stenhouse were sent spinning and wrecking through Turn 1. 

    By Lap 97, the race proceeded under green. At the start, Byron and Truex dueled with Truex receiving a draft from former teammate Erik Jones while Byron had teammates Elliott and Larson lined up behind him along with Kurt Busch. 

    At the Lap 100 mark, Byron and Truex dueled for the top spot with Elliott, Erik Jones and Larson scored in the top five while Blaney, Kurt Busch, Wallace, Bowman and Harvick were in the top 10. By then, 24 of 39 starters were scored on the lead lap.

    Six laps later, the caution flew when Cody Ware got turned by David Ragan past the start/finish line. Under caution, some like Erik Jones, Wallace, Blaney, Harvick, Cindric, Bell, Keselowski, Corey LaJoie and Gragson pitted while the rest led by Byron remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Wallace made an extra pit stop to address a potential loose wheel on his car.

    With 10 laps remaining in the second stage, the race proceeded under green. At the start, Byron maintained the lead as all four Hendrick Motorsports competitors were lined up from first through fourth on the inside lane while Truex was in fifth.

    As the field settled in a long single-file line with five laps remaining in the second stage, Byron continued to lead ahead of his Hendrick teammates while Truex, Chastain, Almirola, Erik Jones, Cindric and Harvick were in the top 10. By then, the Busch brothers along with Keselowski, Wallace, LaJoie, Blaney, Bell, Hamlin, Austin Dillon and Justin Haley were in the top 20.

    At the start of the final lap of the second stage, the field fanned out to multiple lanes as Kyle Busch mounted a charge on the outside lane. Byron, however, was able to maintain the lead ahead of the fanned field to claim his third stage victory of the season on Lap 120. Teammates Elliott and Larson followed pursuit along with Truex, Bowman, Kyle Busch, Almirola, Erik Jones, Chastain and Kurt Busch.

    Under the stage break, the leaders pitted and Erik Jones emerged with the lead following a two-tire stop followed by Kyle Busch, Harvick, Blaney, Keselowski and Wallace.

    With 63 laps remaining, the final stage started. At the start, Kyle Busch gained a brief advantage through the first two turns on the outside lane before Harvick gave Erik Jones a huge push for Jones to assume the lead through Turns 3 and 4. 

    During the following lap, Ryan Blaney gave Kyle Busch a big draft that enabled Busch to challenge Jones for the top spot before Busch prevailed when he returned to the start/finish line. Then through the backstretch, Busch moved in front of Jones to maintain the lead ahead of Jones on the inside lane until Blaney received drafting support from Wallace to mount his challenge for the lead. 

    With 58 laps remaining, Blaney and Wallace managed to pull themselves in front of Kyle Busch on the inside lane as Blaney maintained the lead, By then, a long single-file line was being formulated on the inside lane while Cindric lost the draft and was losing spots on the track. 

    Down to the final 50 laps of the event and with the field remaining in a long single-file line, Blaney was leading ahead of Wallace, Kyle Busch, Erik Jones, Harvick, Keselowski, Bell, Larson, Elliott and Byron while Chastain, McDowell, Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Truex, David Ragan, LaJoie, Kurt Busch, Haley and Landon Cassill were in the top 20. By then, 25 of 39 starters were scored on the lead lap.

    Ten laps later, Blaney maintained the lead ahead of Wallace, Kyle Busch, Erik Jones, Harvick and the long line of competitors on the inside line.

    Shortly after, a group of competitors led by Chastain moved to the outside lane and started to gain a run to the front with Chastain scored in ninth place. During the following lap, he moved up to seventh while Blaney continued to lead on the inside lane. 

    Then with 37 laps remaining, Wallace made a move to the outside of Blaney and he muscled his way into the lead followed by Kyle Busch and Erik Jones. Jones, however, made his move during the following lap beneath Wallace to take the lead while Kyle Busch, who had a momentum going on the outside lane, got shuffled out of line. In addition, Blaney moved into second followed by Harvick, Wallace, Keselowski and Chastain.

    With 33 laps remaining, Wallace received a draft from Chastain to reassume the lead over Erik Jones as he was placed on defense mode through both lanes.

    Three laps later, Wallace and Erik Jones were locked in a tight side-by-side battle for the lead as Wallace moved up the outside lane in front of Chastain and Hamlin while Jones had drafting support from Blaney and Harvick.

    Another lap later, a handful of competitors led by Blaney peeled off the track to pit under green. During the next lap, another wave of competitors led by Wallace pitted while another wave led by LaJoie pitted during the next lap. During the pit stops, Keselowski was busted with his second pit road speeding penalty. In addition, contact between Gragson and Kyle Busch sent Bell spinning towards the inside wall on the frontstretch. The race, however, proceeded under green as Bell was able to continue without sustaining any significant damage.

    Back on the track with less than 25 laps remaining, Hamlin cycled his way into the lead followed by Larson, Erik Jones, Byron and Chastain.

    With 20 laps remaining and the field settled in a long single-file line on the inside lane, Hamlin was leading ahead of Larson, Erik Jones, Byron and Chastain while Haley, Kurt Busch, Truex, LaJoie and Austin Dillon were in the top 10. Wallace was back in 11th ahead of Elliott, Blaney, Harvick, Almirola, Bowman, McDowell, Cindric, Kyle Busch and Cassill. 

    Three laps later, Larson moved into the lead while Hamlin, who briefly lost the draft, fell back to sixth place in an effort to save fuel. By then, Keselowski was lapped by the field.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event and with the field fanning out and stacked up to multiple lanes, Larson was leading by a hair over Chastain followed by Haley, Erik Jones, Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Byron, Truex, Elliott and Blaney. By then, Bell was lapped by the field.

    With seven laps remaining, Erik Jones gained a huge draft from Byron and Elliott on the outside lane to move into third place behind Larson and Chastain as he made his bid for the lead. As the field remained in a tight, deadlock through double lanes, Jones peaked ahead with drafting help from Byron while Larson had drafting support from Chastain on the inside lane. 

    With five laps remaining, Jones maintained the lead before Larson fought back on the inside lane as the intensity towards the pack intensified.

    Down to the final two laps, Jones remained as the leader ahead of Larson, Chastain, Kurt Busch and Byron, all of whom were briefly ahead of the pack in a single-file line. By then, Hamlin pitted under green after running out of fuel.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Jones continued to lead a long parade of competitors with some moving up to the outside lane through the backstretch. Then in Turns 3 and 4, Kurt Busch, who was in fourth place, bolted to the outside lane while waiting to gain a draft from Truex and Wallace. 

    Then through the tri-oval, Larson tried to make a move to the outside of Jones, but he made contact with Kurt Busch that sent Busch’s No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry hard against the tri-oval outside wall as he collected teammate, Wallace. In the process, Jones, who moved up the outside lane to block Larson, opened the inside lane for Ross Chastain to make his move along with Austin Dillon. Having open race track to himself at the right timing on the final straightaway, Chastain maintained the lead through all lanes to grab the win by 0.105 seconds over Dillon while LaJoie spun across the finish line. 

    With the victory, Chastain, who only led the final lap out of the event’s 188-scheduled laps, notched his second NASCAR Cup Series career win in his 125th series start and his first at Talladega Superspeedway. In addition, he achieved the second NASCAR victory for Trackhouse Racing nearly a month after the team and Chastain achieved their first win at Circuit of the Americas.

    “Holy cow,” Chastain, who celebrated with his trademark by smashing a watermelon on the frontstretch, said on FOX. “I’m always the one going to the top [lane] too early and making the mistake. There at the end, it was like eight [laps] to go, I was like I’m not going up there again. I did that a couple of times today. I was like, ‘I’ll just ride the bottom.’ I’m not gonna lose the race for us. I’ll just let them. To win with the Moose [Fraternity] on board, they’ve been with me for a few years now and supported me everywhere I went. I have no idea. [The leaders] just kept going up and they just kept moving out of the way.”

    “I’ve wrecked myself so many times, gotten into it with guys,” Chastain added. “[Team owner] Justin Marks and what he laid out for us was ambitious and I had no idea what to expect other than I knew I had my group from last year, I had AdventHealth, the Moose, now with Worldwide Express, Jockey coming on board. We’ve got partners. They’re believing in us. We started the year with a lot of races open. We’re almost full now [with sponsors]. It’s because of the vision of Justin Marks and Pitbull. Armando [Pitbull], we won, dude!”

    Austin Dillon came home in second place for his second runner-up result of the season while Kyle Busch, Larson and Truex finished in the top five. 

    Erik Jones, who led 25 laps and was within a straightaway of snapping a two-year winless drought, settled in sixth place for his third top-10 result of the season.

    “Last lap, it’s typical here,” Jones said. “I’ve been close here so many times in this race and the fall race. The U.S. Air Force Chevy had good speed. It just felt good to run up front, but come there that last lap, we were single file. I felt pretty good about it. They kind of doubled up behind us and that top lane was getting some momentum. Looking back, I wished I would’ve stayed on the bottom [lane], let [Chastain] push me. I didn’t realize they were coming with that much speed, but I tried to defend on [Larson]. We were too far ahead already right here. Obviously, defense on [Larson] kind of gives the door to [Chastain]. It is what it is. You’re just trying to win the race. You can only see how much so much is going on from the seat. You’re trying to make the best decision you can on the last 15-100 feet. Happy to run up front, lead laps. Just really would love to get the No. 43 [car] to Victory Lane. I thought today might be the day. All day long, we were fast and had speed and especially being up front there at the end on the last 10 [laps], I knew we had a shot. Just couldn’t quite close it out.”

    Elliott, McDowell, Bowman and Harvick rounded out the top 10 on the track. Notably, teammates Kurt Busch and Wallace finished 16th and 17th behind Byron and in front of bossman Denny Hamlin following their final lap wreck.

    There were 41 lead changes for 16 different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 28 laps.

    With his seventh-place result, Chase Elliott continues to lead the regular-season standings by 21 points over Ryan Blaney, 34 over William Byron, 56 over Kyle Busch, 59 over Alex Bowman and 60 over Joey Logano.

    Results.

    1. Ross Chastain, one lap led

    2. Austin Dillon

    3. Kyle Busch, three laps led

    4. Kyle Larson, 32 laps led

    5. Martin Truex Jr.

    6. Erik Jones, 25 laps led

    7. Chase Elliott

    8. Michael McDowell

    9. Alex Bowman

    10. Kevin Harvick

    11. Ryan Blaney, 23 laps led

    12. Justin Haley

    13. Aric Almirola

    14. Corey LaJoie, one lap led

    15. William Byron, 38 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    16. Kurt Busch, one lap led

    17. Bubba Wallace, 15 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    18. Denny Hamlin, nine laps led

    19. Landon Cassill

    20. Noah Gragson

    21. Austin Cindric

    22. Christopher Bell, one lap down, seven laps led

    23. Brad Keselowski, one lap down

    24. David Ragan, two laps down

    25. JJ Yeley, three laps down, one lap led

    26. BJ McLeod, 16 laps led, two laps led

    27. Todd Gilliland – OUT, Accident

    28. Cody Ware – OUT, Dvp

    29. Cole Custer – OUT, Accident, one lap led

    30. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Accident

    31. Daniel Suarez – OUT, Dvp, 28 laps led

    32. Joey Logano – OUT, Accident, one lap led

    33. Ty Dillon – OUT, Accident

    34. Harrison Burton – OUT, Accident

    35. Greg Biffle – OUT, Fuel pump

    36. Daniel Hemric – OUT, Accident

    37. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Accident

    38. Chris Buescher – OUT, Accident

    39. Tyler Reddick – OUT, Engine

    Next on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ lone annual visit of this season at Dover Motor Speedway in Dover, Delaware, for a 400-mile feature on Sunday, May 1. The event is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Bristol Dirt

    NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Bristol Dirt

    Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

    1. Ryan Blaney: Blaney charged from 25th on the starting grid to post a fifth at Bristol, his fourth top-five finish of the year.

    “Ty Dillon’s car was sponsored by ‘Gain,’” Blaney said. “Erik Jones had ‘Tide’ on his car, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s car sported the ‘Irish Spring’ logo. I’m not sure what race teams charge for sponsorship at a dirt race, but you can bet those got ‘taken to the cleaners.’”

    2. Joey Logano: Despite not leading a single lap, Logano was a fixture up front all night at Bristol and finished third.

    “Drivers one and all love racing on the dirt at Bristol,” Logano said. “I think NASCAR should consider some other surfaces to race on, like linoleum, vinyl, tile, or carpet. Just call the event the ‘Floor It 500.’”

    3. Chase Elliott: Elliott started ninth and finished ninth at Bristol, and remains atop the points standings, three points up on Ryan Blaney.

    “I had an incident with Cody Ware in Stage 3,” Elliott said. “He retaliated and gave me a pretty hard bump. Somebody needs to tell that kid who I am because I am a ‘somebody.’ Somebody also needs to tell him who he is, because he’s a ‘nobody.’”

    4. Kyle Busch: Busch ran up front all night at Bristol and stole the win when Chase Briscoe and Tyler Reddick wrecked battling for the win.

    “I don’t have a background in dirt racing,” Busch said. “I grew up on the clean streets of Las Vegas, which are hard, smooth, and paid for with the life savings and crushed hopes of many a failed and addicted gambler.

    “You could say I ‘backed’ into the win at Bristol. You could also say Chase Briscoe ‘backed’ into Tyler Reddick, thus backing me into the win. Either way, I’m back in Victory Lane.”

    5. Chase Briscoe: Briscoe suffered an early flat tire at Bristol but recovered to put himself in position to win on the final lap. But his kamikaze move on race-leader Tyler Reddick backfired, as Briscoe spun himself and Reddick, which allowed Kyle Busch to steal the win.

    “I made it a point to apologize to Tyler,” Briscoe said. “I offered him a handshake, and he graciously accepted. If you ask some of the old school drivers, they’ll tell you that’s the closest us youngsters will come to ‘throwing hands.’”

    6. Alex Bowman: Bowman finished sixth at Bristol.

    “It’s really special racing on Easter,” Bowman said. “Probably more so for Kyle Busch. I’m sure Kyle and his team were resigned to finishing third. But then, all of a sudden, he was in first. And all his stunned followers could say was, ‘Look! He is risen!’

    “And let me apologize for even remotely comparing Jesus to Kyle Busch. As Brad Keselowski might say, ‘You just put the ‘a$$’ in ‘blasphemy.’”

    7. Tyler Reddick: While seemingly headed for his first win, Reddick was wrecked by Chase Briscoe, who spun Reddick while attempting a daring, potential race-winning pass in the final corner. Reddick recovered to finish second, while Briscoe dropped to 22nd as Kyle Busch won.

    “My No. 8 Chevy was great,” Reddick said. “I’d like to thank everyone associated with Richard Childress Racing and 3CHI. RCR brings the speed, and 3CHI brings the weed.

    “I could have tried to be a tough guy and take a swing at Briscoe for wrecking me. But I tried to be the ‘bigger man,’ which is hard because it ain’t easy being the ‘bigger man’ when you’re 5′ 5″ and Briscoe is 6′ 1″ and looks like he’s hiding Tony Stewart under his driver’s suit.”

    8. Kyle Larson: Larson won Stage 1 and came home fourth in the Bristol Dirt Race.

    “I’m totally at home racing on dirt,” Larson said. “In fact, I love it, even though the end result is often a mouthful of dirt. And, it gives me an opportunity to literally ‘wash my mouth out with soap,’ something I’ve done before figuratively.”

    9. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex experienced engine issues at Bristol and struggled to a disappointing 21st.

    “Luck just wasn’t on our side,” Truex said. “It was, however, on the side of my JGR teammate Kyle Busch. Seeing the discrepancy in luck between a good guy like me and a punk like Kyle brings tears of pain to me, and tears of joy to him. That’s why Kyle is considered by many to be a ‘lucky SOB.’

    “That being said, I’d rather be unlucky than be Kyle Busch.”

    10. William Byron: Byron finished 18th in the dirt at Bristol while his three Hendrick Motorsports teammates all placed in the top 10.

    “Racing on dirt is the closest we come to ‘drifting,’” Byron said. “It may not be ‘The Fast And The Furious,’ but I’ll put my driving up against any street racer any day, and I’ll put my acting up against Vin Diesel’s every day.”