1. William Byron: Byron finished third in the YellaWood 500.
“Someone clarify to me exactly what ‘YellaWood’ is,” Byron said. “Because somebody told me it was what a jaundiced Jerry Falwell, Jr. gets when he watches his wife and the pool boy.”
2. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin overcame an early pit lane speeding penalty and slowly worked his way back to the lead lap, closing the day with a fourth at Talladega.
“You can’t win the Cup championship at Talladega,” Hamlin said, “but you sure can lose it. You can also lose it at Homestead and Phoenix.”
3. Ryan Blaney: Blaney won Stage 1 at Talladega and held off Kevin Harvick in a wild finish to win the YellaWood 500 and lock in his spot in the Round Of 8.
“At Talladega,” Blaney said, “it’s all about patience. And you have to have 499 miles of it, followed by one lap of pure reckless abandon.”
4. Christopher Bell: Bell suffered damage at the end of Stage 1 in an incident triggered when Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s car sputtered after a fuel issue. Bell survived and salvaged a 15th-place finish.
“Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was driving a car sponsored by Sara Lee Bread and Country Crock Butter,” Bell said. “Let that be a reminder that sponsorship money is this sport’s bread and butter.”
5. Kyle Larson: Larson finished 16th at Talladega and is now seventh in the playoff points standings, 15 points above the bubble.
“As a playoff driver,” Larson said, “there’s always talk of the bubble. And you want to be above it, not below it. Sometimes, you can be in a bubble, like that time my public relations firm put me in one.”
6. Chris Buescher: Buescher miraculously avoided a huge wreck and eventually came home 20th in the YellaWood 500 at Talladega.
“A superspeedway is daunting in its own right,” Buescher said. “But when you add the Playoffs to the mix, it becomes downright terrifying. It’s like a 500-mile game of ‘chicken.’ And everybody’s chicken.”
7. Tyler Reddick: Reddick finished 17th at Talladega.
“Leave it to the Truck series to overshadow the Cup series,” Reddick said. “Matt Crafton sucker-punched Nick Sanchez after the Truck race on Saturday. Therein lies the problem with fighting in the Cup series; we’ve got 30 plus drivers who aren’t cowardly enough to sucker-punch a rival, and the same number not man enough to punch a rival face-to-face.”
8. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex finished 19th and is sixth in the points standings, 17 above the cut line.
“I didn’t have a great result,” Truex said, “but it worked out because some other playoff drivers had troubles. Now, you never want to wish misfortune on a fellow competitor, unless it’s the Playoffs. In that case, wish away.”
9. Ross Chastain: Chastain was knocked out of the race at Talladega when he tried to squeeze through a melee at the end of Stage 1. Chastain made contact with Kyle Busch, which sent him into the outside wall and broke his suspension. Chastain finished last in 38th.
“‘That wasn’t my fault,’” Chastain said, “is something you don’t hear me say very often, if ever.”
10. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski triggered a multi-car crash on Lap 162 when he gave too much of a push to Carson Hocevar. Hocevar spun into traffic, collecting Ty Gibbs and Austin Dillon. Dillon clipped Keselowski, and Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford briefly went airborne. Keselowski finished 33rd.
“Anytime you go airborne at Talladega,” Keselowski said, “that automatically means a visit to the infield care center, followed by a visit to the ‘underwear change’ center.”
In career start No. 301 in NASCAR’s premier series, Ryan Blaney punched his ticket into the Playoff’s Round of 8 after edging Kevin Harvick in a photo finish to win the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, October 1.
The 29-year-old Blaney from High Point, North Carolina, led four times for eight of 188-scheduled laps in an event where he started 10th and competed towards the front amidst the draft, aggressive shuffling and tight-packed competition while needing to rebound after retiring late during last weekend’s Round of 12 opener at Texas Motor Speedway. After winning the first stage, Blaney, who restarted on the front row during the final restart with 13 laps remaining, seized an opportunity for the win as he was drafted by Riley Herbst to duel against Kevin Harvick with two laps remaining.
Then after emerging out in front at the start of the final lap, Blaney, who lost the lead to Harvick, made a crossover move from Harvick’s blocking attempt to draw even with him through the backstretch and approaching the tri-oval. With nearly the entire field wrecking through the tri-oval, Blaney then received a push from William Byron to edge Harvick at the finish line by 0.012 seconds to notch his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season, his third at Talladega and race his way into the Round of 8.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, September 30, Aric Almirola notched his second Cup pole position of the season and the sixth of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 181.656 mph in 52.715 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Joey Logano, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 181.642 mph in 52.719 seconds.
Prior to the event, Carson Hocevar dropped to the rear of the field due to an unapproved adjustment made to his No. 42 Legacy Motor Club entry.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Almirola gained a slight advantage on the inside lane through the first two turns until the outside lane led by Logano caught back up through the backstretch. With the field stacked up amid two tight-packed lanes, Almirola and Logano continued to duel dead even for the lead through Turns 3 and 4 and the tri-oval until Logano managed to lead the first lap in his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang by a hair.
Through the second to fifth lap, the field continued to run stacked amid two tight-packed lanes as Logano and Almirola continued to battle dead even for the lead, with Almirola having teammate Chase Briscoe draft him on the inside lane while Logano, who remained on the outside lane and continued to lead the proceeding laps, had drafting help from Playoff contender Kyle Larson. By then, Riley Herbst, who was competing in the No. 36 Beast Unleashed White Haze Ford Mustang for Front Row Motorsports, was battling within the top five while Playoff contenders William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney along with Alex Bowman were in the top 10.
By the sixth lap, the field fanned out to three packed lanes as Herbst jumped to the outside lane and formed a third drafting lane as he had drafting help from Hamlin, with Logano leading the middle lane and Almirola still leading the inside lane. The expansion of the lanes allowed Almirola to lead the sixth lap before Logano reassumed the top spot by the seventh lap.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps and amid the three-wide racing, Logano was leading ahead of Byron, Blaney, Larson and Austin Dillon while Almirola, Martin Truex Jr., Briscoe, Todd Gilliland and Brad Keselowski were in the top 10. By then, Herbst, Austin Cindric, Michael McDowell, Hamlin and Kevin Harvick were in the top 15 while Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Christopher Bell and Chris Buescher occupied the top 20. Meanwhile, Ross Chastain was back in 25th and Kyle Busch was mired in 32nd while all 38 starters were separated by more than a second.
Five laps later, Logano and Byron dueled for the lead as the field continued to fan out to three lanes, with Blaney, Austin Dillon, Truex and Larson jostling in the top six. A few laps later, Truex drafted his way to the front and led Lap 17 as he, Logano and Byron were the front-runners of the three-wide drafting competition.
As the field surpassed the Lap 20 mark, the front-runners continued to run three wide amid a stacked field with Logano, Byron and Truex leading the three lanes. By then, Playoff contenders Blaney, Reddick, Larson, Wallace, Hamlin and Keselowski were running within the top 20 along with Truex and Byron while Bell, Kyle Busch, Buescher and Chastain were running towards the rear of the field. In addition, all 38 starters were separated by less than two seconds.
Three laps later, Ryan Preece, who was sporting the Wonder Bread Ricky Bobby scheme on his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang, muscled his way into the lead after receiving a draft from Logano to move ahead of Truex followed by Austin Dillon, Byron and Blaney. By then, Truex slipped out of the top 10 while Hamlin, who lost the draft and dropped towards the rear of the field earlier, was trying to muscle his way back to the top 10 as he was working with his 23XI Racing drivers, Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace, within the draft on the outside lane. Truex would then blend in within the draft and work with his Toyota teammates.
A lap after the Lap 30 mark, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who started 35th, used the outside lane amid the draft to move his No. 47 Sara Lee Artesano Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead ahead of Preece. By then, the field settled back to competing amongst two tight-packed lanes as Erik Jones and Cindric moved up towards the front in front of Logano while the Dillon brothers joined the battle. By then, Byron was the highest-running Playoff contender in eighth place while his remaining 11 title rivals were mired within the top 26.
Then on Lap 39 and as Ty Dillon assumed the lead, the first cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as a bevy of Ford competitors, including Blaney, Cindric, Logano, Harvick, Almirola, Keselowski, Briscoe, Harrison Burton and Buescher pitted. The following lap, another wave of competitors, mainly Chevrolet competitors led by Justin Haley and Byron, peeled off the track to pit. During the following lap, select names led by Ty Dillon pitted while Bell assumed the lead. By Lap 42, the final group of competitors, mainly Toyota competitors led by Bell, pitted under green. Once the first cycle of green flag pit stops concluded, Stenhouse reassumed the lead before Austin Cindric assumed the top spot by Lap 43. By then, the final wave of competitors who pitted drifted back towards the rear of the field. Amid the pit stops, Erik Jones was penalized for having men over his pit box too soon.
At the Lap 50 mark, Stenhouse was still leading by a hair over Cindric as he had Kyle Busch drafting him while Cindric, Blaney and Byron were also battling towards the front and within the draft. By then, Playoff contender Larson was in seventh while Keselowski, Buescher and Chastain were in the top 15. Meanwhile, the remaining Playoff contenders included Wallace, Truex, Bell, Reddick and Hamlin were mired back within the top 31.
Then on the final lap of the first stage period, Lap 59, the event’s first caution flew when Stenhouse, who was trying to muscle his way to the front with drafting help from Kyle Busch, fell off the pace after running out of fuel through the backstretch. With Busch stuck behind Stenhouse, Ross Chastain then came surging towards them in his attempt to win the stage, but he ended up making contact with Busch as he veered sideways in Turn 3 before getting hit by Bell’s No. 20 DeWalt Toyota TRD Camry and shooting back across the outside wall. The incident was enough to conclude the first stage period under caution as Playoff contender Ryan Blaney, who came into Talladega 11 points below the top-eight cutline, notched his fourth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Byron followed suit in second while Larson, Elliott, Bowman, Cindric, Haley, Harvick, Logano and Preece were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Kyle Busch, Bell, Wallace, Reddick, Keselowski, Buescher, Truex, Hamlin and Chastain did not score the first wave of stage points. Amidst the incident, the damage to the No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was enough to terminate Playoff contender Chastain’s event early in the garage while Bell, Allmendinger and Chandler Smith pitted for repairs.
Under the stage break, the entire lead lap field led by Blaney pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Harrison Burton exited pit road first followed by Blaney, Elliott, Larson, Byron, Bowman and Logano. Amid the pit stops, a bevy of names including AJ Allmendinger, Keselowski, Wallace, Buescher, Truex, Stenhouse, the Dillon brothers, Hamlin, Daniel Suarez and Chandler Smith pitted again to top off on fuel.
The second stage period started on Lap 65 as Blaney and Elliott occupied the front row. At the start, Blaney and Elliott dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. With the field stacked up in two tight-packed lanes, Blaney and Elliott continued to duel for the lead as Elliott had teammate Larson drafting him on the outside lane while Blaney had Byron drafting him on the inside lane.
Ten laps later, Bowman, who led Lap 73 by a hair, was leading by a hair over Cindric followed by Elliott, Harvick and Almirola while Larson, Blaney, Preece, Corey LaJoie and Byron were battling within the top 10 and amid two tight-packed lanes. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch was in 11th, Reddick was in 18th and Truex was back in 21st while Bell and Keselowski were within the top 25 on the track. Meanwhile, Wallace was in 29th ahead of Buescher and Hamlin, both of whom were in 31st and 32nd.
Another 10 laps later and amid the jostling of positions within the field that fanned out to three stacked lanes, Erik Jones, who led for the first time two laps earlier, was leading ahead of McDowell, Stenhouse, Gilliland and Cindric while Bowman, Herbst, Harvick, Elliott and Reddick were in the top 10. Another lap later, McDowell received a draft from teammate Gilliland to move his No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang into the lead. McDowell and Herbst, who navigated his way back to the front, would then swap the lead through Lap 90 as all three Front Row Motorsports competitors, including Gilliland, were running first through third. By then, 23XI Racing’s Reddick and Wallace were trying to navigate their way into the top five.
At the halfway mark on Lap 94, Herbst was scored the leader followed by Reddick, McDowell, Wallace and Gilliland while Cindric, Erik Jones, Harvick, Stenhouse and Almirola were battling in the top 10 amid two long stacked lanes. By then, Playoff contenders Larson, Hamlin, Bell, Blaney, Truex, Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Buescher and Byron were mired within the top 33 as 33 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap and separated by two seconds.
Six laps later, Wallace drafted teammate Reddick into the lead as they made their way past Herbst and the Front Row Motorsports group while the field behind fanned out to three packed lanes. McDowell would fight back on the inside lane during the proceeding lap as Preece navigated his way back into the top five. Not long after, Hamlin assumed the lead on Lap 102 as Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski followed suit. By then, McDowell challenged Hamlin for the top spot on the inside lane while Wallace and Reddick fell back to sixth and seventh.
Then on Lap 105, the second wave of green flag pit stops commenced as a bevy of competitors led by Hamlin and Wallace, who locked up the front tires, pitted. Amid the pit stops, Hamlin was penalized for speeding on pit road. During the following lap, another wave of competitors, mainly Ford competitors, pitted before the final wave of competitors led by Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon pitted. Cindric would also be penalized for speeding on pit road while Keselowski cycled his way into the lead by Lap 108. With Keselowski leading through to the Lap 110 mark, Logano followed suit in second before he assumed the top spot during the following lap. Behind, Almirola made his way into second over Keselowski while Blaney, Austin Dillon, Harvick, Kyle Busch, Buescher, LaJoie and Preece were scored in the top 10.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 120, Keselowski, who navigated his way into the lead over Byron during the previous lap and came into the event eight points above the top-eight cutline, fended off the field to claim his sixth Cup stage victory of 2023. Byron settled in second followed by Logano, Austin Dillon and Elliott while Suarez, Larson, Briscoe, Ty Dillon and Reddick were scored in the top 10. Amid the battles for stage points within the lead lap group, Carson Hocevar managed to claim the free pass spot after crossing the start/finish line ahead of Hamlin to be the first competitor that was scored a lap down.
During the stage break, the field led by Keselowski returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Logano exited first while Keselowski, Larson, Suarez, Byron, Elliott, Austin Dillon and Blaney followed suit. Amid the pit stops, Ty Gibbs was penalized for removing his gas can out of his pit box, which then dropped in the middle of pit road, ignited and erupted into a huge fire. With Gibbs serving his penalty, a number of competitors that included Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, Harvick, Almirola, Briscoe, Buescher, Wallace, McDowell, Preece, Gilliland, Herbst, Allmendinger and LaJoie returned to pit road to top off on fuel.
With 63 laps remaining, the final stage started as Logano and Larson occupied the front row. At the start, Logano and Larson dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. Amid two tight-packed lanes, Logano muscled ahead on the outside lane followed by Keselowski while Larson remained on the inside lane as he had Daniel Suarez and Byron drafting him. Logano would retain the lead with 60 laps remaining while Playoff contenders Larson, Keselowski, Byron, Kyle Busch, Reddick, Blaney and Truex were running in the top 10. Meanwhile, Buescher and Wallace were in 17th and 19th while Bell and Hamlin were mired back in 29th and 33rd.
With 50 laps remaining and as the field slowly fanning out to three packed lanes, Logano was leading ahead of Keselowski and Elliott while Kyle Busch and Larson were mired in the top five. By then, Reddick, Suarez, Truex, Byron and Blaney were in the top 10 while Wallace was in 11th. By then, Hamlin, who was still scored a lap down, was blending in within the lead lap pack and leading the outside lane with drafting help from Wallace while Logano continued to lead ahead of Keselowski, Elliott and Kyle Busch.
A few laps later, Buescher, who moved up to the outside lane, received a huge push from Hamlin amid a stacked three-wide battle to move toward the front while Logano retained the lead. With Hamlin moving down in front of Logano through the middle lane, Buescher would launch his bid for the lead against Logano while Keselowski, Almirola, Wallace and Larson moved up and battled toward the front. Amid the continuous shuffling and drafts within the three stacked lanes, Wallace would then make his way into the runner-up spot with 40 laps remaining behind the leader Logano before Byron assumed the lead during the proceeding lap followed by Blaney. This would drop Logano and Wallace to third and fifth while Bowman moved up to fourth as Keselowski occupied sixth.
Then with 34 laps remaining, Wallace made his way into the lead as he overtook Byron through the tri-oval before fending off Buescher. Wallace would spend the next two laps leading in his No. 23 Leidos Toyota TRD Camry until Byron reassumed the top spot in his No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 with 31 laps remaining. Byron’s move occurred as the field fanned out to nearly four lanes as Almirola, Blaney and Bowman followed suit. Soon after, Wallace, who was being drafted by Hamlin, slipped out of the top 10 as Byron, Blaney, Bowman, Larson and Stenhouse occupied the top five amid three stacked lanes.
With 27 laps remaining, the caution flew for a multi-car wreck on the frontstretch after Hocevar, who was leading the outside lane amid a three-wide battle, got sideways off the front nose of Keselowski as Hocevar spun and clipped Ty Gibbs, who collected Austin Dillon in the process, as Dillon clipped Keselowski and sent the No. 6 Solomon Plumbing Ford Mustang for a spin, with Keselowski’s car briefly coming off the ground, towards the inside wall before Dillon made hard impact against the outside wall head-on along with Gibbs as Harrison Burton, Briscoe and Allmendinger also wrecked. At the moment of caution, Harvick had assumed the lead while Almirola, Herbst, Byron, Wallace, Blaney, Bowman, Larson, Suarez and Stenhouse were scored in the top 10. The incident would be enough to place the event in a red flag period for nearly 10 minutes as the on-track safety crew proceeded to repair the track’s damage across the walls and the carnage.
Once the red flag lifted and the field proceeded under a cautious pace, the lead lap field led by Harvick pitted for service. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategies, but mainly for fuel, Logano exited first followed by LaJoie, Almirola, Harvick, Bowman, Blaney and Larson. Meanwhile, Hamlin received the free pass and cycled back on the lead lap.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, where Almirola and Bowman occupied the front row, the race restarted under green. At the start, Almirola and Bowman dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch as the field stacked up within two tight-packed lanes. Both Almirola and Bowman continued to duel for the lead through the tri-oval as Almirola had teammate Harvick drafting him on the outside lane while Bowman had drafting help from Blaney.
Three laps later and as the field started to fan out to three lanes, the caution returned due to debris reported on the backstretch. By then, Bowman was the leader followed by Blaney, Almirola, Herbst and Harvick while Elliott, Larson, Logano, Byron and LaJoie were in the top 10.
During the following restart with 13 laps remaining, Bowman muscled ahead of Blaney to retain the lead as the inside lane gained the advantage through the first two turns and the backstretch. With the outside lane trying to regain the advantage through the tri-oval, Bowman retained the lead as Harvick ignited his charge to the lead. Harvick would then be drafted into the lead with 11 laps remaining followed by Blaney as Elliott, Herbst and Larson were battling within the top six. As the field fanned out to three lanes with the competitors jostling and shuffling within the pack and the draft, Harvick retained the lead with 10 laps remaining before the Hendrick Motorsports competitors led by Bowman and followed by Elliott assumed the top spot during the following lap.
Down to the final five laps of the event, Elliott was leading ahead of teammates Larson, Byron and Suarez while the outside lane led by Harvick tried to gain the run towards the front. In the midst of the battles towards the front, the field fanned out to three lanes as the competitors started to shuffle and draft their way to the front. Shortly after, Bowman was shuffled out of the lead draft as he started to lose ground of the front-runners while Harvick assumed the lead.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Blaney and Harvick, both of whom spent the previous three laps locked dead even for the lead amongst two packed lanes, were in front of the field as Blaney led the previous lap by a hair. Through the frontstretch, Harvick would receive a push from Byron to muscle ahead as he then moved his No. 4 Busch Light Camo Ford Mustang up the track to block Blaney. Blaney, however, made a crossover move to dive his No. 12 Menards/Pennzoil Ford Mustang beneath Harvick through the backstretch before he gained a slight advantage entering the tri-oval. Harvick then had Herbst drafting him as he started to gain ground on Blaney with the three-wide stacked field approaching the finish line. Then with nearly everyone behind the front-runners wrecking as Herbst got turned across Elliott and Larson, Blaney, who remained ahead of Byron, managed to edge Harvick, who had no drafting help, by 0.012 seconds to claim the victory.
Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.
With the victory, Blaney achieved his ninth NASCAR Cup Series career victory, his third at Talladega Superspeedway, his third in the Cup Series Playoffs, his second of the season and his first since winning the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May. The third-generation racer also recorded the third victory of the season for Team Penske and the seventh for the Ford nameplate.
The victory automatically guarantees Blaney and the No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang team a spot into the Round of 8 along with William Byron as Blaney, who transferred into the Round of 8 for the fifth time in his career, continues his pursuit for his first Cup Series championship.
“Yeah, I don’t really know [how we won],” Blaney, who celebrated on the frontstretch with the fans, said on NBC. “Yeah, pretty wild [the] last restart, but let alone, last couple laps, kind of lose the momentum, getting it back. Just getting cleared to the bottom to get to the front row and drag-race it out with Kevin [Harvick]. Really proud of the whole No. 12 group. It’s so cool to win three times here at Talladega. That’s super cool. I have to give a big thanks to Riley Herbst. He did a really good job there the last couple restarts. He doesn’t have a lot of Cup starts, but he did a great job at pushing me, so thanks to him. This is so cool. I’ve won it by more than I have the last couple years, but that one might’ve been about four feet. The others [Talladega wins] were about two, but you just don’t know. You just got to drag-race to the line, hope you get help. William [Byron] gave me a pretty good shove on the bottom [lane]. He’s kind of forced to. I wasn’t sure [that I won] till [spotter] Josh [Williams] said something. Josh did a fantastic job on the roof like always. This is such a special place to win at, so I cannot wait to go to Victory Lane.”
While Blaney celebrated with his team in Victory Lane, Harvick was left disappointed, but still smiling, over his runner-up result in his 46th and final career start at Talladega and on a day where he led 11 laps and notched his seventh top-five result of the season. Despite having his Playoff hopes evaporated following the Round of 16, Harvick continues his pursuit for his first victory of the season as he is down to his final five Cup career starts before retiring from full-time competition.
“I just tried to block the lanes and then, I was kind of late blocking [Blaney] there,” Harvick said. “He got to the outside of us, but it actually worked out OK because [Byron] was a great pusher and then, it got shuffled again and I had Riley [Herbst] behind me. I thought I was in a really good spot headed down the back straightaway with everything that was happening because I knew if I could get off the tri-oval with Riley right on my bumper, I was still gonna be OK and then, he got spun in the middle of the tri-oval. Great day. Great way to end at Talladega. Always want to win. It is what it is. Last superspeedway race and went out with everything rolling, so that’s a good thing.”
Following the event, however, Harvick was disqualified from his runner-up result due to the windshield fasteners from his car not being properly secured. As a result, Byron, who led 12 laps and is already guaranteed a spot in the Playoff’s Round of 8 after winning last weekend’s event at Texas Motor Speedway, was promoted into the runner-up spot followed by Denny Hamlin, who rallied from being mired a lap down to finish third in his No. 11 Mavis Tires & Brakes Toyota TRD Camry. Corey LaJoie avoided the carnage to finish fourth in his No. 7 Gainbridge Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and notch his second top-five result of the season while Cindric ended up fifth.
Haley, Elliott, Ryan Preece, Riley Herbst and Daniel Suarez finished in the top 10 on the track. Notably, Playoff contenders Bell, Larson, Reddick, Truex, Buescher, Wallace and Kyle Busch ended up 14th, 15th, 16th, 18th, 19th, 23rd and 25th, respectively.
There were 70 lead changes for 24 different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 17 laps. In addition, 29 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. Ryan Blaney, eight laps led, Stage 1 winner
2. William Byron, 12 laps led
3. Denny Hamlin, three laps led
4. Corey LaJoie
5. Austin Cindric, 15 laps led
6. Justin Haley, one lap led
7. Chase Elliott, eight laps led
8. Ryan Preece, eight laps led
9. Riley Herbst, 10 laps led
10. Daniel Suarez
11. Chandler Smith
12. Todd Gilliland
13. Chase Briscoe
14. Christopher Bell, two laps led
15. Kyle Larson, one lap led
16. Tyler Reddick, two laps led
17. Aric Almirola, seven laps led
18. Martin Truex Jr.
19. Chris Buescher, three laps led
20. AJ Allmendinger
21. Michael McDowell, five laps led
22. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 14 laps led
23. Bubba Wallace, three laps led
24. Joey Logano, 48 laps led
25. Kyle Busch, two laps led
26. Erik Jones, four laps led
27. Ty Dillon, two laps led
28. Alex Bowman, 13 laps led
29. BJ McLeod, one lap down
30. Brennan Poole, two laps down
31. Harrison Burton – OUT, Suspension
32. Brad Keselowski – OUT, Accident, five laps led, Stage 2 winner
33. Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident, one lap led
34. Ty Gibbs – OUT, Accident
35. Carson Hocevar – OUT, Accident
36. JJ Yeley – OUT, Fuel pump
37. Ross Chastain – OUT, Accident
38. Kevin Harvick – Disqualified, 11 laps led
*Bold indicates Playoff contenders
Playoff standings
1. William Byron – Advanced
2. Ryan Blaney – Advanced
3. Denny Hamlin +50
4. Christopher Bell +22
5. Chris Buescher +19
6. Martin Truex Jr. +17
7. Kyle Larson +15
8. Brad Keselowski +2
9. Tyler Reddick -2
10. Bubba Wallace -9
11. Ross Chastain -10
12. Kyle Busch -26
The Round of 12 in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to conclude next weekend at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course in Concord, North Carolina, where the second of three eliminations will occur and the Round of 8 field will be determined. The event is scheduled to commence next Sunday, October 8, at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
The number 300 was the big number of the day for Hendrick Motorsports as William Byron capitalized on a six-lap shootout to deliver a milestone victory for HMS by winning the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, September 24.
The 25-year-old Byron from Charlotte, North Carolina, led the final six of 267-scheduled laps in an event where he started 18th and ground his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet through the sizzling temperatures and on-track action while being mired within and outside of the top 10 during the first two stage periods.
Then after methodically carving his way into the top 10 in the closing stretches, Byron benefitted on a late strategic pit call to remain on the track during a caution period with less than 25 laps remaining to move up into third place. Amid three late-race restarts and chaos that eliminated his teammate Kyle Larson from contention, Byron executed the final restart with six laps remaining in his favor as he overtook pole-sitter Bubba Wallace and Chase Briscoe before muscling away from Ross Chastain to grab his unprecedented sixth checkered flag of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, secure his spot into the Playoff’s Round of 8 and deliver the record-setting 300th win in NASCAR’s premier series for Hendrick Motorsports.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, September 23, Playoff contender Bubba Wallace notched his first Cup pole position of the season and the second of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 188.337 mph in 28.672 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Chris Buescher, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 188.081 mph in 28.711 seconds.
Prior to the event, BJ McLeod started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his entry.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Bubba Wallace and Chris Buescher dueled for the lead through the frontstretch, the first two turns and through the backstretch as the field behind fanned out. Then in Turn 3, Wallace used the inside lane to his advantage as he rocketed ahead of Buescher and cleared him entering the frontstretch as he led the first lap. With Wallace leading Buescher and Brad Keselowski, Playoff contender Ross Chastain was in fourth while rookie Ty Gibbs and AJ Allmendinger battled for fifth place in front of Kyle Busch.
Through the second to fifth lap and as the field continued to jostle early for positions, Wallace retained the lead within three-tenths of a second over Buescher as Keselowski, Chastain and Ty Gibbs followed suit in the top five. By then, Allmendinger settled in sixth ahead of Kyle Busch while Daniel Suarez, Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson were running in the top 10.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Wallace maintained the lead by two-tenths of a second over Buescher followed by Keselowski, Chastain and Ty Gibbs while Allmendinger, Kyle Busch, Suarez, Bell and Larson were in the top 10. Behind, Denny Hamlin was in 11th ahead of Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, Alex Bowman and Tyler Reddick while Michael McDowell, William Byron, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano and Carson Hocevar occupied the top 20. Meanwhile, Kevin Harvick was in 22nd behind teammate Aric Almirola, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. followed suit in 23rd, Ryan Blaney was back in 25th, Chase Elliott was in 29th behind Briscoe and Austin Cindric was mired in 35th.
Ten laps later, Wallace extended his advantage to more than a second over Buescher while third-place Keselowski also trailed by more than a second as Chastain and Ty Gibbs remained in the top five. As Wallace continued to lead by the Lap 25 mark, he along with Buescher, Chastain, Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Larson and Hamlin were the Playoff contenders currently scored in the top 10 on the track while Bell, Reddick, Truex and Byron were mired within the top 20. Meanwhile, Blaney was still mired in 25th place.
At the Lap 35 mark, Wallace stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Buescher followed by Chastain while Kyle Busch moved up to fourth. By then, Ty Gibbs and Allmendinger were in the top six while Keselowski fell back to seventh in front of Suarez, Larson and Erik Jones.
Another lap later, the first cycle of green flag pit stops ignited as Playoff contender Bell pitted his No. 20 Interstate Batteries Toyota TRD Camry. A bevy of names that included Buescher, Chastain, Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Larson, Reddick, Hocevar, BJ McLeod, Logano, Hocevar, Stenhouse and Ryan Preece would pit during the ensuing laps before Wallace surrendered the lead to pit by Lap 39. More names that included Ty Gibbs, Hamlin, Suarez, Erik Jones, Truex, McDowell, Byron and Harvick would pit along with Wallace. By Lap 40, more names that included Allmendinger, Austin Dillon, Alex Bowman and Aric Almirola would pit.
Then on Lap 41, the first caution of the event flew when Austin Dillon, who had just pitted, snapped sideways in Turn 3 after the entire right-rear wheel came off of Dillon’s No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and wrecked against the outside wall before he slid down the track and came to a rest. During the caution period, the remaining competitors who had yet to pit, including Ty Dillon, Blaney, Elliott, Chase Briscoe, Corey LaJoie, Harrison Burton and Cindric, pitted while the rest of the field remained on the track, which handed the lead back to Wallace.
When the race restarted under green on Lap 48, where Wallace and Chastain occupied the front row, Wallace and Chastain dueled for the lead as the field stacked up to two tight lanes entering Turn 1. The caution, however, quickly returned when Bowman, who was running 14th, got sideways amid a three-wide battle between Hocevar and McDowell as he then made contact against Almirola’s No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang before both spun entering Turn 2 and proceeded without making any on-track contact.
During the proceeding restart on Lap 53, Kyle Busch attempted to make a three-wide move on Wallace and Chastain for the lead entering Turn 1, but he stepped out of the gas for the turn as Wallace managed to retain the lead from Chastain. In the process, Larson moved up to third followed by Buescher while Kyle Busch fell back to fifth ahead of Hamlin, Truex, Reddick and Keselowski. The caution, however, quickly returned again when Todd Gilliland spun and wrecked through the backstretch after losing a right-rear wheel.
As the event restarted under green on Lap 58, Wallace and Chastain again dueled for the lead, with Chastain briefly leading entering the backstretch until Wallace managed to fight back and reassume the top spot to lead the following lap. Then during the following lap and as the field continued to jostle for positions, Kyle Busch, who was running third, fell back to sixth after reporting a potential flat right-front tire to his No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Busch, though, remained on the track despite his issues during the proceeding laps as he was back in seventh while Wallace maintained the lead by half a second over Chastain with Buescher, Larson and Hamlin running in the top five.
By Lap 70, Wallace continued to lead by half a second over Chastain followed by Buescher, Larson and Hamlin while Reddick, Kyle Busch, Byron, Keselowski and Erik Jones were in the top 10, thus placing nine of 12 Playoff contenders in the top 10 on the track minus Jones. Meanwhile, Truex and Bell were back in 11th and 12th while Blaney was mired back in 24th behind LaJoie.
Then three laps later, the caution returned as Kyle Busch, who was in eighth, slipped sideways entering Turn 1 and spun backwards before he pounded the outside wall in Turn 2 and emerged with significant rear-end and left-side damage to his No. 8 entry. Following his incident, Busch reversed his damaged car from the apron in Turn 1 all the way back to his pit stall, where he would eventually retire from further competition as he overran the Damaged Vehicle Policy clock and took an early hit towards his quest of winning his third Cup title.
During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Wallace pitted while the rest led by Buescher remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Ty Gibbs ran into the side of teammate Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry while trying to exit pit road, which forced Gibbs to make another pit stop for repairs and eventually retire while Hamlin remained on the track.
With the event restarting for a one-lap dash to the conclusion of the first stage period, Buescher and Reddick dueled for the lead until Reddick managed to muscle his No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota TRD Camry ahead with the lead from the outside lane through the backstretch. Reddick then started to pull away from the field while the field behind jostled for positions. When the first stage period concluded on Lap 80, Reddick, who remained on the track, executed his early pit strategy to perfection as he captured his fifth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Buescher settled in second followed by Bell, Byron and McDowell while Elliott, Blaney, Briscoe, Hamlin and Wallace were scored in the top 10. Immediately after the first stage’s conclusion, trouble ignited as Erik Jones ran into the rear of Keselowski, who then collided with Truex as Truex spun.
Under the stage break, Bell and Byron pitted while the rest of the field led by Reddick remained on the track.
The second stage started on Lap 86 as Reddick and Buescher, both of whom remained on the track amid their pit strategy, occupied the front row. At the start, Reddick received a push from McDowell to retain the lead from the outside lane. With Reddick leading, McDowell challenged Buescher for the runner-up spot while Elliott and Briscoe were in the top five. Shortly after, Blaney battled Briscoe for fifth place ahead of Hamlin while Wallace followed suit in front of Larson and Chastain. Amid the battles within the top 10, Reddick extended his advantage to more than a second over McDowell by the Lap 90 mark.
Through the Lap 100 mark, Reddick continued to extend his advantage as he was leading by more than two seconds over McDowell while Buescher, Elliott and Hamlin were in the top five. Behind, Larson was in sixth ahead of Blaney, Chastain, Briscoe and Wallace while Erik Jones, Ryan Preece, Keselowski, Daniel Suarez and Allmendinger occupied the top 15 in front of Hocevar, Harvick, Bowman, Justin Haley and Ty Dillon. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Truex, Byron and Bell were in 22nd, 25th and 27th, respectively.
Ten laps later, Reddick was leading by more than three seconds over his owner Hamlin, who continued to run strong with a wounded No. 11 Toyota, followed by Larson while McDowell dropped to fourth in front of Buescher. Shortly after, the caution flew when LaJoie spun and wrecked in Turn 2 as he then ripped the right-rear quarter panel off of his damaged No. 7 Gainbridge Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 after blowing his right-rear tire while limping it back to pit road.
During the caution period, the entire lead lap field led by Reddick pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Wallace returned to the lead after exiting pit road first and opting for a two-tire pit stop followed by Blaney, Keselowski and Suarez while Hamlin was the first competitor to exit pit road with four fresh tires in fifth place. Amid the pit stops, Zane Smith was sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.
When the race restarted under green on Lap 118, Wallace and Blaney dueled for the lead until Wallace used the inside lane to clear Blaney and muscle ahead from the field that was fanning out to three lanes prior to entering the backstretch. With Wallace back in the lead, Blaney maintained the runner-up spot in front of Hamlin and Keselowski while Suarez, Hamlin and Larson battled for fourth place in front of Elliott and Hocevar. Soon after, Truex and Buescher muscled their way toward the front and within the top 10 while Hocevar slid out of the top 10. Amid the battles ensuing within the top-10 mark, Wallace stretched his advantage to more than a second over Blaney by Lap 125 as Erik Jones cracked the top 10 while running ninth ahead of Truex.
At the halfway mark in between Laps 133 and 134, Wallace extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Blaney followed by Keselowski, Larson and Suarez while Hamlin, Elliott, Buescher, Erik Jones, Buescher and Chastain occupied the top 10 ahead of Truex, Hocevar, Allmendinger, Bowman, Preece, McDowell, Harvick, Bell, Byron and Briscoe. By then, Reddick was back in 22nd while 31 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap.
Then on Lap 142, Larson, racing on four fresh tires, overtook Wallace from the outside lane in Turn 2 and assumed the lead in his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. By then, Hamlin was in third while Blaney fell back to fourth ahead of Erik Jones. Blaney would be overtaken by Jones by Lap 143 as Keselowski, Elliott, Buescher, Suarez and Chastain were scored in the top 10.
By Lap 155, Larson stretched his advantage to more than five seconds over Hamlin and Jones, both of whom overtook Wallace for second and third six laps earlier, while Wallace fell back to fourth ahead of Blaney, Elliott, Buescher, Keselowski, Chastain and Suarez. By then, Truex was in 11th ahead of McDowell and Hocevar while Allmendinger, who was battling Truex for 11th place, slipped to 14th after getting loose.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 165, Larson captured his fifth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Erik Jones muscled to a strong runner-up result ahead of Hamlin, Blaney, Buescher, Elliott, Keselowski and Chastain while Wallace dropped to ninth ahead of Suarez. By then, Playoff contenders Truex, Byron, Bell and Reddick were in 12th, 15th, 20th and 21st, respectively.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Larson retained the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Jones, Hamlin, Blaney, Buescher, Keselowski and Wallace.
With 96 laps remaining, the final stage started as Larson and Jones occupied the front row. At the start, Larson and Jones dueled for the lead through the frontstretch, the first two turns and the backstretch until Larson managed to clear Jones’ No. 43 Legacy Motor Club entry through Turns 3 and 4 and retain the lead. With Larson, Jones settled in second followed by Hamlin while Blaney, Wallace and Keselowski occupied the top six in front of a side-by-side battle between Elliott and Buescher. With a series of late on-track battles ensuing, Larson stretched his advantage to more than a second over Jones with 90 laps remaining.
With 75 laps remaining, Larson continued to lead by more than three seconds over Erik Jones followed by Hamlin, Blaney and Keselowski while Wallace, Buescher, McDowell, Byron and Elliott were running in the top 10, thus placing seven of 12 Playoff contenders in the top 10 on the track minus Jones, McDowell and Elliott. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Reddick, Truex and Bell were in 17th, 18th and 21st while Chastain, who stalled his car due to a throttle position sensor issue and went up the track a few laps earlier, was mired back in 29th after running within the top 10 earlier.
Fifteen laps later, Larson stabilized his lead to more than five seconds over Erik Jones while Hamlin, Blaney and Keselowski remained in the top five. Behind, Buescher was in sixth ahead of Wallace and Byron while McDowell and Elliott were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Reddick, Truex and Bell were back in 16th, 19th and 20th while Chastain was mired in 27th.
A lap later, the caution flew when Suarez spun while trying to enter pit road for service under green as his No. 99 Kubota Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 stalled towards the frontstretch grass before he proceeded. By then, Reddick made a pit stop under green but lost a lap in the process as he would use the wave around to cycle back on the lead lap and restart towards the tail end of the field. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Larson edged Jones off of pit road to retain the lead while Keselowski, Hamlin, Blaney, Wallace and Buescher followed suit. Amid the pit stops, Blaney was sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.
With the race restarting with 53 laps remaining, Larson and Jones dueled for the lead through the frontstretch until Larson muscled ahead from the inside lane to clear Jones and lead from the first two turns through the backstretch. As Larson maintained the lead back to the frontstretch, Hamlin settled in third ahead of Keselowski while Wallace and Buescher battled for fifth in front of Byron and Briscoe. With Wallace stuck in between Keselowski and Buescher in fifth, Larson stretched his advantage to more than a second over Jones with 50 laps remaining.
With 35 laps remaining, Larson continued to extend his advantage as he was leading by more than four seconds over Erik Jones while Hamlin, Keselowski and Wallace were in the top five. Behind, Byron was in sixth ahead of Buescher while Briscoe, Harvick, Elliott, Chastain, Bowman, Preece, Bell and Reddick were running in the top 15. Meanwhile, Truex was in 17th and Blaney, following his late pit road speeding penalty, was mired in 23rd in between Allmendinger and McDowell.
Then with 25 laps remaining, the caution flew when JJ Yeley spun and wrecked entering the backstretch. During the caution period, some, led by Jones and including Hamlin, Buescher and Keselowski pitted while the rest led by Larson and including Wallace, Byron, Briscoe, Harvick, Elliott, Chastain, Bowman, Preece, Bell, Reddick, Harrison Burton, Stenhouse, McDowell and Cindric remained on the track.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Larson and Wallace dueled for the lead through the frontstretch, the first two turns and the backstretch as the field behind jostled for positions. Through Turns 3 and 4, Wallace and Larson remained dead even for the lead as Wallace barely led the following lap over Larson. Then entering Turn 1 and amid the tight side-by-side battle for the lead, Wallace took the air off of Larson’s car, which got Larson sideways as he spun backwards, pounded the outside wall and emerged with significant rear-end damage. With Larson limping his damaged No. 5 Chevrolet back to pit road, Wallace retained the lead ahead of Byron while Briscoe, Elliott and Preece were scored in the top five. Amid his pit crew’s attempt to repair the car, Larson overran the Damaged Vehicle Policy clock and was officially ruled out of the race.
“[Wallace] did a good job to stay with me on the restart through [Turns] 3 and 4,” Larson said in the infield care center. “I was trying to have my shape into [Turn] 1. With these cars, you don’t really get sucked around like that, so I wasn’t really expecting it. [I] Thought that I would be fine. We just went in there side-by-side and I lost it really quickly and crashed. Pretty bummed.”
Down to the final 13 laps of the event, the race restarted under green as Wallace and Byron occupied the front row. At the start, Wallace rocketed his No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota TRD Camry ahead with the lead from the outside lane while the field behind scrambled, fanned out and jostled for positions. Through the backstretch, Briscoe made his way into the runner-up spot while Elliott and Byron battled for third place. Then just as Wallace was making his way back to the frontstretch with a steady lead, the caution returned amid a multi-car wreck that started when both Reddick and Jones slid up and hit the outside wall, with Jones getting hit by Blaney as Zane Smith, Cindric, Allmendinger, Hocevar and Truex wrecked across the frontstretch.
During the following restart with six laps remaining, Wallace and Briscoe dueled for the lead entering Turns 1 and 2 before Briscoe nearly got loose underneath Wallace entering the backstretch. With both Wallace and Briscoe remaining dead even for the lead through the backstretch, Byron darted his No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 beneath both and overtook Briscoe before nearly making contact with Wallace as Wallace tried to block entering Turn 3. Byron, though, used the inside lane to his advantage as he muscled past Wallace entering the frontstretch and assumed the lead.
During the following lap and with Byron leading, Chastain navigated his No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 past Wallace for the runner-up spot as Wallace went up the track and had to fend off Elliott for third place. In the process, Bell made his way up to fourth as he tried to challenge Wallace for third while Briscoe, Harvick, Hamlin and Elliott battled for fourth. Amid the battles, Byron stretched his advantage to more than a second over Chastain while Wallace and Bell tried to close back in for the spot. By then, Hamlin, racing on four fresh tires, was making his way into fifth place followed by Harvick, Keselowski and Briscoe.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Byron remained as the leader by more than a second over Chastain. With Chastain and Wallace unable to close the gap, Byron was able to rocket his way around the circuit for a final time and return to the frontstretch victorious by claiming the checkered flag for the sixth time in the 2023 Cup season.
With the victory, Byron notched his 10th career win in NASCAR’s premier series, his first at Texas Motor Speedway in the Cup circuit and his first since winning at Watkins Glen International in August. He also became the first Cup Playoff competitor to punch his ticket into the Round of 8 as he continues his quest to contend for his first Cup Series championship.
Above all, Byron bestowed Hendrick Motorsports, which is in its 40th season in competition and stands as the winningest team in NASCAR history, its 300th Cup Series victory. The 300th Cup victory for HMS occurred more than 11 years after Jimmie Johnson recorded the team’s 200th Cup victory at Darlington Raceway and more than five years after Chase Elliott crowned the team’s 250th victory at Watkins Glen International.
“Man, that’s badass,” Byron said on USA Network. “I finally got a good restart at the end. Number 300 for Hendrick Motorsports. Kyle [Larson] really deserved this one. Those guys were really fast all day. Hate it for them at the end, but man, it was awesome to get our car to the front. It loved clean air. We just fought through traffic all day. Our Liberty University Chevy was just tight back in traffic but had good pace. It was a grind-it-out day. Our team was there at the end. I’m really proud of this one as hot as it was and as tough as it was. We’ll take it and go on to the next round.”
“I don’t know if I could even put it into words [on delivering win No. 300 for Hendrick Motorsports],” Byron added. “I was such a Hendrick Motorsports fan growing up as a kid, watching Jimmie Johnson and became really fond of Jeff Gordon as I got to know him. Just thankful for all the people, men and women back at Hendrick Motorsports and Mr. Hendrick for his investment into me and telling me at 17 years old that he was gonna take me to Cup racing. This is awesome. We’re definitely gonna enjoy this one.”
While Byron celebrated the milestone victory on the frontstretch and in Victory Lane, Bubba Wallace, who ended up in third place behind Ross Chastain, was left disappointed on pit road after falling six laps short of winning and grabbing an early ticket into the Round of 8 amid his strong performance from start to finish. Nonetheless, the third-place result, which marks Wallace’s fifth top-five result of the season and his highest-recorded finish of this season thus far, currently places him and his No. 23 23XI Racing team in ninth place in the Playoff standings and two points below the top-eight cutline.
“Third time, I fooled myself, starting on top [lane],” Wallace said. “These guys gave me the right information. [Briscoe]’s tight and he sent it off in there, wasn’t gonna stick, but it’s what he’s got to do. We’re racing for a win. Just hate it. I should’ve just kept my line into [Turn] 3 and forced William [Byron] to get tight, but you’re so vulnerable in these cars. Just upset with myself. [I] Really needed a win there. It’s a good showing. I know what I did and I choked. We grinded, come out with a good solid points day, so appreciate everybody’s support and effort. We’ll go on to Talladega.”
Teammates Bell and Hamlin finished in the top five behind Byron, Chastain and Wallace, thus placing five Playoff contenders in the top-five finishing order on the track. Harvick, who was eliminated from the Playoffs last weekend, came home in sixth place while Keselowski, Suarez, Stenhouse and Briscoe completed the top 10 on the track.
Notably, Buescher ended up 14th, Truex settled in 17th, Reddick finished 25th while being the last competitor on the lead lap and Blaney retired in 28th place amid the late multi-car wreck.
There were 22 lead changes for 13 different leaders. The race featured 11 cautions for 55 laps. In addition, 25 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results.
1. William Byron, six laps led
2. Ross Chastain, one lap led
3. Bubba Wallace, 111 laps led
4. Christopher Bell
5. Denny Hamlin
6. Kevin Harvick
7. Brad Keselowski
8. Daniel Suarez
9. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
10. Chase Briscoe
11. Chase Elliott, one lap led
12. Alex Bowman, one lap led
13. Justin Haley
14. Chris Buescher, two laps led
15. Michael McDowell
16. Carson Hocevar
17. Martin Truex Jr.
18. Aric Almirola
19. Ty Dillon, three laps led
20. Harrison Burton
21. Joey Logano
22. BJ McLeod
23. Ryan Preece
24. Zane Smith
25. Tyler Reddick, 36 laps led, Stage 1 winner
26. Corey LaJoie, five laps down
27. Austin Cindric – OUT, Accident, one lap led
28. Ryan Blaney – OUT, Accident
29. AJ Allmendinger – OUT, Accident, one lap led
30. Erik Jones – OUT, Accident, Accident, three laps led
The second Round of 12 event in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to occur next Sunday, October 1, at Talladega Superspeedway. The event’s broadcast is slated to occur at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.
Competing in his eighth full-time season in the NASCAR Cup Series, Ryan Blaney is poised to achieve a milestone start. By taking the green flag in this weekend’s Playoff event at Texas Motor Speedway, the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang will achieve career start No. 300 in NASCAR’s premier series.
A native of High Point, North Carolina, Blaney made his inaugural presence in NASCAR’s premier series at Kansas Speedway in May 2014. By then, he was competing in his second full-time season in the NASCAR Truck Series with Brad Keselowski Racing and had accumulated two victories in the series along with his first Xfinity Series win at Kentucky Speedway in September 2013. Driving the No. 12 Ford Fusion for Team Penske, Blaney started 21st and finished 27th in his Cup debut. He then made his second series start at Talladega Superspeedway five months later, where he finished 22nd despite starting fourth.
The following season, Blaney competed on a part-time basis in the Cup Series for the Wood Brothers Racing, where he piloted the iconic No. 21 Ford Fusion. He entered in 16 of the 36-race schedule and went on to achieve a season-best fourth-place result at Talladega Superspeedway in May along with a total of two top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 25.3.
In 2016, Blaney was named a full-time Cup Series competitor in the No. 21 Ford Fusion for Wood Brothers Racing, which embarked on its first full-time campaign since 2008. Commencing his rookie campaign with a 19th-place result in the 58th running of the Daytona 500, Blaney’s highlights throughout the regular-season stretch included a fourth-place run at Michigan International Speedway in August, a fifth-place finish at Kansas Speedway in May and a sixth-place result at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March.
Despite notching seven top-10 results throughout the 26-race regular-season stretch, he did not qualify for the 2016 Cup Playoffs. He rallied by finishing fourth at Chicagoland Speedway in September after utilizing a late pit strategy to remain out on the track on old tires for a two-lap shootout and inherit the lead until being overtaken by Martin Truex Jr. during the restart.
Finishing no higher than eighth for the final nine scheduled events, Blaney capped off his first full-time Cup season in 20th place in the final standings and in the runner-up spot behind Chase Elliott for the rookie title on the strength of three top-five results, nine top-10 results and an average-finishing result of 18.5.
Remaining with the Wood Brothers organization for the 2017 Cup season, Blaney kickstarted the season on a strong note by finishing in second place in the 59th running of the Daytona 500 behind Kurt Busch. He then endured an up-and-down voyage through the following 12 events by posting three results in the top 10. The highlight during this stretch was achieving his first Cup career pole at Kansas in May, where he went on to lead 83 of 267 laps and battle Truex for the victory until settling in fourth place in the final running order.
Then at Pocono Raceway in June, Blaney withstood a fierce duel against Kyle Busch to assume the lead with 10 laps remaining before holding off Kevin Harvick to score his first Cup career victory in his 68th career start. By then, Blaney recorded the 99th Cup victory for Wood Brothers Racing as he also became the third first-time winner of the 2017 season and the 189th different competitor to win in NASCAR’s premier series.
After achieving an additional four top-10 results for the remaining 12 scheduled events, where he surpassed 100 Cup career starts, the Pocono victory guaranteed Blaney and the No. 21 Wood Brothers team a spot in the Cup Playoffs for the first time. With four top-11 runs throughout the Rounds of 16 and 12, Blaney transferred all the way to the Round of 8, where his title hopes came to an end with respective finishes of eighth, sixth and 17th. With a 29th-place result at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November, Blaney concluded his sophomore Cup campaign in ninth place in the final standings. Overall, he achieved a victory, his first two poles, four top-five results, 14 top-10 results, 301 laps led and an average-finishing result of 17.3 throughout the 36-race schedule.
In July 2017, Blaney was announced to be rejoining Team Penske to pilot the No. 12 Ford Fusion while Paul Menard would be taking over the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford Fusion for the 2018 Cup season. Blaney started the 2018 season with early momentum after winning the first of two Daytona Duel events at Daytona in February, which awarded him the third-place starting spot for the 60th running of the Daytona 500. During the 500, he led a race-high 118 laps and was in contention until he was involved in a late multi-car wreck, an incident that relegated him back to seventh place in the final scoreboard.
Throughout the 26-race regular-season stretch, Blaney and the No. 12 team achieved five top-five results and 12 top-10 results with their highest on-track result occurring at Kentucky Speedway in July, as they made the 2018 Cup Playoffs. By then, he surpassed 100 career starts in NASCAR’s premier series. During the first two events in the Round of 16, Blaney finished fifth and 19th, respectively. Then during the inaugural Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course event, he notched his first elusive victory of the season and transferred to the Round of 12 after dodging a final lap incident involving Truex and Jimmie Johnson.
During the Round of 12, however, Blaney’s title hopes evaporated with respective finishes of 11th, 29th, and seventh. Managing a strong runner-up result at Texas Motor Speedway in November and through the final four scheduled events, he capped off the season in 10th place in the final standings. By then, Blaney doubled his top-five results (eight), recorded two additional top-10 results (16 total) and a pole (three total), increased his laps led (660 total) and improved his average-finishing result (14.8) from his previous Cup season.
For the 2019 Cup season, Blaney clinched a spot in the Playoffs for a third consecutive season on the strength of seven top-five results and 12 top-10 results throughout the 26-race regular-season stretch. After notching two top-10 results during the Round of 16 and transferring to the Round of 12, he captured his first Cup victory of the season at Talladega in October after edging Ryan Newman at the finish line by 0.007 seconds and during a two-lap shootout. With an automatic pass to the Round of 8, Blaney finished no lower than eighth throughout the round but fell short of transferring to the Championship 4 finale by two spots in the Playoff standings. With an 11th-place finish at Homestead, he capped off his junior Cup season with 11 top-five results, 18 top-10 results, 422 laps led and an average-finishing result of 13.7.
In 2020, Blaney commenced the season by being edged by Denny Hamlin by 0.014 seconds in the 62nd running of the Daytona 500 amid a harrowing final lap accident involving Newman, whom Blaney bumped and sent into the outside wall and upside-down while battling for the victory. He rallied 12 races later by edging Ricky Stenhouse Jr. by 0.007 seconds to win at Talladega for a second consecutive time and for his fourth career victory in NASCAR’s premier series. The Talladega victory along with a total of eight top-five results and 11 top-10 results ensured Blaney a spot for the 2020 Cup Playoffs.
His title hopes, however, came to an early end after finishing no higher than 13th during the Round of 16. Nonetheless, he capped off the season with momentum and with six top-10 results during the final seven scheduled events before finishing in ninth place in the final standings. While he tied his accumulated top-five results (11) and led more laps than his previous season (668 total), he earned one less top-10 result from his previous season (17) and with an average-finishing result of 13.8.
The 2021 season was a career year for Blaney, who finished no higher than fifth during the first five scheduled events before notching his first victory of the season at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March after overtaking Kyle Larson under the final 10 laps. By then, he surpassed 200 Cup career starts. He proceeded to finish in the top 10 nine times during the following 18 events before capping off the regular-season stretch with back-to-back victories at Michigan and Daytona in August. Making his fifth consecutive appearance in the Cup Playoffs, Blaney transferred all the way from the Round of 16 to 8 on the strength of four top-10 results. He, however, did not transfer to the Championship 4 round due to respective finishes of sixth, 37th and 11th during the Round of 8 as he went on to finish fourth in the finale at Phoenix Raceway in November and seventh in the final standings. In addition to achieving his first multi-victory season, Blaney also recorded a total of 11 top-five results for a third consecutive season, a career-high 20 top-10 results and a career-best average-finishing result of 11.9.
This past season, Blaney endured his first winless season in the Cup circuit for the first time since 2016 despite achieving three poles, eight top-five and 12 top-10 results throughout the regular season. Mired within the results was his first All-Star victory at Texas in May, where he fended off Hamlin during a two-lap shootout. With a 15th-place result in the regular-season finale at Daytona in August, Blaney claimed the final transfer spot to the 2022 Cup Playoffs by a mere margin over Truex. Despite transferring all the way from the Round of 16 to 8 with three top-10 results, he missed the cutline to make the Championship 4 despite finishing as high as third during the Round of 8.
Blaney ended up finishing in second place in the finale at Phoenix, which marked his second runner-up result of the season, and in seventh place in the final standings. Despite recording three less top-10 results compared to his previous season (17 total) and with an average-finishing result of 13.6, he achieved a career-high 12 top-five runs.
Blaney commenced the 2023 Cup season with an eighth-place finish in the 65th running of the Daytona 500 despite being in two separate multi-car wrecks. He then proceeded to notch six additional top-10 results during the following 12 events, including two runner-up results. At Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coca-Cola 600 in May, Blaney made a triumphant return to Victory Lane after leading a race-high 163 of 400 laps and beating William Byron by six-tenths of a second to notch his eighth career victory in NASCAR’s premier series and first since winning at Daytona in August 2021. With a guaranteed spot for the 2023 Cup Playoffs based on his Charlotte win, Blaney secured four additional top-10 results during the remaining 12 regular-season events before the Playoffs commenced. Despite recording respective finishes of ninth, 12th and 22nd during the Round of 16, Blaney was one of 12 competitors to advance into the Round of 12. He is currently ranked in 11th place in the Playoff standings with 3,008 points as he prepares to tackle the Round of 12 and continue his quest to contend for his first Cup Series championship.
Through 299 previous Cup starts, Blaney has achieved eight victories, nine poles, 65 top-five results, 126 top-10 results, 3,489 laps led and an average-finishing result of 15.5.
Blaney is scheduled to make his 300th Cup Series career start at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, September 24, with the event’s coverage to occur at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.
1. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin started second at Bristol, overcame an early pit lane speeding penalty and stormed back to win the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol.
“This was a great win for me,” Hamlin said. “If I could take this performance and put it in a bottle for future use, I would. Heck, if I could put it in a ‘Cup,’ I would, but I don’t have one.”
2. Kyle Larson: Larson ran up front all night at Bristol and finished second.
“We’ve got two Hendrick Motorsports cars in the Round Of 12,” Larson said. “It’s too bad Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman missed the Playoffs. Don’t get me wrong, they should have made the playoffs. Hopefully, they’ve learned their lessons about doing things that they shouldn’t have, like missing the Playoffs, or snowboarding, or racing sprint cars.”
3. William Byron: Byron finished ninth at Bristol and easily advanced to the Round Of 12.
“I clinched a spot in the Round Of 12 after Stage 2,” Byron said. “I didn’t get complacent, though. I refused to let myself start thinking about the next race at Texas. Why, you may ask? Because first, I have to pass inspection at Bristol. And for the No. 24, that’s never a guarantee.”
4. Christopher Bell: Bell started on the pole at Bristol and finished third.
“That was my third straight pole,” Bell said. “Of course, poles don’t mean a thing. But polls do. If you polled all drivers and asked them if they think Christopher Bell could win a race from the pole, 100% of them would say ‘No.’”
5. Chris Buescher: Buescher was solid at Bristol, posting a fourth and easily advancing to the Round Of 12.
“Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was driving the car primarily sponsored by Scott Toilet Paper,” Buescher said. “It’s certainly appropriate at this track, because ask any driver, after 500 laps at Bristol, you’re pooped.”
6. Tyler Reddick: Reddick finished 15th at Bristol.
“Michael Jordan himself was in my pit box,” Reddick said. “I asked him if he thought I was going to win the race, and he said ‘You bet.’ I replied ‘You bet?’ And he replied, ‘Yes. $100,000.’”
7. Ross Chastain: Chastain fell a lap down during Stage 2 and finished 23rd, two laps down, in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race. He advanced to the next round of the playoffs.
“I’m just trying to get to Martinsville,” Chastain said. “That’s where I can pull off another miracle and make it to the championship round. The miracle being me destroying my car as opposed to someone else’s car for the betterment of me.”
8. Kyle Busch: Busch struggled at Bristol, but did enough to qualify for the Round Of 12 with a finish of 20th.
“I just had to put myself in the right mindset to get where I needed to,” Busch said. “I just equated ‘missing the Playoffs’ to ‘spending the night in a Mexican prison,’ so there was no way I was spending the night in a Mexican prison.”
9. Ryan Blaney: Blaney struggled at Bristol and finished 22nd, but clinched a spot in the Round Of 12.
“I’m not too thrilled with the car’s performance,” Blaney said, “but at least I advanced to the next round. There are 12 drivers, so I guess I have a 1 in 12 chance of winning the championship. I like those odds, because they are way better than my actual odds.”
10. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex battled all night and ultimately secured a spot in the next round of the playoffs with a 19th-place finish at Bristol.
“I had to fight my car all night,” Truex said. “Let’s just say the handling on No. 19 Toyota was ‘half-assed.’ Now I am, because I had to work my ass off just to get the car across the finish line.”
Not even the chorus of boos from the crowd prior to and after the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, September 16, could damper Denny Hamlin’s mood and sense of enthusiasm and optimism to contend for this year’s NASCAR Cup Series championship upon winning for the third time in the 2023 season.
The three-time Daytona 500 champion from Chesterfield, Virginia, led three times for 142 of 500-scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row and rallied from speeding on pit road under caution on Lap 70. The resulting penalty sent him to the rear of the field but he methodically drove his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota TRD Camry back to the front.
Managing a top-five result during the second stage period, Hamlin, who led for the first time with under 150 laps remaining amid a tight battle with teammate Ty Gibbs, regained the lead for good with 134 laps remaining. From there, he spent the remainder of the event navigating his way through lapped traffic and fending off Kyle Larson to score his third Cup Series victory of the 2023 season and become one of 12 Playoff competitors to advance into the Round of 12.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, September 15, Playoff contender Christopher Bell notched his third consecutive Cup pole position in recent weeks and the fifth of this season after posting a pole-winning lap at 126.997 mph in 15.109 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Denny Hamlin, who clocked in the second-best qualifying lap at 126.930 mph in 15.117 seconds.
When the green flag waved and the race started amid a delay spanning more than half an hour due to light, persistent precipitation, Bell rocketed his No. 20 Reser’s Fine Foods Toyota TRD Camry ahead of the pack from the outside lane to lead through the first two turns as Michael McDowell followed suit and moved his No. 34 Love’s Ford Mustang into the runner-up spot. Meanwhile, Hamlin, who did not gain a strong start from the inside lane, fell back to third in front of William Byron and Ty Gibbs as Bell proceeded to lead the first lap.
Through the second to fifth lap, Bell kept his pole-winning car out in front of the pack while Hamlin managed to overtake McDowell in Turn 3 to reclaim the runner-up spot. Behind, Byron retained fourth ahead of Ty Gibbs, who fended off Brad Keselowski, as Martin Truex Jr., Corey LaJoie and Bubba Wallace followed suit. With Chase Elliott, who was initially running behind Wallace, slowly losing spots and dropping out of the top 10 after getting his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 stuck on the outside lane, Bell stabilized his lead to two-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Bell was leading by three-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin, McDowell, Byron and Ty Gibbs while Truex, Keselowski, LaJoie, Wallace and Tyler Reddick were in the top 10. Behind, Ryan Blaney was in 11th ahead of Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece while Elliott, Justin Haley, Kevin Harvick, Ross Chastain and Chris Buescher occupied the top 20. By then, Playoff contenders Joey Logano and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were mired in 22nd and 23rd while Kyle Larson was in 31st behind Ty Dillon.
Fifteen laps later, Bell, who was starting to approach lapped traffic, retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin while McDowell trailed in third place by nearly two seconds despite having Byron close in. Behind, Ty Gibbs retained fifth while Truex, Keselowski, LaJoie, Wallace and Reddick continued to run in the top 10.
Another 10 laps later, Bell, who continued to deal with lapped traffic as he had lapped Daniel Suarez and Harrison Burton, also continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin while McDowell retained third place as he trailed the two Joe Gibbs Racing teammates by more than a second. With Playoff contenders Byron, Truex, Keselowski, Wallace, Reddick, Blaney and Kyle Busch running in the top 13, the remaining Playoff contenders that included Harvick, Chastain, Buescher, Logano, Stenhouse and Larson were mired outside the top 15 and running within the top 30.
At the Lap 50 mark, Bell, who lapped Austin Cindric a few laps earlier, stabilized his advantage over teammate Hamlin while McDowell, Byron and Ty Gibbs continued to trail in the top five. By then, Truex moved his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota TRD Camry into sixth place while Keselowski, LaJoie, Wallace, Reddick, Blaney, Bowman, Kyle Busch, Briscoe and Ryan Preece followed suit in the top 15.
Eighteen laps later, the first caution of the event flew when AJ Allmendinger, who was just lapped by the leaders, ran his No. 16 Barger Precast Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 up the track in turn 3 and smacked the outside wall entering the frontstretch before he was hit by Cindric’s No. 2 Menards/Monster Energy Ford Mustang. By then, Bell was still leading ahead of teammate Hamlin while Hamlin, McDowell, Byron, Ty Gibbs, Truex, Keselowski, LaJoie, Wallace and Reddick were in the top 10.
During the first caution period, a majority of the field led by Bell pitted for service while the rest led by LaJoie and including Wallace, Reddick, Chastain, Logano and Todd Gilliland remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Chase Briscoe was assessed a commitment line violation. In addition, Playoff contender Hamlin and Cindric were penalized for speeding on pit road, Playoff contender Larson was penalized for running over equipment and Austin Dillon was penalized for a safety violation.
When the race restarted on Lap 76, LaJoie and Wallace dueled for the lead until LaJoie managed to muscle his No. 7 NEGU Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ahead through the backstretch and clear Wallace to assume both lanes to his control with the lead during the following lap. With LaJoie leading Wallace’s No. 23 Columbia Toyota TRD Camry, Chastain was in third ahead of Reddick while Bell muscled his way back into fifth as the field behind fanned out and jostled for positions amid those who pitted and those who remained on the track. With Bell battling Reddick for fourth place and trying to navigate his way back to the front, LaJoie stabilized his advantage to nearly half a second over Wallace by Lap 85.
At the Lap 100 mark, LaJoie continued to lead by four-tenths of a second over Wallace while Bell, who moved up to third, trailed by seven-tenths of a second as he started to challenge Wallace for the runner-up spot. By then, Chastain and Reddick were in the top five while McDowell, Byron, Ty Gibbs, Logano and Keselowski were in the top 10 on the track. Behind, Truex was in 11th ahead of Blaney while Kyle Busch and Buescher settled in the top 15. Meanwhile, Hamlin and Larson, following their pit road penalties, were mired back in 23rd and 24th, Stenhouse was down in 26th and Harvick, who restarted 16th, plummeted his No. 4 GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang to 28th.
Five laps later, the event’s second caution period flew due to the return of rain. By then, Bell overtook Wallace for the runner-up spot and nearly overtook LaJoie for the lead while Chastain, Reddick and McDowell followed suit in the top six. By then, Larson, Hamlin, Stenhouse and Harvick were mired back in 23rd, 24th, 27th and 28th, respectively. During the caution period, some led by McDowell and including Ty Gibbs, Blaney, Bowman, Buescher, Hamlin, Stenhouse and Harvick pitted while the rest led by LaJoie remained on the track.
With the event restarting on Lap 113, LaJoie muscled ahead to retain the lead ahead of Bell, Wallace and Reddick as the field fanned out through the backstretch. With LaJoie leading, Bell started to reignited his challenge for the lead by Lap 115 while Wallace maintained third ahead of a side-by-side battle between Byron and Reddick. Then on Lap 120, Bell reassumed the lead after navigating his way around LaJoie through the backstretch for the top spot.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 125, Bell, who came into the event 13 points above the top-12 cutline to advance to the Playoff’s Round of 12, claimed his third Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. LaJoie settled in second followed by Wallace, Byron and Reddick while Chastain, Keselowski, Larson, Truex and Ty Gibbs were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Kyle Busch, Buescher, McDowell, Blaney, Hamlin, Stenhouse, Logano and Harvick were mired outside the top 10 and did not score the first wave of stage points. In addition, 33 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap.
Under the stage break, some led by LaJoie and including Wallace, Reddick, Chastain, Keselowski, Truex, Kyle Busch and Logano pitted while the rest including Bell remained on the track. Not long after, the field led by Bell was directed to pit road and the event was placed in a red flag period due to the return of precipitation. Nearly 15 minutes later, the field re-fired the engines and returned to the oval under a cautious pace.
The second stage started on Lap 140 as Bell and Larson occupied the front row. At the start, Bell muscled ahead from the outside lane to retain the lead as Byron and Ty Gibbs moved up to second and third followed by McDowell while Larson fell back to fifth. As Bell retained the lead, Ty Gibbs muscled his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry into the runner-up spot from the outside lane. McDowell would then challenge Byron for third place nearing the Lap 145 mark as Larson trailed behind in fifth.
By Lap 155, Bell was leading by over teammate Ty Gibbs while Byron, McDowell and Larson followed suit in the top five. Behind, Elliott, Buescher, Bowman, Hamlin and Stenhouse were in the top 10 ahead of Preece, Blaney, Aric Almirola, Todd Gilliland and Carson Hocevar while Erik Jones, LaJoie, Austin Dillon, Harrison Burton and Wallace occupied the top 20. Bell would stabilize his lead to half a second over teammate Ty Gibbs while Larson, who continued to navigate his No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 towards the outside wall to gain the momentum and extra speed towards the straightaways, was up to fourth as he started to challenge Byron for third place.
Just past the Lap 175 mark, Bell, who lapped Logano five laps earlier, was leading by two-tenths of a second over Larson followed by Ty Gibbs, Byron and McDowell while Buescher, Elliott, Hamlin, Bowman and Stenhouse rounded out the top 10. By then, Blaney, Wallace and Kyle Busch were mired in the top 20 while Reddick, Keselowski, Truex, Chastain, Harvick and Logano were all mired below the top 20 and within the top 32 on the track. Amid lapped traffic, Bell would proceed to lap Harvick during the following lap before Larson rocketed to the lead on Lap 179.
By Lap 190, Larson was leading by half a second over Bell while third-place Ty Gibbs trailed by more than a second. Behind, McDowell and Byron retained top-five spots ahead of Buescher, Byron, Hamlin, Elliott, Bowman and Hocevar while Stenhouse, Preece, LaJoie, Erik Jones and Blaney occupied the top 15.
At the Lap 200 mark, the battle for the lead between Bell and Larson reignited as Bell, who reassumed the lead a lap earlier, was leading Larson while Ty Gibbs, McDowell and Buescher followed suit in the top five. With Hamlin and Byron in sixth and seventh, Stenhouse and Blaney were in the top 15 while Playoff contenders Kyle Busch, Reddick, Wallace, Keselowski, Truex, Chastain, Logano and Harvick were mired within the top 32, with Chastain, Logano and Harvick were scored a lap down.
Fifteen laps later, Bell extended his advantage to two seconds over Larson while Ty Gibbs, McDowell and Buescher continued to run in the top five. By then, Hocevar, who was having a stellar run in his fourth event driving the No. 42 entry for Legacy Motor Club, moved up to seventh behind Hamlin while Byron, Elliott and Bowman battled in the top 10.
Another 15 laps later, Bell continued to stretch his advantage as he was now leading by more than three seconds over Larson followed by Ty Gibbs, McDowell and Buescher while Hamlin, Hocevar, Byron, Elliott and Bowman were in the top 10 ahead of Preece, Stenhouse, LaJoie, Erik Jones and Blaney. By then, Playoff contenders Reddick, Wallace, Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Truex, Chastain, Logano and Harvick were mired in 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 28th, 31st and 32nd, respectively.
Just past the Lap 240 mark, Bell retained the lead by more than a second over Larson while Ty Gibbs, Hamlin and McDowell remained in the top five as the leaders started to approach lapped traffic and a bevy of Playoff contenders, including Kyle Busch and Truex.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 250, Bell captured his fourth Cup stage victory of 2023 and second of the night. Ty Gibbs navigated his way around Larson to claim the runner-up spot while Hamlin, Hocevar, McDowell, Buescher, Byron, Preece and Elliott were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Stenhouse, Blaney, Wallace, Keselowski, Reddick, Truex, Kyle Busch, Chastain, Logano and Harvick did not score the second wave of stage points while Chastain, Logano and Harvick were mired a lap down. By then, 23 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap, including 23rd-place runner Kyle Busch, while Hamlin and Byron clinched their spots for the Playoff’s Round of 12 based on points.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Bell pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Ty Gibbs emerged as the new leader after exiting pit road first followed by teammate Hamlin, Larson, teammate Bell, Buescher, Hocevar, McDowell and Preece.
With 240 laps remaining, the final stage started as teammates Ty Gibbs and Hamlin occupied the front row. At the start, Gibbs rocketed with the lead over Hamlin while Larson and Buescher battled for third place in front of Bell and McDowell. Then two laps later, the caution quickly returned when LaJoie, who was running 12th and having a strong run towards the front, got loose entering the backstretch and bounced off Erik Jones before spinning down the track, clipping the inside wall and sliding back up the track as he clipped Logano with Ryan Newman, Ty Dillon and Justin Haley all being collected in a multi-car wreck. The damage to the left rear of Logano’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang was enough to terminate Logano’s event from further contention and potentially his title hopes of this season pending the outcomes of Truex, Wallace and Harvick.
During the proceeding restart with 229 laps remaining, teammates Ty Gibbs and Hamlin dueled for the lead until Gibbs muscled ahead through Turns 3 and 4 as he retained the lead. Behind, Larson was in third followed by Buescher while Bell navigated his way into fifth as McDowell and Hocevar battled for sixth amid a series of battles ensuing within the pack.
With less than 210 laps remaining, Ty Gibbs retained the lead by six-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin followed by Larson, Buescher and teammate Bell while Hocevar, McDowell, Preece, Bowman and Erik Jones while Elliott, Byron, Stenhouse, Wallace and Almirola trailed in the top 15 ahead of Keselowski, Austin Dillon, Reddick, Todd Gilliland and Truex. By then, Harvick, who was currently scored three points below the cutline behind Truex and Wallace, was mired in 28th after scraping the outside wall earlier.
Down to the final 200 laps of the event, Ty Gibbs continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin as Larson, Buescher and Bell remained in the top five. Behind, Wallace, who drew himself back into contention to make the cutline amid Logano’s retirement, was in 14th behind Byron and Stenhouse. In addition, Truex, who was also battling for the final transfer spot to the cutline, was mired in 20th in front of Kyle Busch while Harvick, who was four points below the cutline, was trapped in 29th as he continued to deal with handling issues to his Ford.
Five laps later, Blaney, who was in 24th place on the track and 23 points above the cutline despite making earlier contact with the wall, was lapped by the leader Ty Gibbs as Hamlin tried to close in on his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate for the lead.
With 175 laps remaining, Ty Gibbs extended his advantage to more than a second over teammate Hamlin as Larson, Buescher, Bell, Hocevar, McDowell, Bowman, Preece and Byron were running in the top 10. Meanwhile, Wallace, who nearly made contact with Keselowski a few laps earlier, was in 13th, Truex was in 19th in front of Kyle Busch, Blaney was back in 23rd, Chastain was mired in 25th and Harvick was in 28th.
Twenty-five laps later, Ty Gibbs, who lapped Playoff contender Kyle Busch more than 10 laps earlier, continued to lead by four-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin while Larson, Buescher, Bell, Hocevar, McDowell, Bowman, Preece and Byron remained in the top 10. By then, Keselowski, Stenhouse and Wallace were in the top 14, Reddick was in 17th, Truex was in 19th ahead of Kyle Busch, Blaney was back in 23rd, Chastain was in 25th and Harvick lost a spot to 29th.
Another four laps later, the battle for the lead intensified between Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs and Hamlin as Hamlin used the inside lane to muscle ahead and lead a lap for himself before Gibbs fought back on the outside lane and reassumed the top spot. With Gibbs trying to pull away, Larson started to close in on both for the lead while Truex was trying to remain ahead of the leaders to remain on the lead lap. Then with 141 laps remaining, Hamlin, who transitioned to the outside lane, navigated his way around Ty Gibbs to assume the lead.
Then with 139 laps remaining, Truex, who was running 19th and just lapped by teammate Hamlin, got sideways entering the frontstretch and made contact with the right-rear quarter panel of his car towards the wall, though he managed to continue straight without spinning his car. Despite Truex being scored the first competitor a lap down at the moment of caution, he was not awarded the free pass due to instigating the caution for the spin.
During the caution period, the leaders led by Hamlin pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin retained the lead after exiting first ahead of Larson, Buescher, Bell, Ty Gibbs, McDowell, Hocevar and Byron.
With 131 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Hamlin and Larson dueled for the lead for a lap until Hamlin used the outside lane to rocket ahead of Larson during the following lap. Hamlin, however, slipped up the track, which allowed Larson to nearly draw even with Hamlin and battle him for the lead as the field behind jostled for late positions. With 127 laps remaining, Hamlin managed to clear Larson with the lead as Bell navigated his way up to third ahead of Buescher and Ty Gibbs. With Hamlin leading by seven-tenths of a second over Larson with 120 laps remaining, McDowell was in sixth as he was currently scored 17 points below the cutline and faced a “must-win” situation to advance into the Round of 12. Meanwhile, Wallace was in 14th behind teammate Reddick, Truex was in 19th a lap down, and Harvick was in 29th, three laps down.
Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Hamlin continued to lead by more than a second over Larson followed by Bell, Buescher and Ty Gibbs while McDowell, Elliott, Byron, Hocevar and Stenhouse were scored in the top 10 ahead of Keselowski. Behind, Wallace retained 13th ahead of teammate Reddick, Truex remained as the first competitor a lap down in 19th in front of Kyle Busch, Blaney and Chastain while Harvick continued to run three laps down in 29th, which currently places him and Logano below the cutline behind Wallace and Truex.
Twenty-five laps later, Hamlin stabilized his advantage to nearly two seconds over Larson followed by Bell, Buescher and Ty Gibbs while McDowell, Elliott, Byron, Hocevar and Keselowski were in the top 10. By then, Hamlin lapped 18th-place Aric Almirola a few laps earlier as Almirola was ahead of Truex in a battle for the free pass position while Wallace remained in 13th in between Preece and Bowman. In addition, Harvick continued to run 29th while now scored four laps down.
With less than 60 laps remaining, Hamlin, who was trying to lap 16th-place runner Todd Gilliland, stabilized his advantage to six-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Larson while Bell, Buescher and McDowell remained in the top five. Despite Larson gaining ground in the proceeding laps while continuing to rim-ride towards the outside wall, Hamlin, who managed to lap Gilliland, increased his lead to more than a second over Larson with 50 laps remaining.
With 35 laps remaining, Hamlin stretched his advantage to more than two seconds over Larson. By then, Wallace was a lap down despite retaining 14th place on the track while Truex retained 19th ahead of Kyle Busch, Blaney, Suarez and Chastain. Both Wallace and Truex, though, continued to emerge ahead of both Harvick and Logano above the current Playoff cutline as Hamlin continued to lead with 25 laps remaining.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Hamlin retained the lead by more than two seconds over Larson while Bell, Buescher and McDowell followed pursuit in the top five. As Ty Gibbs, Elliott, Keselowski, Byron and Hocevar were scored in the top 10 on the track, Wallace and Truex remained in 14th and 19th on the track while Harvick also remained in 29th. Amid the late battles for on-track spots and potential transfer spots to the Round of 12, Hamlin remained out in front by less than two seconds over Larson.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Hamlin kept his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry out in front by less than two seconds over Larson’s No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 while third-place Bell trailed by more than four seconds. Hamlin, who would proceed to lap teammate Truex for a second time, would also proceed to lead by less than two seconds with five laps remaining.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hamlin remained as the leader by more than two seconds over Larson. Despite being marred by more lapped traffic and trying to catch 10th-place Stenhouse, Hamlin was able to smoothly cycle his way around the 0.533-mile oval for a final time and cross the finish line first to claim the checkered flag and win by more than two seconds over Larson.
With the victory, Hamlin notched his 51st career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series, which moved him into sole possession in 13th place on the all-time wins list. The Bristol victory under the lights marked his third at the track, his third of the season and his first since winning at Pocono Raceway in July. It also marked the seventh of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing and the ninth of the season for Toyota.
Having clinched his spot for the Round of 12 earlier in the night, Hamlin will continue his quest to contend for his first elusive NASCAR Cup Series championship in his 18th season as a full-time competitor.
Photo by Andrew Boyd for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“Everybody likes a winner, right?” Hamlin, who took a swipe at the chorus of boos from the crowd, said on USA Network. “[I] Can’t thank this whole FedEx team enough. They really kicked ass this whole first round. Just amazing how good our team has been. Just so happy about the way we’re running. Can’t wait to keep going. It’s our year. I just feel like we’ve got it all put together. We got the speed every single type of racetrack. Nothing to stop us at this point. Hey, I beat your favorite driver! All of them!”
Kyle Larson settled in the runner-up spot followed by Bell and Buescher, all of whom transferred into the Playoff’s Round of 12 while rookie Ty Gibbs ended up in fifth place after leading 102 laps. McDowell, Elliott, Keselowski, Byron and Stenhouse completed the top 10 on the track, all of whom finished on the lead lap.
Meanwhile, Bubba Wallace and Martin Truex Jr., both of whom entered Bristol below the cutline, were left smiling on pit road after both managed to secure the final two transfer spots into the Round of 12 by finishing 14th and 19th, respectively, amid a grueling event.
“God, I love that [expletive] right there, counting us out,” Wallace, who proceeds forward in his quest to win his first Cup title and secured both 23XI Racing cars into the Round of 12 along with Tyler Reddick, said. “Like [tennis star] Coco Gauff said, all [the critics] are doing is adding fuel to the fire. I love it. I love where I’m at with this team. I’m at a career year. Just got to keep it going. I’m mentally exhausted. I’m wore out. Gave it our all there. Battled hard and executed. That’s what you gotta do. We know next week’s a reset and we just got to go out, have some fun and work our asses off. Thank you to the ones that believe in me. Keep it going and onto next week.”
Photo by Chad Wells for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“All in all, it was just a fighting night,” Truex, who will continue to battle for his second Cup title, added. “We had to fight through it and do the best we could. It wasn’t pretty, but it was enough. Now we reset and we can go, hopefully, not have two terrible weeks in a row like we did this round in the next couple and be in good shape.”
Photo by Chad Wells for SpeedwayMedia.com.
With Wallace and Truex advancing into the Round of 12 along with Byron, Hamlin, Larson, Buescher, Kyle Busch, Bell, Reddick, Chastain, Keselowski and Blaney, Logano, who ended up 34th, was officially eliminated from title contention as he will not defend his series’ title nor contend for a third Cup title this season. Kevin Harvick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Michael McDowell also joined Logano as the first four wave of competitors to be eliminated from Playoff contention for the 2023 season.
“We’ve been like that all year,” Harvick, who ended up 29th, five laps down, and will not contend for his second championship in his 23rd and final full-time season in the Cup Series, said. “We’ve been hit or miss and tonight, we just missed by a mile. I’ve had some good days and bad days, but that’s definitely the worst [run at Bristol] I’ve had with fenders on [the car]. I didn’t really have many expectations with this up and down as the year has been, so it is what it is. That’s probably about what we deserved.”
Photo by Chad Wells for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“Tonight, it wasn’t enough,” McDowell added. “We were in a “must-win” situation. Still really proud of everybody at Front Row Motorsports. Not quite enough to run with those top two or three guys, but pretty good. Those first two [Playoff] races just killed us. It just put us so far behind, but this is a learning experience. It’s a young group. We didn’t do what we wanted to do here in these Playoffs, but I think we showed speed. We showed that we could do it, so we’ll learn from this. We’ll get ready for next year.”
There were 10 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 53 laps.
Results.
1. Denny Hamlin, 142 laps led
2. Kyle Larson, 20 laps led
3. Christopher Bell, 187 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner
4. Chris Buescher, one lap led
5. Ty Gibbs, 102 laps led
6. Michael McDowell
7. Chase Elliott
8. Brad Keselowski
9. William Byron
10. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
11. Carson Hocevar, one lap down
12. Ryan Preece, one lap down
13. Alex Bowman, one lap down
14. Bubba Wallace, one lap down
15. Tyler Reddick, one lap down
16. Todd Gilliland, one lap down
17. Austin Dillon, one lap down
18. Aric Almirola, one lap down
19. Martin Truex Jr., two laps down
20. Kyle Busch, two laps down
21. Daniel Suarez, two laps down
22. Ryan Blaney, two laps down
23. Ross Chastain, two laps down
24. Erik Jones, three laps down
25. Corey LaJoie, three laps down
26. JJ Yeley, five laps down
27. Chase Briscoe, five laps down
28. Harrison Burton, five laps down
29. Kevin Harvick, five laps down
30. AJ Allmendinger, nine laps down
31. BJ McLeod, 10 laps down
32. Austin Cindric, 12 laps down
33. Ty Dillon – OUT, Accident
34. Joey Logano – OUT, Accident
35. Justin Haley – OUT, Accident
36. Ryan Newman – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates Playoff contenders
Playoff standings
1. William Byron – Advanced
2. Martin Truex Jr. – Advanced
3. Denny Hamlin – Advanced
4. Kyle Larson – Advanced
5. Chris Buescher – Advanced
6. Kyle Busch – Advanced
7. Christopher Bell – Advanced
8. Tyler Reddick – Advanced
9. Ross Chastain – Advanced
10. Brad Keselowski – Advanced
11. Ryan Blaney – Advanced
12. Bubba Wallace – Advanced
13. Joey Logano – Eliminated
14. Kevin Harvick – Eliminated
15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – Eliminated
16. Michael McDowell – Eliminated
The Round of 12 in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to commence next Sunday, September 24, at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. The event’s broadcast is slated to occur at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.
1. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin had a sloppy late restart that likely cost him the win at Kansas. He still finished second and is in great shape to advance to the next round of the Playoffs.
“I just signed a contract extension with Joe Gibbs Racing,” Hamlin said. “I’m very fortunate to remain with a great team and remain financially secure for the rest of my life. My cup runneth over. Unfortunately, the Cup runneth away.”
2. Kyle Larson: Larson won Stage 1 at Kansas and finished fourth.
“I’ve already locked up a spot in the next round of the Playoffs,” Larson said. “So the pressure was off. I was racing under the motto, ‘Winning isn’t everything, it’s just another thing.’”
3. William Byron: Byron spun on Lap 63 and eventually finished 15th at Kansas.
“Not a great finish,” Byron said, “and not a horrible finish. I’m in a great position to advance to the Round Of 12, as long as I don’t have to pass an inspection.”
4. Tyler Reddick: Reddick charged to the win on an overtime restart to claim the Hollywood Casino 400 victory and a spot in the next round of the Playoffs.
“I don’t know how to react,” Reddick said. “I don’t know if I should celebrate, or let out a big sigh of relief, or throw my helmet at Austin Dillon. I know that last one doesn’t make sense, but it also didn’t make sense when Austin threw his helmet at my car, even though I didn’t even touch him.”
5. Christopher Bell: Bell started on the pole at Kansas and finished eighth.
“That’s my fifth pole of the year,” Bell said. “And I was unable to win any of those races. I have to learn to ‘close the deal,’ or I won’t be able to ‘close the deal’ when it’s time for a contract renewal.”
6. Ross Chastain: Chastain finished 13th in the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas.
“I would love to win the Cup championship,” Chastain said. “Then I could happily drop watermelons on the heads of all my doubters. And trust me, that would take a watermelon farm’s worth of watermelons to do.”
7. Ryan Blaney: Blaney finished 12th at Kansas and is sixth in the points standings, 25 points above the Round Of 12 cut line.
“I don’t think anyone sees me as a real threat to win the Cup championship,” Blaney said. “But I’d like to prove those people wrong, especially since I am one of those people.”
8. Chris Buescher: Buescher blew a right-rear tire late at Kansas and finished 27th.
“That was a tough race,” Buescher said, “with an outcome I’m not happy with. But that’s in the past. As they say, ‘We’re not in Kansas anymore.’ After Bristol, I might be saying, ‘We’re not in the Playoffs anymore.’”
9. Joey Logano: Logano finished fifth at Kansas.
“How about Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 Ford?” Logano said. “It was primarily sponsored by Sunny D. Is Sunny D orange juice? Is it a soft drink? Who knows? All I know is that I don’t know what it’s made of, and it’s not good for your health. It’s like the Martinsville hot dog of drinks.”
10. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex blew a tire on Lap 4 at Kansas and slammed the outside wall, ending his day and handing him a painful last-place finish.
“I recently signed a contract extension to remain with Joe Gibbs Racing through 2024,” Truex said. “I’m 43 years old, so this early retirement at Kansas seems very out of place.”
The one-day wait amid an extensive rain delay period was worth the wait for Chris Buescher and Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing as both navigated their way to win the rain-postponed FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway that started on Sunday, August 6, and concluded on Monday, August 7.
The 2015 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion from Prosper, Texas, led three times for a race-high 52 of 200-scheduled laps in an event where he rolled off the starting grid in fourth place and was coming off a breakthrough victory at Richmond Raceway. Amid a one-day postponement of the event due to precipitation and various pit strategies that ensued throughout the event, Buescher, who managed to cycle his way past dominant Martin Truex Jr. amid the final cycle of green flag pit stops with nearly 40 laps remaining, assumed the race lead with 18 laps remaining and, despite nearly losing the lead with 12 laps remaining, fended off a late surge from Truex to notch his second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series victory in recent weeks and gain needed momentum with the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs looming.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, August 5, Christopher Bell notched his second Cup pole position of the season and the sixth of his career after posting a fast pole-winning lap at 193.382 mph in 37.232 seconds, which marks the fastest qualifying lap posted since the 2020 Daytona 500. Joining him on the front row was Ross Chastain, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 193.242 mph in 37.259 seconds.
Prior to the event, the following names that included Corey LaJoie, JJ Yeley and Austin Hill dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. Another competitor who also dropped to the rear of the field for unapproved adjustments was Josh Berry, who was piloting the No. 42 Legacy Motor Club entry in place of the suspended Noah Gragson.
When the green flag waved and the race commenced amid a delay of more than an hour and a half due to precipitation, Bell and Chastain dueled for the lead through the frontstretch until Chastain, who restarted on the inside lane, received a huge shove from rookie Ty Gibbs to muscle his No. 1 Jockey Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead through Turns 1 and 2, where he then moved in front of Bell’s No. 20 Rheem Toyota TRD Camry entering the backstretch. As the field fanned out and jostled early for positions exiting the backstretch and entering Turns 3 and 4, Chastain proceeded to lead the first lap ahead of Bell while Chris Buescher, Martin Truex Jr. and Ty Gibbs followed suit.
Through the second lap, Chastain maintained the lead ahead of Bell while Truex battled Buescher for third place ahead of Ty Gibbs. Behind, Logano retained sixth ahead of Chase Elliott while William Byron, Bubba Wallace and Ryan Blaney were in the top 10.
Through the first five scheduled laps, Chastain was leading by four-tenths of a second over Truex followed by Bell, Buescher and Ty Gibbs while Logano, Elliott, Wallace, Byron and Blaney were in the top 10. Behind, Denny Hamlin was in 11th ahead of Daniel Suarez, Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch and Tyler Reddick while Austin Dillon, Brad Keselowski, Aric Almirola, Alex Bowman and Michael McDowell occupied the top 20. Meanwhile, Kevin Harvick was mired in 21st ahead of Erik Jones, Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. while AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Preece, Justin Haley, Todd Gilliland and Corey LaJoie rounded out the top 30.
At the Lap 10 mark, Chastain stabilized his early advantage to four-tenths of a second over Truex while third-place Bell trailed by more than a second. With Buescher and Ty Gibbs remaining in the top five, Wallace was up to sixth ahead of Elliott and Byron while Logano fell back to ninth in front of teammate Blaney.
Four laps later, the first caution of the event flew when Kyle Busch, who was battling Blaney for 10th place, moved up the track and made contact with Blaney, where he then got loose, spun and made contact with the outside wall in Turn 2 on the driver’s side. The incident, which was enough to terminate Busch’s event early as he sustained his fifth DNF of the season, occurred as Chastain was being challenged by Truex for the lead. It also served as the competition caution period initially planned for Lap 20.
During the competition caution period, a majority of the field led by Chastain pitted for service while 11 competitors led by the race leader Truex remained on the track amid mixed strategy.
When the race restarted under green on Lap 19, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Truex and Ty Gibbs dueled for the lead until Truex muscled his No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota TRD Camry into the lead through the first two turns and entering the backstretch. With the field fanning out, Truex maintained the lead by half a second over teammate Gibbs while Buescher followed suit along with Wallace and Blaney. Behind, Elliott was in sixth followed by Suarez and Reddick, but Reddick would overtake both by Lap 21 while Chastain, the first competitor who pitted during the competition caution, was in 10th.
Just past the Lap 25 mark and amid a series of on-track battles, Truex was leading by seven-tenths of a second over teammate Ty Gibbs while Buescher, Wallace and Blaney were scored in the top five. Truex would extend his advantage to more than a second over Gibbs by Lap 30. By then, Reddick, who started 15th, rocketed his No. 45 Rocket League Toyota TRD Camry into fifth place while Chastain was mired in ninth in between teammate Suarez and Keselowski. In addition, Bell was in 12th behind Byron, Larson, who nearly got loose entering Turn 4, fell back to 15th ahead of Hamlin and Logano was mired in 24th ahead of Aric Almirola and Harvick. In addition, Josh Berry was in 28th in between Kaulig Racing’s Haley and Allmendinger.
On Lap 34, the second caution of the event flew when Elliott, who was running in ninth after being overtaken by Trackhouse Racing’s Suarez and Chastain a lap earlier, slipped sideways after blowing a right-rear tire and wrecked against the Turn 2 outside wall. The incident not only terminated Elliott’s race amid extensive damage to his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, but it hampered his hopes of gaining valuable points towards the 2023 Cup Series Playoff cutline. During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Buescher pitted while the rest led by Truex remained on the track.
With six laps remaining in the first stage period, the race proceeded under green as Truex and Wallace occupied the front row. At the start, Truex muscled ahead from Wallace while starting on the outside lane as the field fanned out to four lanes entering the first two turns and the backstretch. With Truex remaining ahead of Wallace on the track and amid a series of on-track battles between competitors on mixed strategies, Ty Gibbs was in third followed by Keselowski and Suarez while Larson was in sixth ahead of Corey LaJoie and teammate Alex Bowman.
When the first stage concluded on Lap 45, Truex, who announced his return for the 2024 Cup season with Joe Gibbs Racing on Saturday, claimed his fourth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Wallace trailed in second while Ty Gibbs, Keselowski, Larson, Suarez, Bowman, Hamlin, Erik Jones and LaJoie were scored in the top 10. By then, Byron, who was running ninth, got loose, slipped up and slapped towards the outside wall entering Turn 4 as he limped his No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 across the start/finish line in 13th.
Under the stage break, some led by Truex, who remained on the track during the two previous caution periods, pitted while the rest led by Bowman remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Stenhouse was penalized for speeding on pit road and for an uncontrolled tire violation. Not long after, Truex made another pit stop as he was sent to the rear of the field.
The second stage started on Lap 50 as Bowman and Erik Jones occupied the front row. At the start, Bowman and Jones dueled for the lead entering the first two turns as the field fanned out. Bowman and Jones would continue to duel for the lead through the backstretch while Hamlin, Reddick, Bell and Blaney followed pursuit. Then as the field made their way through Turns 3 and 4, the caution quickly returned when Berry, who was running 16th and battling with Harrison Burton, got loose in front of LaJoie and spun backwards towards the outside wall as he slapped the wall while barely missing Todd Gilliland before the damaged No. 42 Sunseeker Resort Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 came to a rest below the turn’s grass as his event came to an end. By then, Byron, who was on the Damaged Vehicle Policy clock period spanning seven minutes as his pit crew attempted to repair the No. 24 car, ran out of their scheduled repairment time as his event also came to an end.
During the following restart on Lap 55, Bowman rocketed ahead with the lead from the outside lane as he then moved in front of Erik Jones to retain the top spot through the first two turns and entering the backstretch. With the battles ensuing through the backstretch, Bell rocketed his way around Erik Jones for the runner-up spot as he pursued Bowman for the lead while Chastain aggressively carved his way up to 11th.
Through the Lap 60 mark, Bowman was leading by a tenth of a second over Bell followed by Erik Jones, Hamlin and Reddick while Blaney, Austin Cindric, Ryan Preece, Austin Dillon and Allmendinger were in the top 10. By then, Chastain, Wallace, Briscoe, Larson and Truex were in the top 15 while Logano, LaJoie, Almirola, Haley and Buescher occupied the top 20. Behind, Keselowski was mired in 21st ahead of Harrison Burton, Ty Dillon, Ty Gibbs and Suarez while Harvick was back in 26th.
Four laps later, Bell, who had just overtaken Bowman amid a battle for the lead through the frontstretch, slipped sideways entering Turns 1 and 2 amid close-quarters racing with Bowman with Hamlin joining the battle. This resulted with Bell spinning backwards towards the outside wall as he pounded the wall and sustained significant rear end damage to his pole-winning car. During the caution period, the entire field led by Bowman, expect for Josh Bilicki, pitted for service. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategies, Bowman exited first followed by Truex, Reddick, Blaney, Larson, Austin Dillon and Cindric. Bilicki would pit prior to the restart as Bowman reassumed the lead.
When the race proceeded under green on Lap 69, where Bowman and Reddick occupied the front row, Bowman and Reddick dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Reddick managed to muscle ahead from the inside lane and assume the lead through the backstretch. As the field fanned out amid a series of on-track battles, including a pair of run-ins involving Blaney and LaJoie, Reddick maintained the lead by two-tenths of a second over Bowman while Larson was up in third followed by Truex, Cindric and Erik Jones.
Four laps later, the caution returned due to reports of precipitation occurring around the speedway. Soon after, the field led by Reddick was directed to pit road and the event was placed in a red flag period due to the ongoing precipitation on Lap 74. With the precipitation increasing and the delay spanning more than an hour, NASCAR ended up postponing the remainder of the event’s coverage to Monday, August 7, at noon ET on USA Network.
The following day on Monday, the field endured a brief 33-minute delay due to light mist before returning to the track under a cautious pace. During the caution period, Bell pitted even when pit road was closed for additional repairs to his pole-winning car amid his wreck from Sunday as he was still scored on the lead lap. Once pit road opened for the entire field to pit, some led by Reddick and including Bowman, Larson, Austin Dillon, Ty Gibbs, LaJoie, Stenhouse, Michael McDowell, Haley, Cole Custer and Bilicki pitted while the rest led by Truex remained on the track.
When the race resumed under green flag conditions on Lap 82 amid an extensive caution period due to reports of light precipitation, where Truex and Cindric occupied the front row, Truex and Cindric dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Bubba Wallace made a bold three-wide move on both through the backstretch to assume the lead in his No. 23 DoorDash Toyota TRD Camry. With Wallace leading the proceeding lap, Truex settled in second while Keselowski battled Cindric for third in front of Erik Jones, Buescher and Hamlin. Jones then overtook Keselowski and Cindric in a three-wide move through the backstretch to move his No. 43 Allegiant Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 up to third as Wallace retained the lead. As the field continued to jostle for positions through the Lap 85 mark, Wallace stabilized his advantage to within a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Truex.
By Lap 90, the top-three competitors were separated by nearly half a second as Wallace was still leading by two-tenths of a second over Truex followed by Erik Jones while Cindric and Suarez trailed in the top five by more than a second. Behind, Keselowski was in sixth ahead of teammate Buescher, Hamlin, Harrison Burton and Allmendinger while Blaney, Chastain, Logano, Reddick, Bowman, Larson, Briscoe, Harvick, Ryan Preece, Almirola and Ty Gibbs were battling within the top 20.
At the halfway mark on Lap 100, Truex cycled his way around Wallace, who continued to remain on the track and stretch his fuel tank to finish the second stage, to reassume the lead through the frontstretch while third-place Erik Jones trailed by six-tenths of a second. Behind, Suarez trailed in fourth place by more than a second while Hamlin was in fifth and trailing by more than two seconds.
Two laps later, the caution flew when Preece, who was running 22nd, blew a right-rear tire entering Turn 1, but he managed to avoid hitting the outside wall as he fell off the pace with light smoke coming out of his No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang. During the caution period, some including the race leader Truex pitted while the rest led by Wallace and including Suarez, Keselowski, Chastain, Allmendinger, Logano, Bowman, Larson, Stenhouse, Austin Dillon, LaJoie and Custer remained on the track amid mixed strategy ensuing. Amid the pit stops, Hamlin, who was running in the top five prior to the caution period, stalled his car while trying to exit his pit stall as he plummeted towards the rear of the lead lap field.
As the race restarted with 13 laps remaining in the second stage period, Wallace and Suarez dueled for the lead amid two tight-stacked lanes. Behind, Austin Dillon fell off the pace after nearly hitting the outside wall in Turn 1 and pitted under green due to a flat right-side tire, a move that pinned him a lap behind the leaders. Back at the front, Wallace and Suarez continued to duel for the lead until Suarez, who restarted beneath Wallace on the front row, managed to rocket his No. 99 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ahead entering Turns 3 and 4 as he assumed the lead from Wallace while Keselowski was in third.
Just past the Lap 110 mark and amid a series of on-track battles, Suarez retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Keselowski while Wallace fell back to third in front of Bowman and Logano. Behind, Larson was in sixth ahead of Allmendinger while Truex charged his way up to eighth place while on four fresh tires and a full tank of fuel. Meanwhile, Hamlin carved his way up to 17th while battling Harvick for position.
At the conclusion of the second stage period on Lap 120, Truex, who overtook Wallace for third place on Lap 118 as he continued to rocket his way back to the front on fresh tires, surged past Keselowski entering the backstretch and managed to side-draft Suarez amid Suarez trying to block Truex to claim the stage victory, his fifth of the season, in a photo finish. Suarez, who came into the event 34 points below the top-16 cutline towards the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs, settled in second followed by Keselowski while Wallace, Bowman, Larson, Logano, Allmendinger, Cindric and Buescher were scored in the top 10.
Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Truex while the rest led by Buescher and including Reddick, Blaney, Harvick, Almirola, Gilliland and McDowell remained on the track with more mixed strategy ensuing. Amid the pit stops, Bell was penalized for his pit crew jumping over the pit wall too soon.
With 74 laps remaining, the final stage started as Buescher and Reddick occupied the front row. At the start, Buescher and Reddick dueled for the lead as the field fanned out through the first two turns and entering the backstretch. The caution then quickly returned when Cindric rubbed McDowell up into teammate Gilliland as Gilliland got squeezed towards the outside wall. In the ensuing contact, Bowman, who came into the event 42 points below the top-16 cutline, received light contact from Briscoe that got Bowman loose and spinning as he hit Gilliland before spinning with front nose damage on his No. 48 Ally Detroit Pistons Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. During the caution period, some including Wallace, Briscoe, the Dillon brothers, Gilliland, Erik Jones, Larson and Haley pitted while the rest led by Buescher remained on the track.
With the race restarting with 67 laps remaining, Buescher surged ahead with the lead from the outside lane as he then fended off Reddick through the first two turns and entering the backstretch. Reddick maintained second in front of Blaney, Harvick and Cindric while Almirola was in sixth. Behind, Truex carved his way to seventh as he then battled Almirola for more while Hamlin was in eighth followed by Chastain and Burton.
Seven laps later, Buescher stabilized his lead to two-tenths of a second over Reddick followed by Blaney while Truex moved up to fourth in front of Harvick. Behind, Cindric was in sixth ahead of Hamlin, Almirola, Chastain and Burton while McDowell, Ty Gibbs, Keselowski, Logano, Suarez, Preece, Allmendinger, Wallace, Larson and Austin Hill occupied the top 20.
Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Buescher continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over Reddick while Truex trailed by less than six seconds as Hamlin moved up to fourth ahead of Blaney, Cindric and Harvick.
Seven laps later, green flag pit stops slowly commenced as Buescher surrendered the lead to pit followed by Reddick and Harvick as Reddick exited ahead of Buescher off of pit road. During the following lap, however, Reddick returned to pit road due to a flat right-rear tire on his No. 45 entry, an issue that left Reddick steaming towards his pit crew. By then, Hamlin and Almirola pitted under green before Truex surrendered the lead to pit with 41 laps remaining. Amid the pit stops, Buescher managed to cycle his No. 17 Castrol Edge Ford Mustang past Truex on the track as Keselowski assumed the lead with less than 40 laps remaining.
With 30 laps remaining, Keselowski retained the lead by over Suarez followed by Larson, Erik Jones and Logano, Bell, Wallace, LaJoie, Stenhouse and Preece were scored in the top 10. By then, Ty Gibbs, who was running in fifth place, pitted under green. Logano and LaJoie would pit a few laps later as Keselowski extended his lead to six seconds over Suarez and seven seconds over Larson. By then, Buescher worked his way up to 11th while Truex trailed behind in 12th.
With 25 laps remaining, Suarez surrendered the runner-up spot to pit under green along with Preece. Keselowski would then surrender the lead the following lap to pit his No. 6 Nexlizet Ford Mustang as Larson assumed the lead. With 23 laps remaining, however, Larson pitted his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 from the lead along with Erik Jones, Bell and Wallace as Ty Dillon cycled into the lead followed by brother Austin Dillon. Behind, Buescher and Truex moved up to third and fourth as the latter, who had a strong race car, continued to try to navigate his way around the former with both having enough fuel to finish the event.
Once the Dillon brothers pitted with nearly 20 laps remaining, Buescher cycled his way into the race lead with 18 laps remaining as Truex continued to intimidate and trail by two-tenths of a second. Buescher would continue to lead by two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Truex while third-place Hamlin trailed by four seconds as Keselowski and Harvick were in the top five.
Then with 13 laps remaining, Truex, who gained ground to Buescher’s rear bumper through the frontstretch, made his move beneath Buescher for the lead through Turns 1 and 2 as both dueled for the top spot through the backstretch. Truex then side-drafted Buescher back through the frontstretch as he led the following lap by a hair before Buescher returned the favor by side-drafting Truex in a fight to reassume the lead. Despite leading with 12 laps remaining, Truex got loose entering Turn 1, which allowed Buescher to pull ahead with the lead by nearly a second.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Buescher stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Truex while third-place Hamlin trailed by more than three seconds. Keselowski and Larson remained in the top five while Harvick, Chastain, Blaney, Suarez and Cindric were in the top 10. Behind, Ty Gibbs was in 11th ahead of Erik Jones and Almirola while Bell carved his damaged car to 14th place ahead of Wallace.
With five laps remaining, Truex regained his ground on Buescher as he was only trailing by two-tenths of a second for the lead in his fast No. 19 Toyota. With Buescher retaining the lead, Truex kept Buescher’s No. 17 Ford close within his sights amid the draft as he tried to gain a run around Buescher with the laps dwindling.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Buescher remained as the leader by less than three-tenths of a second over Truex. Through Turns 1 and 2, Truex could not gain a run to draw even with Buescher as both entered the backstretch. Then entering Turns 3 and 4, Truex made a final lap charge to get alongside Buescher, but the run was not enough as Buescher managed to retain the lead and beat Truex to the finish line by a tenth of a second to notch his second consecutive checkered flag in recent weeks.
With the victory, Buescher, who ended up leading a race-high 52 laps, recorded his fourth career win in NASCAR’s premier series as this marks his first season notching multiple Cup victories, thus making him the sixth multi-race winner of the 2023 Cup Series season, and first time claiming back-to-back Cup race victories. The victory was also the 14th overall in the Cup circuit for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing at the Irish Hills, making RFK Racing the winningest organization at the speedway, and their first since Greg Biffle won in 2012 while Ford claimed its 21st Cup victory, ninth in a row, at Michigan.
Photo by Tim Jarrold for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“That was our plan [to win],” Buescher said on USA Network. “That’s what we come to do every weekend. It’s awesome. Glad we got to get this whole [race] in. I know it’s been a long weekend, but this Castrol Edge Mustang was so good in practice, qualifying. This team gave me a great car again. [I] Had to work for that [win], too. Hard racing there at the end. Martin [Truex Jr.] was very clean with me. I appreciate that. [I] Get to go to Victory Lane two weeks in a row, so that’s pretty awesome. We’ve got work to do, but that’s massive progress right there for us to do [and win at] two vastly different racetracks. We got road [course] races coming up. I’m excited for those two and Daytona. I look at the schedule we have ahead of us, and this is a heck of a time to get turned on and get rolling.”
Truex, who led six times for 47 laps, settled in second place for the second time this season amid a strong performance on the track. This also marks Truex’s fourth runner-up result at the Irish Hills as he continues his pursuit for his first Michigan win.
“I think we just needed maybe a little bit longer run to wear the tires some more,” Truex, who extended his lead in the regular-season standings to 57 points, said. “I felt like we were a little better, but it’s just really hard to pass the leader on equal tires. We had an unbelievable Auto-Owners Camry today and hats off to everybody that puts in the work on these things. It was a rocket. It’s just the leader in clean air is really, really hard to pass. Just didn’t quite have enough, but all in all, a good day.”
Hamlin came home in third place while Keselowski, Buescher’s teammate and co-owner at Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, ended up in fourth place in his home track. The fourth-place result marked Keselowski’s fifth top-five result of the season as he is now 168 points above the top-16 cutline towards the Playoff standings, but he was also left satisfied from an owner’s perspective with Buescher winning the race and Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing gaining momentum with the start of the Playoffs lingering.
“[I’m] Really happy for all the folks at Castrol and for [Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing],” Keselowski said. “There’s a lot of work going on here and we’re digging deep and getting the results. I’m just so thankful and proud for everyone at RFK. We’re letting our results speak for themselves and Chris [Buescher] has done a heck of a job driving the car. When you can win, it feels really good, but we got to keep some humbleness and keep our head down. There’s some great competition out here.”
Larson completed the top five in fifth place while Suarez, teammate Chastain, Harvick, Blaney and Erik Jones finished in the top 10. Notably, Ty Gibbs settled in 11th while Bell rallied from his early wreck on Sunday to finish 13th ahead of Logano and LaJoie. In addition, Wallace fell back to 18th ahead of Austin Dillon, McDowell ended up a lap down in 24th, Allmendinger settled in 26th, Reddick fell back to 30th and Bowman ended up 33rd after he was unable to finish due to a steering issue to his car stemming from his late wreck.
There were 26 lead changes for 16 different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 43 laps. In addition, 21 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.
With three regular-season events remaining of this year’s Cup Series schedule, Martin Truex Jr. continues to lead the regular-season standings by 57 points over teammate Denny Hamlin and 96 over William Byron.
William Byron, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Christopher Bell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are currently guaranteed spots for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning at least once throughout the regular-season stretch. Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace and rookie Ty Gibbs occupy the remaining vacant spots to the Playoffs based on points, with Gibbs occupying the 16th and final vacant spots by three points over Michael McDowell, five over Daniel Suarez, 24 over AJ Allmendinger, 44 over Alex Bowman, 53 over Austin Cindric, 55 over Chase Elliott, 72 over Justin Haley, 81 over Aric Almirola and 89 over Ryan Preece.
Results.
1. Chris Buescher, 52 laps led
2. Martin Truex Jr., 47 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner
3. Denny Hamlin, one lap led
4. Brad Keselowski, 15 laps led
5. Kyle Larson, two laps led
6. Daniel Suarez, 12 laps led
7. Ross Chastain, 16 laps led
8. Kevin Harvick
9. Ryan Blaney, one lap led
10. Erik Jones
11. Ty Gibbs, one lap led
12. Austin Cindric
13. Christopher Bell, one lap led
14. Joey Logano
15. Corey LaJoie
16. Aric Almirola
17. Harrison Burton
18. Bubba Wallace, 21 laps led
19. Austin Dillon, two laps led
20. Ty Dillon, two laps led
21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
22. Ryan Preece, one lap down
23. Justin Haley, one lap down
24. Michael McDowell, one lap down
25. Cole Custer, one lap down
26. AJ Allmendinger, one lap down
27. JJ Yeley, one lap down
28. Austin Hill, two laps down
29. Todd Gilliland, three laps down
30. Tyler Reddick, three laps down, seven laps led
31. Chase Briscoe, three laps down
32. Josh Bilicki, four laps down, one lap led
33. Alex Bowman – OUT, Steering, 19 laps led
34. Josh Berry – OUT, Accident
35. William Byron – OUT, Dvp
36. Chase Elliott – OUT, Accident
37. Kyle Busch – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Verizon 200 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in Indianapolis, Indiana. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, August 13, at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
With the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs less than a month away from commencing, Chris Buescher punched his ticket into the Playoffs following a dramatic victory in the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway on Sunday, July 30.
The 2015 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion from Prosper, Texas, led three times for 88 of 400 scheduled laps, including the final six, in an event where he rallied from starting 26th to challenge for the lead and eventual victory. After assuming the lead for the first time with 195 laps remaining, Buescher would then navigate his way through a series of green flag pit stops and pit strategies to remain upfront.
He was then headed towards a victory when a late caution period with 10 laps remaining briefly stalled his progress. With a fast pit service by his pit crew during the caution period, Buescher was able to retain the lead and fend off Denny Hamlin during a three-lap shootout to grab his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season and become the 12th different competitor to be guaranteed a Playoff spot by winning.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, July 29, Tyler Reddick notched his first Cup pole position of the 2023 season and the fifth of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 113.689 mph in 23.749 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Kyle Busch, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 113.636 mph in 23.760 seconds.
Prior to the event, AJ Allmendinger dropped to the rear of the field due to a driver change after Derek Kraus practiced and qualified his Kaulig Racing entry while Allmendinger opted to pull double duty by competing in Saturday’s Xfinity event at Road America before returning in time to compete for Sunday’s Cup event at Richmond.
When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Reddick pulled ahead while starting on the inside lane and assumed an early lead while Denny Hamlin challenged Kyle Busch for the runner-up spot through Turns 1 and 2. As the field fanned out through the backstretch, Reddick proceeded to lead the first lap in his No. 45 Xfinity 10G Network Toyota TRD Camry while Hamlin and Busch continued to battle for second in from of Chase Elliott, William Byron and Bubba Wallace.
Through the second lap, the field continued to fan out and jostle for early positions while Reddick stretched his early advantage to three-tenths of a second over Hamlin while Kyle Busch settled in third in front of Elliott, Byron and Wallace.
Through the first five scheduled laps, Reddick was leading by nearly four-tenths of a second over Hamlin followed by Busch, Elliott and Byron while Wallace, rookie Ty Gibbs, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Preece and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were in the top 10. Behind, Brad Keselowski was in 11th ahead of Kyle Larson, rookie Noah Gragson, Michael McDowell and Todd Gilliland while Alex Bowman, Chase Briscoe, Austin Dillon, Joey Logano and Aric Almirola occupied the top 20. Meanwhile, Truex, who made contact with Stenhouse a few laps earlier, had fallen back to 21st ahead of Ross Chastain, Chris Buescher, Harrison Burton and Ryan Blaney while Christopher Bell was mired in 27th.
At the Lap 10 mark, Reddick continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over owner Hamlin while Busch trailed by more than a second. Behind, Elliott retained fourth ahead of Wallace, Byron and Gibbs while Harvick was in eighth ahead of teammate Preece and Stenhouse.
Fifteen laps later, Reddick stabilized his advantage to six-tenths of a second over Hamlin while third-place Busch trailed by more than two seconds. Behind, Wallace moved up to fourth in front of Elliott, Byron and Ty Gibbs while Harvick, Preece and Stenhouse stabilized themselves in the top 10. In addition, Keselowski and Larson were in 11th and 13th, Bowman cracked the top 15 in 15th, Logano was mired in 17th ahead of Almirola, Austin Dillon was back in 21st ahead of Chastain, Blaney, Truex and Bell and Daniel Suarez was in 28th.
Another 10 laps later, Reddick retained the lead by half a second over Hamlin while Busch, Wallace and Elliott continued to run in the top five. By then, Harvick overtook Ty Gibbs to move into seventh place while Keselowski cracked the top 10 as he was in 10th. In addition, McDowell was in 12th and Larson retained 13th in front of teammate Bowman and Gragson while Logano was mired in 18th.
At the Lap 50 mark, Reddick extended his advantage to more than a second over Hamlin. By then, Wallace moved his No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota TRD Camry up into third place, trailing his teammate and owner by more than two seconds, while Busch and Elliott trailed behind in the top five. In addition, Harvick moved his No. 4 Rheem Ford Mustang into sixth place over Byron while Preece and Keselowski overtook Ty Gibbs to move up to eighth and ninth place, respectively.
Ten laps later, Reddick, who started to approach lapped traffic, extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Hamlin while teammate Wallace trailed in third place by more than two seconds. While Elliott and Harvick continued to run in the top five, Kyle Busch, who started on the front row, had dropped to ninth. In addition, a bevy of names that included Chase Briscoe, Larson, Buescher, Bell, Chastain, Austin Dillon, Blaney, Truex, AJ Allmendinger, Erik Jones, Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez and Justin Haley were mired outside the top 15 and within the top 30 on the track while Ryan Newman, who was making his third Cup start of the season, was in 30th.
When the first stage concluded on Lap 70, Reddick captured his fourth stage victory of the 2023 season. Teammate Wallace followed suit in second along with owner Hamlin while Elliott, Harvick, Preece, Byron, Aric Almirola, Keselowski and Ty Gibbs were scored in the top 10. By then, 29 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap, with Suarez, who was in 29th, able to fend off race leader Reddick to remain on the lead lap at the stage’s conclusion.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Reddick pitted for their first round of service. Following the pit stops, Reddick retained the lead after exiting first followed by teammate Wallace, Hamlin, Elliott, Harvick, Keselowski and Ty Gibbs. Amid the pit stops, Preece endured a slow pit service after stopping his car over the pit line and had to reverse to avoid a penalty, which dropped him out of the top 15.
The second stage started on Lap 78 as 23XI Racing’s Reddick and Wallace occupied the front row. At the start and with the field fanning out, Reddick retained the lead by a narrow margin over teammate Wallace, but Wallace fought back on the outside lane as both dueled dead even for the top spot during the following lap. With the momentum on the outside lane, Wallace assumed the lead on Lap 80. By then, Elliott moved up to third after overtaking Hamlin, who was being pressured by Keselowski for fourth while Harvick followed suit in sixth along with McDowell, who used the outside lane during the restart to move into the top 10.
Five laps later, Keselowski overtook Elliott to claim third place while Hamlin situated himself in fifth place. By then, teammates Wallace and Reddick continued to run first and second, with Wallace leading by half a second. Another two laps later, Hamlin dueled against Elliott while running on the outside lane for fourth place as Harvick followed in pursuit.
At the Lap 100 mark, Wallace was leading by more than a second over teammate Reddick followed by Keselowski, Hamlin and Elliott while Harvick, Almirola, Ty Gibbs, Logano and McDowell were running in the top 10. Behind, Buescher was in 11th ahead of Kyle Busch, Preece, Stenhouse and Bowman while Byron, Chastain, Bell, Austin Dillon and Briscoe occupied the top 20. By then, Larson was in 21st, Blaney was mired in 24th behind Erik Jones, Allmendinger was running in 25th ahead of Suarez, Truex was back in 27th and Austin Cindric was mired in 28th.
Ten laps later, Wallace stabilized his advantage to more than a second over teammate Reddick while third-place Keselowski trailed by more than two seconds, all while Hamlin and Elliott remained in the top five in front of Harvick.
Another 10 laps later, green flag pit stops commenced as Preece pitted along with Todd Gilliland. During Lap 122, more competitors that included Redick, Keselowski, Elliott, Buescher, Larson, Cindric, Gragson, Almirola, Bowman, Austin Dillon, Allmendinger, Haley and the leader Wallace pitted. Amid the pit stops, Almirola was penalized for a commitment line violation.
On Lap 128, more competitors that included Hamlin, Harvick, Ty Gibbs, Logano and Bell, who would be eventually penalized for speeding on pit road, pitted under green. With the majority of green flag pit stops completed by Lap 135, McDowell, who has yet to pit, was leading followed by Wallace while Reddick, Truex and Keselowski were in the top five. McDowell would relinquish the lead to Wallace by Lap 137, though he remained on the track.
At the Lap 150 mark, Wallace was leading by more than a second over teammate Reddick followed by Keselowski, Hamlin and Buescher while Elliott, Preece, Kyle Busch, Logano and Ty Gibbs were in the top 10. By then, McDowell and Truex pitted while on an alternate pit strategy.
By Lap 172, another cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Ty Gibbs and Austin Dillon pitted. A few laps later, more competitors that included Keselowski, Buescher, Preece, Byron and Newman pitted. The leader Wallace would pit by Lap 174 along with Erik Jones, Chastain, Almirola, Briscoe, Harvick, Elliott, Reddick, Allmendinger, Larson, Stenhouse and others.
On Lap 180, Hamlin, who cycled into the lead, pitted his No. 11 Mavis Tires & Brakes Toyota TRD Camry under green along with Logano, Blaney and Bell. With the majority of the green flag pit stops being completed by then, Keselowski, who overtook Truex on his alternate strategy, was the new leader.
At the halfway mark on Lap 200, Keselowski was leading followed by Reddick, Buescher, Wallace and Hamlin while Truex, Busch, Preece, Ty Gibbs and Austin Dillon were in the top 10. Behind, McDowell was in 11th followed by Harvick, Logano, Bowman and Elliott while Stenhouse, Byron, Almirola, Briscoe and Larson occupied the top 20.
When the second stage concluded on Lap 230, Keselowski claimed his third stage victory of the 2023 Cup season. Teammate Buescher followed suit in second while Reddick, Wallace, Hamlin, Busch, Preece, Truex, Ty Gibbs and Logano were scored in the top 10. By then, 17 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while Bowman, who was in 18th, was able to fend off teammate Larson to emerge as the first competitor a lap down and receive the free pass during the stage break.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Keselowski pitted. Following the pit stops, Keselowski retained the lead after exiting pit road first followed by teammate Buescher, Reddick, Wallace, Busch and Hamlin.
With 161 laps remaining, the final stage started as teammates Keselowski and Buescher occupied the front row. At the start, Keselowski rocketed ahead with the lead as the field fanned out through the first two turns. With Hamlin using the outside lane to launch forward into the top five and while battling Wallace, Keselowski maintained the lead ahead of Buescher while Reddick retained third. Behind, Wallace and Hamlin continued to battle while Kyle Busch was in sixth ahead of Preece, Ty Gibbs and Logano.
With 150 laps remaining, Keselowski retained the lead in his No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang by less than four-tenths of a second over teammate Buescher while Reddick, Hamlin and Wallace were scored in the top five ahead of Busch and Preece.
Fifteen laps later, Keselowski continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over teammate Buescher while third-place Reddick trailed by more than two seconds. Behind, Hamlin and Wallace remained in the top five while Busch, Preece, Logano, Truex and Elliott were scored in the top 10.
With less than 120 laps remaining, green flag pit stops returned as Buescher pitted along with Wallace, Busch, Logano and others. Keselowski would then pit with 115 laps remaining followed by Reddick, Elliott, Austin Dillon, Almirola, Harvick and others. Amid the pit stops, Buescher was able to cycle ahead of teammate Keselowski, who nearly pitted outside his pit box. With 108 laps remaining, Hamlin, who cycled into a brief lead, pitted along with Blaney while Truex, who was running on an alternate strategy was leading, followed by Buescher.
With 105 laps remaining, however, Buescher cycled into the race lead over Truex. Buescher would then extend his advantage to more than four seconds over Reddick with 90 laps remaining while Truex, Wallace and Preece were scored in the top five. Meanwhile, Keselowski was mired back in sixth ahead of Kyle Busch and Hamlin.
With 65 laps remaining and as Buescher continued to lead, another cycle of green flag pit stops occurred as teammate Keselowski pitted. Logano would follow suit to pit along with Preece, Wallace, Harvick, Almirola, Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Elliott, Busch and Reddick. Buescher would then surrender the lead to pit with 62 laps remaining along with Ty Gibbs and Stenhouse while Blaney, who has yet to pit, was leading followed by Truex. Amid the pit stops, Reddick was penalized for a commitment line violation as he smoked the tires to try to enter pit road.
With 54 laps remaining, Buescher, who was able to gain ground on Truex amid the pit strategies, overtook him to reassume the lead. Buescher would proceed to extend his advantage to nearly four seconds with less than 50 laps remaining while Hamlin, Preece and Keselowski were in the top five. Behind, Kyle Busch was in sixth while Logano, Wallace, Harvick and Almirola were scored in the top 10.
Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Buescher was leading by more than six seconds over Hamlin while Preece, Busch and Truex were scored in the top five. By then, Keselowski was in sixth ahead of Logano and Harvick while Wallace fell back to ninth in front of Almirola. In addition, 13 competitors were scored on the lead lap, with Austin Dillon, Briscoe and Elliott occupying the final three lead lap positions.
Ten laps later, Buescher continued to lead by more than five seconds over Hamlin while third-place Preece trailed by more than six seconds as Busch, Truex and Keselowski were in the top six.
Then with 10 laps remaining, the caution flew when Gragson sent Suarez for a spin in Turn 4 as Suarez smoked the rear tires of his No. 99 Jockey Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 before coming to a rest near the apron in Turn 4. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Buescher pitted. Following the pit stops, Buescher retained the lead after exiting first followed by Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Preece, Truex and Keselowski.
Down to the final three laps, the event restarted under green as Buescher and Hamlin occupied the front row. At the start, Buescher launched ahead to retain the lead while Preece challenged Hamlin for second as the field behind fanned out entering Turns 1 and 2. Hamlin then tried to launch forward towards the lead while on the outside lane entering the backstretch, but he was blocked by Buescher’s No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang, who retained the lead with two laps remaining.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Buescher remained in the lead by half a second over Hamlin while Logano and Busch battled for third. With Hamlin unable to gain ground for a final lap charge, Buescher was able to navigate his way around the circuit smoothly for a final time and zip back to the frontstretch to claim his first checkered flag of the 2023 Cup season.
With the victory, Buescher, who came into the event 111 points above the top-16 cutline towards the Playoffs, notched his third career victory in NASCAR’s premier series and his first since winning at Bristol Motor Speedway in September 2022. He also recorded the second victory for the newly named Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing.
“Yeah, it was smooth sailing there, trying to take care of Fastenal Mustang,” Buescher said on USA Network. “These guys over at [Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing], this No. 17 team gave me a great hot rod. This thing was so good. [I] Was just trying to take care of it there. I knew even on our green flag stuff, we were so strong during the race. I had a good feeling about it there. Pretty awesome to pull it off. Proud of everybody. That was a long way from the back [of the field] this morning, so heck of a race for us. We’ve had this [race] circled since last fall. I was really hopeful this could be the one that would turn the page for us. Sure enough, right off the truck I thought it was. I hate that qualifying went the way it did. I was sitting there beating myself up trying to figure out what we were going to do there. Made it to Victory Lane here in Richmond. I’d have told you to flood this place three years ago. My opinions are changing quite a bit here. What a day, though. That’s awesome…We’ve been talking about this a lot and you don’t get to ask me about points anymore.”
Despite ending up in sixth place in spite of leading a race-high 102 laps, Keselowski was left pleased in being victorious as a team owner for the second time in his second season as both a driver and owner in the Cup Series for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing.
“I’m happy for Chris,” Keselowski, who celebrated with Buescher in Victory Lane, said. “We are incrementally building. Solid day for both teams here at RFK. I’m happy for everybody that works on these teams, everybody that supports us with Fastenal and Ford and Build Subs. We led a lot of laps with both cars. Neither cars, we really started up front. Drove through. Great job with the pit crews. A lot to be proud of today. Of course, I want to win as a driver, but just happy that we’re as competitive as we are. We want to keep building and keep being more competitive every week.”
Meanwhile, Hamlin, who led 20 laps and was coming off a milestone victory at Pocono Raceway, settled in the runner-up spot for the second time this season.
“I drove in way too deep [in Turns 1 and 2],” Hamlin said. “I was trying to get to the outside there. [I] Really had a great run off of Turn 2 on the restart and off of [Turn] 4 again. But, yeah, I was just so close to him there that I wanted to try to squirt a little extra gas to try to get to the outside. Just too much brake. Man, I’m happy for Chris, [Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing], those guys. I know they worked really hard to get to this point. I can appreciate the struggle that it is to get to this point. Congratulations to them. Definitely a great job by this Mavis team. Kept me in it all day long. We just lacked a little, little bit to be the best there. So we just need to improve on it. Still a good day.”
Kyle Busch came home in third place followed by Logano while Preece achieved a strong fifth-place result. Keselowski finished sixth while Truex, Almirola, Austin Dillon and Harvick, who made his final start at Richmond, completed the top 10. Notably, Wallace ended up 12th in front of Elliott and Blaney, rookie Ty Gibbs finished 15th, pole-sitter Reddick ended up 16th, Larson ended up 19th, the final competitor on the lead lap. Austin Cindric and AJ Allmendinger ended up 26th and 27th, respectively, after both wrecked while finishing the event.
There were 18 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured three cautions for 21 laps. While all 36 starters finished the event, 19 finished on the lead lap.
With four regular-season events remaining of this year’s Cup Series schedule, Martin Truex Jr. leads the regular-season standings by 39 points over teammate Denny Hamlin and 43 over William Byron.
William Byron, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are currently guaranteed spots for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning at least once throughout the regular-season stretch. Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace and Michael McDowell currently occupy the remaining vacant spots in the Playoffs based on points, with McDowell occupying the 16th and final vacant spot by 18 points Ty Gibbs, 22 over AJ Allmendinger, 34 over Daniel Suarez, 40 over Chase Elliott, 42 over Alex Bowman, 64 over Austin Cindric, 70 over Justin Haley, 86 over Aric Almirola and 88 over Ryan Preece.
Results.
1. Chris Buescher, 88 laps led
2. Denny Hamlin, 20 laps led
3. Kyle Busch
4. Joey Logano
5. Ryan Preece
6. Brad Keselowski, 102 laps led, Stage 2 winner
7. Martin Truex Jr., 18 laps led
8. Aric Almirola
9. Austin Dillon
10. Kevin Harvick
11. Chase Briscoe
12. Bubba Wallace, 80 laps led
13. Chase Elliott
14. Ryan Blaney, two laps led
15. Ty Gibbs
16. Tyler Reddick, 81 laps led, Stage 1 winner
17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
18. Alex Bowman
19. Kyle Larson
20. Christopher Bell, one lap down
21. William Byron, one lap down
22. Michael McDowell, one lap down
23. Erik Jones, one lap down
24. Ross Chastain, one lap down
25. Todd Gilliland, one lap down
26. Austin Cindric, one lap down
27. AJ Allmendinger, one lap down
28. Noah Gragson, two laps down
29. Ryan Newman, two laps down
30. Justin Haley, two laps down
31. Harrison Burton, three laps down
32. Corey LaJoie, three laps down
33. Daniel Suarez, four laps down
34. Ty Dillon, four laps down
35. JJ Yeley, four laps down
36. BJ McLeod, five laps down
Next on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ lone visit of this season to Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, August 6, at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.
1. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin muscled past Kyle Larson on a late restart and held on to win the HighPoint.com 400, earning his 50th Cup series victory.
“For the record,” Hamlin said, “I did not cause Alex Bowman to wreck. And for once, I’m going to give Bowman credit, because he did that all by himself.
“Now, I did wreck Kyle Larson. And I understand the crowd’s displeasure with me. And I won’t deny the fans their boos, nor will I deny them their booze.”
2. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex finished third at Pocono as Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin took the win.
“I think we all know that if Denny wants something bad enough,” Truex said, “he just takes it. I guess he doesn’t want a Cup championship that bad, then.”
3. Christopher Bell: Bell started fifth and finished sixth at Pocono.
“This race started with Austin Dillon throwing a helmet at Tyler Reddick,” Bell said. “And ended with Kyle Larson throwing shade at Denny Hamlin. I know the fans would rather see drivers throwing punches, but I guess they’ll have to be satisfied with anything being thrown.”
4. Kevin Harvick: Harvick took fourth at Pocono, posting his fifth top 5 of the year.
“My car had the slogan ‘Break 4 Busch” all over it,” Harvick said. “That lets you know it’s for Busch beer. Now, with ‘Hunt Brothers Pizza’ on the car, that slogan would be ‘Break for the bathroom.’”
5. William Byron: Byron started on the pole and led 60 laps, finishing 14th in the HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono.
“You would think I would be an expert at a place called the ‘Tricky Triangle,’” Byron said. “After all, I’m sponsored by Liberty University, where the ‘Tricky Triangle’ is Jerry Falwell, Jr., his wife, and the pool boy.”
6. Kyle Larson: Larson was leading late, but hit the wall battling Denny Hamlin for the lead. The damage slowed Larson’s No. 5 Chevy considerably, and he finished 21st.
“I don’t know what Hamlin was thinking,” Larson said. “I thought we were friends. If he apologizes, I guess we’ll still be friends. If he doesn’t, we won’t. If he wrecks me again, well, that’s another story. So, it’s a case of friend or foe, or mo fo.’”
7. Kyle Busch: Busch finished 21st at Pocono.
“Pocono is a far cry from Mexico,” Busch said. “Speaking of ‘far cry,’ that’s what I did as I wept thousands of miles from home in a Mexican prison.”
8. Ryan Blaney: Blaney suffered a power issue past the midway point of the race, and lost track position and any chance of winning. Blaney was able to stay on the lead lap and finished 30th.
“My car lost about 100 horsepower,” Blaney said. “That can also be accomplished by letting BJ McLeod drive your car.”
9. Ross Chastain: Chastain came home 13th in the HighPoint.com 400.
“Did Austin Dillon really throw his helmet at Tyler Reddick’s car?” Chastain said. “Is that really a useful way to voice your displeasure? If it was, I’d have the world’s largest helmet collection.”
10. Joey Logano: Logano won Stage 1 at Pocono, but crashed on a Lap 36 restart, flattening all four tires. He was able to return for a few laps but retired on Lap 48, and finished 35th.
“All was going well up until that point,” Logano said. “My outlook matched the ‘check’ on my car indicating ‘Verizon.’ But that wreck ‘X’d’ me out.”
