Testing SpeedwayMedia.com

Tag: Ty Gibbs

  • Wallace retains final Playoff vacant spot with top-12 run at Watkins Glen

    Wallace retains final Playoff vacant spot with top-12 run at Watkins Glen

    With a 12th-place finish in the Go Bowling at The Glen on Sunday, August 20, Bubba Wallace is one race away from claiming a potential spot in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Meanwhile, time is running low for a multitude of stars vying for the final vacant spot in the Playoffs currently occupied by Wallace. Among those within striking distance is rookie Ty Gibbs, who is still looking from the outside despite achieving another strong top-five result in his first full-time season in NASCAR’s premier series.

    Wallace, the 29-year-old Wallace from Mobile, Alabama, rolled off the starting grid in 12th place but was able to gain the early pace needed to race his way into the top 10 on the track. At the conclusion of the first stage’s period on Lap 20, Wallace notched three stage points to his possession after being scored in eighth place. After pitting under green on Lap 21 with the front-runners, he emerged in ninth place nearing the Lap 30 mark and would retain the spot at the second stage’s conclusion on Lap 40 to collect two additional stage points and accumulate five stage points throughout the event.

    An untimely caution with 35 laps remaining when Chase Elliott ran out of fuel and came to a stop on the course while Wallace moved up to second place resulted in Wallace having to pit along with select others during the caution period. Despite restarting 16th during a restart with 30 laps remaining, Wallace used the stretch to gain four spots on the track and pilot his No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota TRD Camry to the checkered flag in 12th place, which marked his 13th top-15 result of the season and the fourth time where he finished 12th.

    As a result of the finish and with William Byron, a four-time race winner of this season, winning Sunday’s event at Watkins Glen, Wallace, who dropped to the bubble zone towards the Playoff cutline last weekend after Michael McDowell won at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, leaves The Glen with a 32-point advantage for the 16th and final vacant spot to the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs.

    Currently, the 2023 regular-season stretch marks Wallace’s strongest to date with four top-five results, six top-10 results, a career-high 159 laps led and an average-finishing result of 17.0 through 25 scheduled events. While Wallace is looking to race his way into the Playoffs for the first time in his career and join 23XI Racing teammate Tyler Reddick in the postseason field, he is also seeking his first Cup victory of the season, with his latest victory occurring at Kansas Speedway in September 2022.

    “I’m proud of myself,” Wallace said on USA Network. “That’s the first time I felt proud of myself at a road course race. I just executed and didn’t lose focus. Maybe one time, and that’s the difference maker. You’ve got to stay on it, especially at these places. Just hats off to my team for sticking with me and believing in me on these road courses. I know we still have one more [regular-season race] to go, but we wanted to maintain our gap and not lose too many, and we gained. Hats off to everybody, the effort that we put in, Toyota for believing in me,…all of our partners involved. Just a great day for the No. 23 team. Now we get to go into Daytona [International Speedway], still stressful as hell, but that takes a little bit of the edge off, for sure.”

    Rookie Ty Gibbs, the reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series champion from Charlotte, North Carolina, started in fourth place, which marked his second-best starting spot of this season. He proceeded to finish fourth in the first stage and third in the second stage, where he accumulated 15 stage points and kept his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry running toward the front.

    Restarting fifth during a 30-lap dash to the finish, Gibbs briefly lost a spot to teammate Martin Truex Jr. before he reclaimed fifth place. From there, he trailed AJ Allmendinger to the finish and claimed the checkered flag in fifth place, which marked his second top-five result of the season and of his youthful Cup Series career.

    The strong top-five result, however, was not enough for Gibbs to boost himself inside the top-16 cutline to make the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs as he trails the cutline by 32 points behind Wallace entering the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway. With Gibbs looking to notch his first victory in the Cup circuit and make his first Playoff appearance, he is also looking to join his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates consisting of Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. into the postseason field.

    “I felt like we were really fast,” Gibbs said. “We had a really fast Monster Toyota Camry. I just didn’t do a good job getting through the guys in front of us. I feel like we were much faster than the three in front of us. And I just couldn’t get by them. I feel like I just need to do a better job at that, but feel like our car was really good and really capable of doing that. I don’t really know what mindset to have going in [to Daytona]. Just stay clean and try to make it to the end and have a good finish.”

    In addition to Ty Gibbs, a host of names that include Daniel Suarez, AJ Allmendinger, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, Austin Cindric, Justin Haley, Ryan Preece, Aric Almirola, Todd Gilliland, Corey LaJoie, Erik Jones, Austin Dillon, Harrison Burton, Chase Briscoe and Ty Dillon.

    Currently, Wallace maintains the 16th and final vacant spot to the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs by 32 points over Ty Gibbs entering the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway for the Coke Zero Sugar 400, which will officially determine the 16-driver field of this year’s Cup Series Playoffs. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, August 26, at 7 p.m. ET on NBC.

  • Mayer spins Gibbs, rallies for wild Xfinity victory at Watkins Glen

    Mayer spins Gibbs, rallies for wild Xfinity victory at Watkins Glen

    From conserving the low fuel needed to finish to spinning dominant Ty Gibbs out of the lead during an overtime shootout, Sam Mayer raced his way to an overwhelming victory in the Shriners Children’s 200 at The Glen on Saturday, August 19.

    The 20-year-old Mayer from Franklin, Wisconsin, led twice for eight of 86 over-scheduled laps in an event where he started fifth and assumed the lead for the first time with 10 laps remaining amid a late gamble to stretch his low fuel tank to the distance ahead of teammate Justin Allgaier and pole-sitter Ty Gibbs. During a late caution period with seven laps remaining, where Mayer elected to remain on the track with the lead ahead of Allgaier and Gibbs, Mayer was quickly overtaken by Gibbs while trying to block him through the frontstretch. Despite falling back to third, Mayer received another opportunity to win amid another caution period for a wreck that involved Allgaier and sent the event into overtime.

    Then, at the start of overtime, Mayer bumped and ran into the rear of Gibbs which sent Gibbs spinning. With Gibbs out of contention, Mayer, who despite sustained minor fender damage to his car while running on fumes with his low fuel tank, moved up to second as Sheldon Creed assumed the lead. Then after Creed missed the final turn approaching the start of the final lap, Mayer capitalized on Creed’s misfortune to assume the lead for good as he methodically navigated his way around the circuit for a final time before zipping back to the frontstretch and claiming the second checkered flag of this season and of his NASCAR Xfinity Series career.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Ty Gibbs, winner of last weekend’s Xfinity event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, notched his first pole position of the season after posting a pole-winning lap at 125.019 mph in 70.549 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Alex Bowman, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 124.721 mph in 70.718 seconds.

    Prior to the event, however, Bowman joined Cole Custer, Brett Moffitt and rookie Parker Retzlaff as competitors who dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments and mechanical repairs to their respective entries. Bowman’s move enabled Daniel Hemric to move up and start alongside Ty Gibbs on the front row.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Ty Gibbs jumped ahead with an early advantage as the field fanned out entering the first turn. As Gibbs led through the first four turns before entering a brief backstretch approaching the Inner Loop, Justin Allgaier made his way into the runner-up spot while Hemric retained third in front of teammate Kyle Busch, Sam Mayer and Josh Berry. With the field navigating through the Inner and Outer Loop turns before entering the final set of turns to Turn 7 and back to the frontstretch at The Glen, Gibbs proceeded to lead the first lap.

    Through the second lap, Gibbs retained the lead by four-tenths of a second over Allgaier. By then, Busch and Mayer moved up to third and fourth while Hemric fell back to fifth as the field jostled and bumped for early positions around the circuit.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Ty Gibbs was leading by more than two seconds over Allgaier followed by Mayer, Kyle Busch and Berry while Hemric, rookie Sammy Smith, Riley Herbst, Austin Hill and John Hunter Nemechek were in the top 10. Behind, Sheldon Creed was in 11th ahead of Parker Kligerman, Kaz Grala, Jeremy Clements and rookie Chandler Smith while Ross Chastain, Brandon Jones, Alex Labbe, Jeb Burton and Sage Karam occupied the top 20. Meanwhile, Custer was back in 21st and Bowman was mired in 25th behind Ryan Sieg. In addition, Brennan Poole plummeted to 37th after spinning through the Inner Loop Bus Stop corner amid contact with Max McLaughlin a lap prior.

    At the Lap 10 mark, Ty Gibbs continued to lead by more than three seconds over Allgaier while Mayer retained third. By then, Berry moved up to fourth while Busch fell back to fifth in front of Austin Hill, Nemechek, Sammy Smith, Herbst and Creed. In the midst of the early racing, the event remained under green flag conditions amid an on-track condition in the Bus Stop corner when Jeremy Clements blew a right-front tire and clipped Chandler Smith as both went off the course with Smith spinning backward. A few laps earlier, Connor Mosack encountered on-track issues of his own after spinning in the Bus Stop corner.

    Not long after, Kyle Busch pitted his No. 10 LA Golf Chevrolet Camaro under green to address debris on his front grille that affected his brakes. With Busch losing spots amid his pit stops, Ty Gibbs extended his advantage to more than three seconds over Allgaier. Gibbs would stabilize his advantage to nearly four seconds over Allgaier just past the Lap 15 mark. By then, Herbst, who was running seventh, was reporting the transmission popping out of gear in his No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang, though he continued to run under full pace around the circuit.

    At the conclusion of the first stage period on Lap 20, Ty Gibbs claimed his fourth Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season after retaining the lead from the drop of the green flag. Allgaier settled in second followed by teammates Mayer and Berry while Austin Hill, Nemechek, Creed, Herbst, Custer and Kligerman were scored in the top 10.

    With the event proceeding under green just past the Lap 20 mark to start the second stage, the event’s first caution period shortly flew when Ryan Ellis came to a stop on the course. By then, select names that included Bowman and Chandler Smith pitted for service. Smith, however, would be penalized for driving his No. 16 Quick Tie Products Chevrolet Camaro through too many pit boxes while exiting his upon his completed service.

    During the first caution period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Ty Gibbs pitted while Bowman remained on the track to inherit the race lead. Following the pit stops, Gibbs exited first followed by Allgaier, Hill, Berry, Creed and Nemechek.

    Just as the event was set to restart under green on Lap 24, the caution period continued to stand when Josh Williams sustained heavy front nose damage to his No. 92 Nordic Logistics Chevrolet Camaro. At the same time, Moffitt took his car to the garage due to a rear-end issue while the on-track safety crew proceeded to address any debris or fluid leaking on the course near the carnage scene.

    Following a lengthy caution period, the race restarted under green on Lap 26 as Bowman and Ty Gibbs occupied the front row. At the start, Bowman and Ty Gibbs dueled for the lead entering the first turn until Gibbs used the outside lane to his advantage as he muscled ahead of Bowman prior to entering Turns 2 to 4 to reassume the lead. With Gibbs leading Bowman and Allgaier through the Inner Loop Bus Stop corner, Hill was in fourth ahead of Berry, Creed and Custer while Nemechek was in eighth ahead of Herbst and Kligerman. As the field continued to jostle and scramble for positions for a full lap around the circuit, with even mechanical debris flying around the circuit, Gibbs stretched his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Bowman while third-place Allgaier trailed by more than a second.

    During the following lap, Grala and Sammy Smith rubbed fenders through the Bus Stop corner as Grala moved up to 12th over Smith followed by Hemric. In the process, Ty Gibbs extended his advantage to a second over Bowman while Allgaier, Austin Hill and Berry remained in the top five. By then, Custer moved his No. 00 HighPoint Ford Mustang up to sixth in front of Creed, Mayer, Herbst and Kligerman while Gibbs continued to lead at the Lap 30 mark.

    On Lap 31, the event’s second caution period flew when Grala, who was running 12th, was bumped by Sammy Smith entering the Bus Stop corner as he went off the course and plowed his No. 26 Island Coastal Lager Toyota Supra through the course’s grass and Go Bowling sign before returning back onto the racing surface while sending debris on the track. During the caution period, Grala, who ended with a clogged front grille full of grass, ran into the rear of Smith’s No. 18 Pilot Flying J Toyota Supra, which sustained front nose damage, to express his displeasure over the contact.

    During the caution period, select names that included Sammy Smith, Grala, Retzlaff, Joe Graf Jr., Chandler Smith and Kyle Sieg pitted while the rest led by Ty Gibbs remained on the track.

    During the event’s restart on Lap 33, Gibbs retained the lead after a strong restart while Allgaier and Bowman battled and bumped for the runner-up spot as Allgaier claimed the spot through Turns 2 to 4. In the process, Austin Hill closed in on Allgaier and Bowman from fourth place while Custer and Berry battled for fifth. With the field battling, jostling and kicking up dust through the Bus Stop corner, Ty Gibbs stretched his advantage to more than a second over Allgaier.

    A lap later, Bowman reclaimed the runner-up spot over Allgaier, who went wide and off the course through Turn 1 after barely scrubbing the wall through the frontstretch, while Hill moved his No. 21 Bennett Transporation Chevrolet Camaro up to third. Custer and Mayer would pursue Allgaier within close quarters amid the racing while Ty Gibbs continued to lead by more than a second at the Lap 35 mark.

    Then with three laps remaining in the second stage period, Herbst, who was in ninth, pitted under green due to a track bar issue to his car. With the track bar broken on his car, Herbst, who returned on the course only to have a trail of smoke billowing out of his car due to his mechanical issue, took his car to the garage and eventually retired as Ty Gibbs retained the lead ahead of Bowman and Austin Hill.

    At the conclusion of the second stage period on Lap 40, Ty Gibbs claimed his second consecutive stage victory of the day. Bowman trailed in second along with Hill, Allgaier and Custer while Mayer, Berry, Nemechek, Creed and Kligerman were scored in the top 10. By then, Mosack was down in 26th after running his No. 24 Toyota Genuine Parts Supra off the course in Turn 10 while battling Stanton Barrett for position.

    With the event commencing under a continuous green flag period with 42 laps remaining, Ty Gibbs was leading by more than two seconds over Bowman while Hill, Allgaier and Custer remained in the top five. A few laps later, Hill and Custer moved up to third and fourth while Allgaier settled in fifth in front of teammate Mayer. By then, Ty Gibbs extended his advantage to more than four seconds over Bowman.

    Then with 37 laps remaining, the caution flew when Max McLaughlin slipped and collided into the outside wall in Turn 7 as he emerged with significant rear-end damage to his No. 96 Randco Chevrolet Camaro. During the caution period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Ty Gibbs pitted for service while Kyle Weatherman remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Hill exited first over Gibbs while Bowman, Custer, Creed, Nemechek and Mayer followed in pursuit.

    With 32 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Gibbs launched a bold three-wide move on both Weatherman and Hill to assume the lead entering the first turn as the field fanned out. With Gibbs retaining the lead from Turns 2 to 4, Hill pursued in second while Bowman followed suit in third along with Custer, Creed and Allgaier as Weatherman started to go backward.

    During the following lap and as the field continued to jostle for late positions with nearly 30 laps remaining, Ty Gibbs stretched his advantage to more than a second over Austin Hill while third-place Bowman also trailed by more than a second, though Bowman started to close in on Hill for second along with Custer and Allgaier. By then, Weatherman fell out of the top 10 while Sammy Smith and Grala, amid their on-track contact, were in ninth and 10th ahead of Kyle Busch and Hemric.

    With 28 laps remaining, Nemechek, who was running ninth, pitted his No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota Supra to ensure that he would have enough fuel to the scheduled distance. Teammate Sammy Smith would also pit for fuel during the following lap while the rest of the field led by Ty Gibbs remained on the track, with a majority uncertain if they would have enough to finish the race.

    Three laps later, Ty Gibbs extended his advantage to more than three seconds over Austin Hill while third-place Bowman trailed by nearly four seconds. Custer and Allgaier remained in the top five while Mayer, Creed, Grala, Kyle Busch and Hemric trailed in the top 10. By then, Kligerman, Berry, Sage Karam, Brandon Jones and Ryan Sieg were in the top 15 while teammates Nemechek and Sammy Smith were in 25th and 26th.

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Ty Gibbs stabilized his advantage to more than three seconds over Austin Hill while Bowman, Custer and Allgaier remained in the top five. Behind, Mayer, Creed, Grala, Kyle Busch and Hemric continued to run in the top 10 amid continuous concerns of fuel shortages for the front-runners.

    A lap later, trouble struck for third- and fourth-place runners Bowman and Custer after Custer, who tried to make a move beneath Bowman, bumped the curb and made contact with Bowman in Turn 1 as both spun together in the turn. Both continued to run without drawing a caution as Mayer and Allgaier moved up the leaderboard. Bowman managed to fall back to fifth in his No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro while Custer was back in eighth. A lap later, Custer’s event that went from good to bad became worse when he got loose and spun off the course and up the hill in Turn 3 as he continued to plummet below the leaderboard.

    With 15 laps remaining, Ty Gibbs retained the lead by more than three seconds over Austin Hill while Mayer, Allgaier and Bowman remained in the top five ahead of Creed, Grala, Hemric, Kligerman and Kyle Busch.

    Three laps later, Austin Hill surrendered the runner-up spot to pit for four fresh tires and fuel. Ryan Sieg would also pit not long after while Ty Gibbs continued to lead over runner-up Mayer and Allgaier. Another two laps later, however, Ty Gibbs pitted his No. 19 He Gets Us Toyota Supra from the lead for fuel as Mayer assumed the lead. Upon exiting pit road, Gibbs blended back onto the racetrack in sixth place behind Creed while Grala and Hemric would pit with eight laps remaining while Mayer and Allgaier continued to run first and second on the track.

    Then with seven laps remaining, the caution flew when Parker Retzlaff went off the course and spun sideways before he got his No. 31 Funkaway Chevrolet Camaro stuck in the gravel trap in Turn 6. By then, Hemric, who endured a slow pit stop, took his car to the garage due to a mechanical issue to his car. During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Bowman pitted while the rest led by Mayer, Allgaier and Ty Gibbs remained on the track amid mixed strategies.

    Down to the final four laps of the event, the race restarted under green as teammates Mayer and Allgaier occupied the front row in front of Ty Gibbs and Kyle Busch. At the start, the field fanned out as Mayer tried to block Ty Gibbs through the frontstretch. Gibbs, though, managed to rocket ahead and overtake Mayer before overtaking Allgaier through the first turn when Allgaier went wide. With the entire field also going wide and off the course through the first turn while Kyle Busch fell off the pace, Gibbs and Mayer dueled for the lead through Turns 2 to 4 until Gibbs rocketed away. Mayer was then left to fend off teammate Allgaier and Hill for the runner-up spot until Hill bumped and overtook the spot from Mayer through the Bus Stop Corner.

    Then exiting the Bus Stop Corner, trouble struck when Allgaier made contact with Custer and was sent spinning. In the ensuing chaos, Sammy Smith bumped and turned Bowman into the path of Connor Mosack while Brandon Jones and Grala collided into Allgaier, causing a caution as debris was left scattered across the Outer Loop Corner. The on-track carnage was enough to send the event into overtime.

    During the first overtime attempt, where Ty Gibbs and Austin Hill occupied the front row, Gibbs muscled ahead of the field that was stacked in two lanes entering the first turn. Then in Turn 1, Mayer collided with Gibbs and sent Gibbs for a spin. In the ensuing chaos, Hill got hit by Custer as he spun while the rest of the field muscled away exiting Turn 1. With the field navigating through Turns 2 to 4, Sheldon Creed emerged with the lead followed by Mayer and Berry. Creed would continue to lead through the Inner and Outer Loop corners while Mayer trailed in second. Then exiting the Outer Loop, Berry got loose and spun his No. 8 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro from third place as he fell out of contention while the event remained under green. Not long after, Creed, who nearly got loose while trying to fend off Mayer in Turn 6, slipped again in Turn 7 and missed the turn, which allowed Mayer to assume the lead in his No. 1 Accelerate Pros Talent Chevrolet Camaro.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Mayer remained as the leader by six-tenths of a second over Creed while Sammy Smith spun behind in the middle of the field. With the event remaining under green flag, Mayer, who continued to run under full pace amid concerns of running low on fuel, managed to cycle his way around the circuit for a final time and beat Creed by nine-tenths of a second to grab his second checkered flag in four weeks at Watkins Glen.

    With the victory, Mayer notched his second NASCAR Xfinity Series career victory in his 74th series start, all occurring on road course events, and he became the fourth Xfinity regular to notch multiple victories in this year’s Xfinity season. In addition to becoming the first full-time Xfinity competitor to win at Watkins Glen since Austin Cindric made the last accomplishment in 2019, Mayer notched the third victory of the season for JR Motorsports and the 12th of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate.

    “The first [restart], I got used up,” Mayer said on USA Network. “I thought I had a good [restart] there, but all glory to God for this one because we had to work our tails off for it. [Crew chief] Mardy [Lindley] on top of the [pit] box, everyone on pit road. We earned this one, for sure. It feels good to have a car as fast as Xfinity 10G, no matter where you go and no matter what the situation is. It feels really, really good. I wheel-hopped [the car]. That’s unfortunate. I feel bad for [spinning Gibbs]. Obviously, you don’t want to take out a [Joe] Gibbs car like that or any car like that. Just trying to get another win in the Xfinity Series. I got a lot of catching up to do. I was in there. I put my nose in there and that’s part of it. Fenders are fenders. That’s an accident, but I think everyone can agree that it’s OK for an Xfinity Series regular to win this race.”

    While Mayer celebrated the victory in front of the stands, Gibbs was left disappointed on pit road after leading a race-high 70 laps and ended up 17th in the final running order.

    “It just really sucks,” Gibbs said. “Definitely sucks to get cleaned out there. I had a good time running these things this year. I think it’s just a part of life and it’s part of racing. You just get over it. When stuff like that happens and desperate moves like that happen, it’s just part of it and you just got to keep going. I don’t really know how much of a conversation you can really have with [Mayer] in that situation. We, kind of, grew up around racing each other. He has more starts than I do and this is his second win. So, congratulations to him on his second win. Definitely wished I could’ve gotten my 13th [win] there.”

    Creed, who was a lap away from claiming his first Xfinity victory, settled in the runner-up spot for the fourth time of his career while Parker Kligerman finished third for his fifth top-five result of the season as he is only three points below the top-12 cutline to make the 2023 Xfinity Series Playoffs.

    Ross Chastain and Connor Mosack finished in the top five while Nemechek, Custer, Chandler Smith, Bowman and Jeb Burton completed the top 10 on the track. Notably, Austin Hill ended up 14th, Allgaier settled in 16th in front of Ty Gibbs and Sammy Smith, Berry fell back to 20th upon his late spin and Hemric ended up 23rd. In addition, Kyle Busch ended up 27th after retiring due to a late transmission issue.

    There were nine lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 18 laps. In addition, 21 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With three Xfinity regular-season events remaining on the schedule, Austin Hill leads the regular-season standings by nine points over John Hunter Nemechek and 34 over Justin Allgaier.

    Results.

    1. Sam Mayer, eight laps led

    2. Sheldon Creed

    3. Parker Kligerman

    4. Ross Chastain

    5. Connor Mosack

    6. John Hunter Nemechek

    7. Cole Custer, one lap led

    8. Chandler Smith

    9. Alex Bowman, four laps led

    10. Jeb Burton

    11. Brandon Jones

    12. Brennan Poole

    13. Kyle Weatherman, two laps led

    14. Austin Hill

    15. Sage Karam

    16. Justin Allgaier, one lap led

    17. Ty Gibbs, 70 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    18. Sammy Smith

    19. Kyle Sieg

    20. Josh Berry

    21. Ryan Sieg

    22. Joe Graf Jr., one lap down

    23. Daniel Hemric, two laps down

    24. Alex Labbe, three laps down

    25. Josh Bilicki, three laps down

    26. Parker Retzlaff, four laps down

    27. Kyle Busch – OUT, Transmission

    28. Kaz Grala – OUT, Accident

    29. Brett Moffitt – OUT, Suspension

    30. Ryan Ellis, 21 laps down

    31. Anthony Alfredo – OUT, Axle

    32. Stanton Barrett – OUT, Suspension

    33. Stefan Parsons – OUT, Brakes

    34. Max McMaughlin – OUT, Accident

    35. Riley Herbst – OUT, Suspension

    36. Josh Williams – OUT, Accident

    37. Jeremy Clements – OUT, Suspension

    38. Blaine Perkins – OUT, Transmission

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’s second and final visit of the season to Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The event is scheduled to occur next Friday, August 25, at 7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • Ty Gibbs aces Indianapolis Road Course for first Xfinity victory of 2023

    Ty Gibbs aces Indianapolis Road Course for first Xfinity victory of 2023

    A late strategic move by exiting pit road ahead of AJ Allmendinger enabled Ty Gibbs to assume the lead and muscle away from the field during a 16-lap dash to the finish to win the fourth annual running of the Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard on Saturday, August 12.

    The reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series champion from Charlotte, North Carolina, led twice for a race-high 28 of 62-scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row alongside Allmendinger before he made his presence known early after assuming the lead on the third lap. Despite losing the lead by Lap 13 to pit for slick tires amid an early lightning delay followed by a brief round of precipitation, Gibbs remained within striking distance of the front-runners throughout the event.

    Then with 19 laps remaining, an opportunity struck for Gibbs, who managed to exit pit road ahead of Allmendinger amid a late cycle of green flag pit stops just as the caution flew for a stalled car off the course in Turn 1. Once a handful of competitors who had not yet pitted did so, Gibbs cycled into the lead. He then managed to fend off Allmendinger before distancing himself from the field during a restart with 16 laps remaining to cruise to his first Xfinity victory in his seventh start of the season and his first at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, AJ Allmendinger notched his third pole position of the 2023 Xfinity season and the 11th of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 92.985 mph in 94.428 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Ty Gibbs, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 92.352 mph in 95.075 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following competitors that included Brennan Poole, Jeremy Clements, Brad Perez and Blaine Perkins dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. Joe Graf Jr. also dropped to the rear of the field for missing driver introductions.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Allmendinger rocketed away from the field while entering the new restart zone in between Turns 13 and 14 as he also fended off Ty Gibbs through the frontstretch entering the first braking turn. Gibbs then tried to pull a crossover move on Allmendinger through Turns 1 and 2, but Allmendinger retained the lead as the field navigated its way from Turns 2 to 6 before entering a long straightaway prior to another braking zone in Turn 7. With the field behind fanning out and jostling for early positions, Allmendinger continued to lead from Turns 7 to 14 before he returned to the frontstretch and led the first lap. By then, Ty Gibbs kept Allmendinger within his sights and within close margins while Josh Berry, Austin Hill and Daniel Hemric were in the top five.

    Through the second lap, Gibbs drew himself alongside Allmendinger entering Turns 3 and 4 in a bid for the lead, but Allmendinger gained the upper advantage and the preferred lane through Turn 5 as he retained the lead while Gibbs settled in second. Allmendinger would proceed to lead the second lap while continuing to fend off Gibbs’ early challenge. By the third lap, however, Ty Gibbs gained a run on Allmendinger exiting the frontstretch and assumed the lead in his No. 19 He Gets Us Toyota Supra through the first braking turn.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Ty Gibbs was leading by nearly two seconds over Allmendinger while Berry, Cole Custer and Austin Hill were in the top five. Behind, John Hunter Nemechek, Hemric, Sheldon Creed, Riley Herbst and Justin Allgaier were in the top 10 while Ross Chastain, Parker Kligerman, rookie Sammy Smith, Sam Mayer and Connor Mosack occupied the top 15 on the track. With Brett Moffitt, Josh Bilicki, Kaz Grala, Miguel Paludo and rookie Chandler Smith running in the top 20, Sage Karam was mired in 21st ahead of Jeb Burton, rookie Parker Retzlaff, Brandon Jones and Alex Labbe.

    Another lap later, the first caution of the event flew due to lightning occurring near the speedway. By the seventh lap, the field led by Ty Gibbs was directed to pit road and the event was red-flagged amid the lightning strike and as light precipitation began to increase.

    When the red flag was lifted following a delay period spanning nearly 44 minutes, the competitors returned to the track’s racing surface under a cautious pace on the eighth lap in spite of the track conditions still being slightly wet from the precipitation. Prior to the red flag being lifted, the pit crews were given the option to change to wet tires for their respective entries.

    During the caution laps, however, some led by Allmendinger and including Sam Mayer, Chandler Smith, Retzlaff, Kyle Weatherman and Blaine Perkins pitted to change from wet to slick tires while the rest led by Ty Gibbs remained on the track.

    When the race resumed under green flag conditions on Lap 11 and amid a single-file restart formation, Ty Gibbs retained the lead through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1 followed by Custer as the field fanned out. Then as the field navigated its way from Turns 2 to 7, Ross Chastain spun after getting hit by Connor Mosack’s No. 24 Toyota Genuine Parts Supra in Turn 7, but the event remained under green flag conditions as he proceeded without getting hit by the field. Back at the front of the pack, Ty Gibbs stretched his advantage to more than two seconds over Custer during the proceeding laps while Berry, Nemechek and Austin Hill were in the top five ahead of Hemric.

    By Lap 14, Ty Gibbs surrendered the lead to pit for slick tires under green along with Custer, Moffitt, Kaz Grala, Chastain, Jeb Burton, Ryan Sieg, Brennan Poole and Josh Williams. More names that included Nemechek, Austin Hill, Miguel Paludo, Sage Karam and Josh Bilicki would then pit on Lap 15 as Berry cycled into the lead followed by Hemric and Creed, who would pit on Lap 16. Shortly after, however, Hemric overtook Berry for the lead as Parker Kligerman joined the battle. By Lap 17, more names that included Herbst, Sammy Smith and Alex Labbe pitted as Hemric continued to lead.

    Then on Lap 18, Allmendinger, who methodically carved his way through the field while on slick tires and from starting midfield since the restart, overtook teammate Hemric for the lead in Turn 13. Allmendinger would proceed to stretch his advantage to more than three seconds by the time he entered Turn 7 over teammate Hemric before Mayer, who also pitted prior to the restart, overtook Hemric for the runner-up spot.

    At the conclusion of the first stage period on Lap 20, Allmendinger captured his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season. Mayer settled in second followed by Hemric, Kligerman and Allgaier while Ty Gibbs, Retzlaff, Chandler Smith, Berry and Custer were scored in the top 10.

    With the race remaining under green just past the Lap 20 mark to start the second stage period, Allmendinger continued to extend his advantage to more than five seconds over Mayer while third-place Hemric trailed by more than 14 seconds. Nearing the Lap 21 mark, the following names that included Hemric, Allgaier, Kligerman and Berry pitted for slick tires. By then, Josh Williams nursed his car to the garage amid smoke billowing out of his entry nearing the conclusion of the first stage period.

    By Lap 25 and with the entire field running on slick tires, Allmendinger was leading by more than six seconds over Mayer while Ty Gibbs was in third and trailing by more than 15 seconds. Behind, Custer and Retzlaff were in the top five while Chandler Smith, Creed, Austin Hill, Nemechek and Kyle Weatherman occupied the top 10 in front of Herbst, Moffitt, Grala, Paludo and Ryan Sieg. Meanwhile, Kligerman was mired back in 35th while a lap down after pitting a few laps earlier due to a flat left-front tire on his No. 48 Spiked Light Coolers Chevrolet Camaro stemming from a valve stem being knocked out.

    A lap later, the caution flew when Brad Perez came to a stop on the oval circuit near Turns 13 and 14 as smoke started to billow out of his No. 53 entry due to a mechanical issue. By then, Allmendinger was leading by more than six seconds over Mayer while Ty Gibbs, Custer and Retzlaff continued to run in the top five.

    During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by Allmendinger pitted while the rest led by Mayer and including Custer, Moffitt, Ryan Sieg, Allgaier and Berry remained on the track.

    As the event restarted under green and in double-file formation on Lap 30, Mayer muscled ahead from Custer with the lead as the field fanned out through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1. From Turn 2 to Turn 6, Mayer retained the lead as Custer also retained second in front of Allgaier while Allmendinger, who restarted eighth, had quickly carved his way up to fourth while on four fresh tires. With the field continuing to jostle for positions around each of the remaining 14 turns, Mayer would lead the following lap, Lap 31, as the event reached its halfway mark.

    By Lap 34, Allmendinger battled and reassumed the lead from Mayer through the first three turns. Allmendinger would proceed to increase his advantage to more than a second over Mayer during the following lap while Ty Gibbs, who overtook Custer for third place the lap prior, trailed by more than two seconds.

    Then on Lap 36, Custer, who was battling Allgaier for fourth, made slight contact with Allgaier in Turn 13. Allgaier then ran over the curb entering Turn 14 and made contact again with Custer as Custer ran off the circuit and into the grass before he spun back onto the course while trying to straighten his car. Custer would manage to proceed without sustaining significant damage to his No. 00 Haas Ford Mustang and without drawing a caution while Creed, Herbst and Hill managed to overtake Allgaier for positions fourth through sixth amid the chaos. Another lap later, Allgaier pitted under green along with teammate Paludo, Moffitt, Custer and Andre Castro while Allmendinger retained the lead over Ty Gibbs and Mayer.

    At the conclusion of the second stage period on Lap 40, Allmendinger captured his third Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season and second of the day as he was leading by more than three seconds over Ty Gibbs. Gibbs settled in second while Mayer, Creed, Herbst, Austin Hill, Chandler Smith, Nemechek, Hemric and Jeremy Clements were scored in the top 10.

    With the final stage commencing under a continuous green flag period with 22 laps remaining, Allmendinger retained the lead by more than two seconds over Ty Gibbs. Another lap later, names including Nemechek, Mayer, Hemric and Chandler Smith pitted under green. Herbst would pit from fourth place with 20 laps remaining while Allmendinger continued to lead by nearly three seconds over Ty Gibbs with 20 laps remaining. By then, Nemechek and Herbst were penalized for speeding on pit road.

    A lap later, Allmendinger surrendered the lead to pit under green followed by Ty Gibbs, Austin Hill, Grala, Brandon Jones while Creed cycled into the lead. Shortly after, however, the caution flew for Andre Castro parking his car off the course in Turn 1 due to a mechanical issue. By then, Creed had made a pit stop, but had failed to enter pit road in time just as the caution flew and was sent to the rear of the field for the proceeding restart.

    During the caution period, some led by Clements and including Josh Bilicki, Karam, Retzlaff, Jeb Burton, Preston Pardus, Paludo and Kligerman pitted while the rest led by Ty Gibbs, who had managed to overtake Allmendinger during the green flag pit stops, remained on the track.

    Down to the final 16 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Ty Gibbs fended off Allmendinger to retain the lead through the frontstretch as the field fanned out. Then in Turn 1, Allmendinger tried to draw even with Gibbs, but Gibbs muscled ahead on the inside lane in Turn 2. Gibbs would continue to lead during the proceeding turns as Brandon Jones spun in Turn 1 after getting bumped by Sammy Smith, but without drawing a caution. After fending off another charge from Allmendinger amid contact through Turn 7 while Hemric went off the course after getting hit by teammate Chandler Smith and an oncoming Connor Mosack, Gibbs continued to lead while Mayer pressured Allmendinger for the runner-up spot.

    Gibbs would proceed to lead with 15 laps remaining ahead of Allmendinger and Mayer while Allgaier and Austin Hill battled for fourth. By then, select competitors like teammates Chandler Smith and Hemric along with Sammy Smith pitted under green amid their contact and off-track incident in Turn 7. Gibbs would proceed to extend his advantage to more than two seconds over runner-up Allmendinger during the proceeding laps while Mayer trailed in third place by more than four seconds followed by Austin Hill and Allgaier. By then, Custer rallied to sixth while Grala, Nemechek, Moffitt and Kligerman were running in the top 10.

    With 10 laps remaining, Gibbs continued to lead by more than three seconds over Allmendinger while Mayer, Hill and Allgaier remained in the top five. Behind, Custer, Grala, Nemechek, Moffitt and Kligerman also remained in the top 10 while Creed, Labbe, Jeb Burton, Herbst and Berry were mired in the top 15. Meanwhile, Brandon Jones was down in 23rd, Hemric was in 28th ahead of Sammy Smith while a lap down and Chandler Smith was in 33rd.

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Ty Gibbs extended his advantage to more than four seconds over Allmendinger while third-place Mayer trailed by more than six seconds ahead of Austin Hill and Allgaier. By then, Blaine Perkins, who went off the course in between Turns 8 to 10 after making contact with Ryan Ellis, was mired in 33rd as he eventually pitted. Chandler Smith, who was two laps down in 32nd, locked up the front tires and went off the course in Turn 12 while earlier, Ryan Sieg was assessed a stop-and-go penalty after missing Turn 6 as he was currently running in 27th.

    Shortly after, trouble struck for Grala, who was running sixth before he went off the course entering Turn 1. Then as he tried to blend back into the racing surface, he clipped Nemechek and sent Nemechek’s No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota Supra spinning in Turn 2 as Nemechek fell out of the top 10 on the track. Despite the incident, the race remained under green flag conditions as Ty Gibbs retained the lead by more than five seconds over Allmendinger.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Ty Gibbs remained as the leader by more than seven seconds over Mayer, who battled and overtook Allmendinger’s No. 10 LeafHome Water Solutions Chevrolet Camaro for the runner-up spot a lap prior. Amid the late on-track chaos and having a clear view in front of him, Gibbs was able to smoothly navigate his way around the 14-turn circuit for a final time and cruise back to the frontstretch to claim his first checkered flag of the 2023 NASCAR season and his first at Indianapolis.

    With the victory, Gibbs, who is currently competing in his first full-time season in the NASCAR Cup Series for Joe Gibbs Racing, notched his 12th career victory in the Xfinity Series and his first since winning both the 2022 season finale and championship at Phoenix Raceway this past November. In addition to winning at Indianapolis for the first time and becoming the fourth different winner in four Xfinity events on Indy’s road course venue, he achieved his fourth victory on a road course venue and the second of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 “all-star” entry led by veteran crew chief Jason Ratcliff while also becoming the 13th different winner of this year’s Xfinity season.

    Gibbs’ victory capped off an eventful IndyCar-NASCAR doubleheader feature at Indianapolis on Saturday as six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon fended off pole-sitter Graham Rahal amid a late battle to win the Gallagher Grand Prix at the Indy Road Course hours earlier.

    “It’s definitely about time [that I won],” Gibbs said on USA Network. “Really cool to get one here at the Brickyard. I grew up racing go-karts at New Castle right down the street, so really special to me. Awesome car! Great car. Thank you, Jason Ratcliff. This is the man right here. Jason does such a great job. This is just so special. We got the Brickyard! Let’s go!”

    Mayer, who led five laps in his No. 1 Huck’s Market Chevrolet Camaro, settled in the runner-up spot for the third time this season while Allmendinger, who led 21 laps and swept both stages, ended up third in his fifth Xfinity event of the season. Austin Hill and Allgaier finished in the top five while Custer, Kligerman, Creed, Grala and Moffitt came home in the top 10.

    Notably, Nemechek ended up 13th in between Herbst and Berry, Brandon Jones settled in 21st ahead of teammate Miguel Paludo, Hemric ended up 27th in front of Sammy Smith and Chandler Smith retired in 34th due to a suspension failure.

    There were 10 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured three cautions for nine laps. In addition, 26 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With four Xfinity regular-season events remaining on the schedule, Austin Hill leads the regular-season standings by 11 points over John Hunter Nemechek and 34 over Justin Allgaier.

    Results.

    1. Ty Gibbs, 28 laps led

    2. Sam Mayer, five laps led

    3. AJ Allmendinger, 21 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    4. Austin Hill

    5. Justin Allgaier

    6. Cole Custer

    7. Parker Kligerman

    8. Sheldon Creed, one lap led

    9. Kaz Grala

    10. Brett Moffitt

    11. Alex Labbe

    12. Riley Herbst

    13. John Hunter Nemechek

    14. Josh Berry, two laps led

    15. Sage Karam

    16. Jeb Burton

    17. Parker Retzlaff

    18. Josh Bilicki, one lap led

    19. Jeremy Clements, one lap led

    20. Kyle Weatherman

    21. Brandon Jones

    22. Miguel Paludo

    23. Anthony Alfredo

    24. Preston Pardus

    25. Brennan Poole

    26. Connor Mosack

    27. Daniel Hemric, one lap down, three laps down

    28. Sammy Smith, one lap down

    29. Ryan Ellis, one lap down

    30. Kyle Sieg, one lap down

    31. Blaine Perkins, two laps down

    32. Ryan Sieg, five laps down

    33. Josh Williams, five laps down

    34. Chandler Smith – OUT, Suspension

    35. Joe Graf Jr. – OUT, Axle

    36. Andre Castro – OUT, Suspension

    37. Ross Chastain – OUT, Suspension

    38. Brad Perez – OUT, Brakes

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is another road course event as the series travels east from Indiana to New York for Watkins Glen International. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, August 19, at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • Buescher goes back-to-back with dramatic Cup victory at Michigan

    Buescher goes back-to-back with dramatic Cup victory at Michigan

    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.

  • John Hunter Nemechek rallies from early spin to notch milestone Xfinity victory for Joe Gibbs Racing at Michigan

    John Hunter Nemechek rallies from early spin to notch milestone Xfinity victory for Joe Gibbs Racing at Michigan

    From a Lap 10 multi-car wreck that involved himself and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, John Hunter Nemechek rallied in dominant fashion by notching a milestone victory for the JGR organization in the Cabo Wabo 250 at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday, August 5.

    The 26-year-old Nemechek from Mooresville, North Carolina, led twice for a race-high 65 of 125-scheduled laps in an event where he started 10th and quickly raced his way towards the front. Amid a Lap 3 incident for a single car spin and a Lap 9 restart, Nemechek’s event quickly went south when he made contact with teammate Ty Gibbs entering the backstretch that sent Gibbs spinning while his third teammate, Sammy Smith, was also collected after making ensuing contact with Nemechek. Despite falling down the leaderboard, Nemechek, who pitted prior to the first stage’s conclusion, gained an advantage during the stage break when he remained on the track and moved up the leaderboard. From there, Nemechek assumed the lead for the first time on Lap 55 and proceeded to win the second stage. He then gained control of the field throughout the final stage spanning the final 59 laps and held off the field during a seven-lap dash to the finish to notch his fifth NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the 2023 season and record the 200th Xfinity career win for Joe Gibbs Racing.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, August 4, Josh Berry notched his second Xfinity pole position of the 2023 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 189.549 mph in 37.985 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Justin Allgaier, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 188.289 mph in 38.239 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following names that included Connor Mosack, Sage Karam, Kyle Weatherman and Josh Williams dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective entries.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Berry surged ahead with a strong start from the outside lane through the backstretch, but teammate Allgaier gained a strong run from the inside lane through the first two turns as he then assumed the lead entering the backstretch. With Allgaier placing a reasonable gap between himself and Berry exiting the backstretch before entering Turns 3 and 4, Allgaier proceeded to lead the first lap while Austin Hill and Sam Mayer battled for third place behind Berry.

    During the second lap, Allgaier stretched his lead to half a second over teammate Berry while teammate Mayer trailed in third place by less than a second. By then, Austin Hill was in fourth ahead of rookie Chandler Smith while Ty Gibbs, Carson Hocevar, John Hunter Nemechek, rookie Sammy Smith and Ross Chastain were in the top 10.

    On the third lap, the first caution of the event flew when Kaz Grala, who was battling within the top 20, slipped sideways entering Turn 4 and spun off the front nose of Sheldon Creed as Grala spun his No. 26 Toyota Genuine Parts Supra below the track and backwards on the frontstretch grass.

    When the race restarted on the ninth lap, teammates Allgaier and Berry dueled for the top spot until Allgaier muscled ahead in his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro to retain the lead. As the field fanned out and jostled for positions, contact was made between Mayer and Chandler Smith entering Turn 3 as Mayer went up the track and lost a multitude of spots while Allgaier continued to lead.

    A lap later, the caution returned when Nemechek, who was battling amid close-quarters racing with Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Ty Gibbs and Sammy Smith, ran into the rear bumper of Gibbs’ No. 19 He Gets Us Toyota Supra entering the backstretch, which got Gibbs loose and spinning sideways as Nemechek also spun after getting hit by Sammy Smith. In the ensuring mayhem, Nemechek spun his No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota Supra towards the bottom of the track in the backstretch while Smith collided into the side of Hocevar and nearly sent his No. 77 Premier Security Chevrolet Camaro flipping over before Hocevar’s car quickly came back down on all four wheels and spun through the backstretch. While Nemechek and Gibbs, who was left sour over the incident with Nemechek, continued along with Hocevar, Sammy Smith’s event came to an early end.

    During the proceeding restart on Lap 16, Allgaier retained the lead amid another strong restart while teammate Berry, who elected to restart on the second row, gained a strong start to move up to second followed by Chandler Smith while Hill, who moved up to restart on the inside lane on the front row, fell back to fourth.

    Approaching Lap 19, the caution flew for a third time when Mason Maggio, who was involved in the previous caution period for a multi-car wreck, went dead straight after blowing a right-front tire and smacked the outside wall towards Turn 2 as his event came to an early end. During the caution period, Nemechek, Karam and Josh Williams pitted while the rest led by Allgaier remained on the track.

    The following restart on Lap 23 featured Allgaier and Custer dueling for the lead on the front row as Allgaier retained the lead while the field fanned out through the first two turns. As Allgaier retained the top spot, Berry moved back into the runner-up spot followed by Custer while Chandler Smith and Herbst followed suit along with Brandon Jones. Amid the continuous on-track battles, Allgaier would retain the lead at the Lap 25 mark.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 30, Allgaier claimed his eighth stage victory of the 2023 Xfinity season. Teammate Berry settled in second while Custer, Chandler Smith, Herbst, Brandon Jones, Austin Hill, Ryan Sieg, Mayer and Anthony Alfredo were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Allgaier pitted for service while the rest led by Ty Gibbs, Nemechek and Grala remained on the track amid mixed strategy ensuing. Amid the pit stops, Jeb Burton spun while trying to entering his pit stall and was penalized for a safety violation.

    The second stage started on Lap 36 as Ty Gibbs and Creed, who pitted for two fresh tires, occupied the front row. At the start, Gibbs took off with the lead ahead of Creed and the field that proceeded to fan out entering the first two turns. By the following lap, Ty Gibbs stretched his advantage to half a second while teammate Nemechek battled and overtook Creed for the runner-up spot.

    On Lap 38, the caution flew when Connor Mosack got turned by Joe Graf Jr. towards the outside wall exiting the frontstretch and approaching Turn 1 as Mosack limped back to pit road with extensive damage on his No. 24 Toyota Racing Development Supra.

    When the race restarted on Lap 42, Ty Gibbs pulled ahead from Riley Herbst with a push from teammate Nemechek as Gibbs assumed the lead while Nemechek and Herbst battled for second.

    At the Lap 50 mark, Ty Gibbs was leading by a tenth of a second over teammate Nemechek followed by Herbst, Cole Custer and Allgaier while Mayer, Austin Hill, Berry, Brandon Jones and Chandler Smith were in the top 10. Behind, Brett Moffitt was in 11th ahead of Creed, Anthony Alfredo, Parker Kligerman and Ryan Sieg while Daniel Hemric, Ross Chastain, Parker Retzlaff, Jeb Burton and Grala occupied the top 20.

    Five laps later, the top-nine competitors were separated by less than two seconds as Nemechek cycled his way around teammate Ty Gibbs to assume the lead. With Nemechek leading by four-tenths of a second and half a second over Herbst, Allgaier and Austin Hill settled in the top five.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 60, Nemechek fended off the field to claim his fifth Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season. Allgaier, who moved from fourth to second two laps earlier, settled in the runner-up spot while Ty Gibbs, Herbst, Austin Hill, Custer, Berry, Mayer, Brandon Jones and Moffitt were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, trouble struck for Allgaier as he got bumped and turned by Ty Gibbs while approaching his pit stall as the field entered pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Nemechek exited first ahead of Herbst, Hill, Custer, Berry and Ty Gibbs.

    With 59 laps remaining, the final stage started as Nemechek and Hill occupied the front row. At the start, Nemechek jumped ahead to retain the lead over the field that fanned out with the competitors jostling for positions.

    With 50 laps remaining, Nemechek was leading by three-tenths of a second over Austin Hill followed by Herbst, Berry and Brandon Jones while Ty Gibbs settled in sixth. With Custer and Mayer running in seventh and eighth, Allgaier, following his pit road incident during the stage break, had carved his way back up to ninth after restarting 30th while Chastain was in 10th.

    Ten laps later, Nemechek continued to lead by more than a second over Austin Hill while Berry, Herbst and Brandon Jones retained their respective spots in the top five. By then, Ty Gibbs and Custer were running sixth and seventh while Allgaier was in eighth followed by teammate Mayer and Chastain.

    Another 10 laps later, Nemechek increased his advantage to nearly two seconds over Berry while Hill, Herbst and Brandon Jones remained in the top five. Not long after, green flag pit stops commenced as Mayer and Chandler Smith pitted. A series of names that included Ty Gibbs, Allgaier and Custer would pit during the ensuing lap before the leader Nemechek pitted with 28 laps remaining along with Brandon Jones, Hill, Chastain, Berry, Creed, Hemric, Jeb Burton and Jeremy Clements. Amid the pit stops, Allgaier was penalized due to a crew member jumping over the pit wall too soon while Moffitt, who has yet to pit, cycled into the lead. In addition, Austin Hill reported a transmission issue to his No. 21 United Rentals Chevrolet Camaro as he was exiting pit road, which resulted with him losing ground of the leaders.

    Then with 22 laps remaining, Nemechek cycled his way back into the lead after Sage Karam, who led a lap for himself, pitted. In the process, Berry moved up to second as he trailed Nemechek by two seconds as Ty Gibbs would follow suit to third place.

    With 15 laps remaining, Nemechek was leading by more than a second over Berry while Gibbs, Jones and Custer were in the top five.

    Then two laps later, the caution flew when Patrick Emerling blew a left-front tire and went dead straight towards the outside wall in Turn 3. During the caution period, names that included Custer, Allgaier, Ryan Sieg, Karam and Moffitt pitted while the rest led by Nemechek remained on the track.

    Down to the final seven laps of the event, the race restarted under green as teammates Nemechek and Ty Gibbs occupied the front row. At the start, Nemechek retained the lead over the field as Berry and Ty Gibbs battled for second ahead of Brandon Jones and Mayer. With the field fanning out through the first two turns and the backstretch, Nemechek stabilized his advantage while starting to place a gap from the field.

    With five laps remaining, Nemechek was leading by three-tenths of a second over Berry and six-tenths of a second over Brandon Jones while Ty Gibbs and Mayer were in the top five. Behind, Herbst was in sixth followed by Chastain, Kligerman, Retzlaff and Jeb Burton. Nemechek would then stretch his advantage to nearly a second over Berry while Brandon Jones would slowly lose touch of the top-two competitors as the laps dwindled.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Nemechek remained as the leader by more than a second over Berry and Brandon Jones while Ty Gibbs and Mayer trailed by more than two seconds. Having no close competition lurking behind him, Nemechek was able to cycle his way around the circuit for a final time and cruise back to the frontstretch to notch his fifth checkered flag of the 2023 Xfinity season.

    With the victory, Nemechek notched his seventh Xfinity Series career victory in his 88th series start and his first at Michigan as he became the first five-time race winner of the 2023 season. In addition to delivering the seventh Xfinity victory of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing, Nemechek bestowed the honors of achieving the 200th career win for the JGR organization, with six of them coming from Nemechek.

    “Man, I’m grateful for this whole No. 20 bunch,” Nemechek, who accepted responsibility over the contact and incident with Ty Gibbs, said on NBC. “[I’m] Grateful for Joe Gibbs Racing, this opportunity. All of our great partners that help us get to the racetrack. I have to apologize to Ty [Gibbs]. I’ve been the one that’s been very vocal about teammates recently. I put him in a bad aero spot, got him loose and then, couldn’t check up. It’s my mistake. I hate that we both spun early, but at least, we both rebounded decently. I know he’s not too happy with me. He has every right not to be. I’m thankful for my team, all the guys. Win number five. After the last two weeks, we said that we needed to come out here and answer. We were able to do that today here at Michigan.”

    Berry, who did not lead a lap despite starting on pole position, ended up in the runner-up spot for the second time this season as he continues to pursue his first victory of the season while teammate Brandon Jones claimed his second top-five result of the season by notching a strong third-place result.

    “Yeah, we just built really tight that last run,” Berry said. “I thought I was kind of inching in on [Nemechek] for a while and then, we kind of leveled out. It was tough there. I felt like I needed to pick behind [Nemechek] there [on the final restart], but the bottom [lane] just got so slick there at the end. I felt like that was gonna give us our best chance. Overall, we were just a little too tight to make a run at him there. Overall, [I’m] really proud of these guys. Obviously, we’ve had a good couple of weeks, so we just got to keep working, keep getting better. We’re just gonna keep after it. We’re getting better at the right time. Definitely, a good day for JR Motorsports and we’ll be in Victory Lane soon.”

    Ty Gibbs, who led 22 laps, rallied from his early incident to finish fourth in his sixth Xfinity start of the season while Mayer, winner of last weekend’s event at Road America, finished fifth.

    Herbst, Ross Chastain, Kligerman, rookie Parker Retzlaff and Jeb Burton completed the top 10 on the track. Notably, Austin Hill ended up 11th in front of teammate Sheldon Creed, Allgaier settled in 14th following his late-race pit road penalty, Custer finished 16th behind Daniel Hemric and rookie Chandler Smith, who had a late-race run-in with Hill that led to a post-race discussion with Hill, fell back to 20th.

    There were seven lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 31 laps. In addition, 20 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With five Xfinity regular-season events remaining on the schedule, John Hunter Nemechek and Austin Hill are tied for the lead in the regular-season standings, with Justin Allgaier trailing by 34 points and Cole Custer trailing by 86.

    Results.

    1. John Hunter Nemechek, 65 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    2. Josh Berry

    3. Brandon Jones

    4. Ty Gibbs, 22 laps led

    5. Sam Mayer

    6. Riley Herbst, one lap led

    7. Ross Chastain

    8. Parker Kligerman

    9. Parker Retzlaff

    10. Jeb Burton

    11. Austin Hill

    12. Sheldon Creed

    13. Ryan Sieg

    14. Justin Allgaier, 32 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    15. Daniel Hemric

    16. Cole Custer

    17. Bret Moffitt, four laps led

    18. Anthony Alfredo

    19. Kyle Sieg

    20. Chandler Smith

    21. Kaz Grala, one lap down

    22. Josh Williams, one lap down

    23. Ryan Ellis, one lap down

    24. Jeffrey Earnhardt, one lap down

    25. Sage Karam, one lap down

    26. Jeremy Clements, one lap down

    27. Joe Graf Jr., one lap down

    28. Dawson Cram, one lap down

    29. Brennan Poole, two laps down

    30. Garrett Smithley, two laps down

    31. Stefan Parsons, two laps down

    32. Carson Hocevar, two laps down

    33. Blaine Perkins, two laps down

    34. Patrick Emerling, five laps down

    35. Kyle Weatherman – OUT, Electrical

    36. Connor Mosack – OUT, Accident

    37. Mason Maggio – OUT, Accident

    38. Sammy Smith – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ fourth annual running of the Pennzoil 150 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in Indianapolis, Indiana. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, August 12, at 5:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • Hamlin notches 50th Cup Series triumph; becomes winningest competitor at Pocono

    Hamlin notches 50th Cup Series triumph; becomes winningest competitor at Pocono

    A year after having a record-breaking victory at Pocono Raceway stripped due to disqualification to his race-winning car, Denny Hamlin responded back with vengeance and reclaimed the title of holding the most victories at the Tricky Triangle by winning the HighPoint.com 400 on Sunday, July 23.

    The three-time Daytona 500 champion from Chesterfield, Virginia, led twice for nine of 160-scheduled laps in an event where he rolled off the starting grid in eighth place, ran towards the front and accumulated an abundance of stage points by finishing in the top five during both stage periods. Amid various pit strategies and a bevy of caution periods amid on-track carnages, Hamlin, who methodically gained ground towards the lead and avoided a spin involving Alex Bowman with 12 laps remaining amid close-quarters racing, seized an opportunity for the lead during a restart with seven laps remaining as he drew himself alongside Kyle Larson.

    In the process, Hamlin went up the racetrack and forced Larson out of the racing groove which resulted in Larson scrubbing the outside wall past Turn 1 while Hamlin rocketed away with the lead. Amid another ensuing caution period, where Larson bumped Hamlin to express his displeasure over the contact, Hamlin then managed to pull away from teammate Martin Truex Jr. and Tyler Reddick in a three-lap dash to the finish and just before an incident involving Ryan Preece concluded the event under caution to claim his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season and his all-time leading seventh triumph at the Tricky Triangle.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, July 22, William Byron notched his third pole of 2023 and the 11th of his Cup Series career after posting a pole-winning lap at 170.629 mph in 52.746 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Martin Truex Jr., winner of last weekend’s Cup event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 170.235 mph in 52.868 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Chase Elliott and Todd Gilliland dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries after both spun during their respective qualifying laps on Saturday.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Byron and Truex dueled for the lead through the frontstretch and entering the first turn until Byron managed to use the outside lane to his advantage as he rocketed into the lead entering Long Pond Straight. With Byron leading, Truex retained second as Joey Logano muscled his way into third place over Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin. With the field navigating its way through Turns 2 and 3 before returning to the frontstretch, Byron proceeded to lead the first lap while Truex, Logano, Harvick and Larson followed in pursuit.

    Through the second lap and as the field continued to jostle for early spots, rookie Ty Gibbs scrubbed the outside wall entering Long Pond Straight and while running 17th. With Gibbs resuming under full speed and the race proceeding under green, Byron retained the lead with a reasonable advantage over Truex while Logano, Harvick and Larson remained in the top five. Behind, Bubba Wallace, who scrubbed the wall during his qualifying lap but rolled off the grid in 10th place, was in sixth ahead of Christopher Bell as Austin Cindric, Tyler Reddick and Hamlin pursued in the top 10.

    On the fourth lap, the first caution of the event flew when JJ Yeley, who was running towards the rear of the field, spun and slapped the inside wall on the driver’s left side at the Short Chute and just past Turn 2. During the caution period, some like Chase Elliott, Aric Almirola, Ryan Preece, Chase Briscoe, Cole Custer and Todd Gilliland pitted while the rest led by Byron remained on the track.

    When the race resumed under green flag conditions on the 10th lap, Byron and Logano, who moved up to restart alongside Byron on the front row after Truex elected to start behind Byron on the outside lane, dueled for the lead entering the first turn as the field fanned out. Then in Turn 1, Logano rocketed his No. 22 Verizon Frontline Ford Mustang into the lead as Byron went up the track and fell back to second. Then exiting Long Pond Straight and as the field continued to fan out, Byron was placed in a three-wide battle with teammate Larson and Harvick to retain second, with Larson gaining the spot as Truex fell back to fifth.

    Three laps later and amid the early battles within the field, Corey LaJoie, who was running 12th, pitted under green after scrubbing the wall entering Long Pond Straight a lap earlier and reporting a flat tire to his No. 7 TD Bank Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, though he remained on the lead lap following his pit service. With the event remaining under green flag conditions, Logano continued to lead over a hard-charging Larson, who started to gain ground on Logano for the lead, while Byron settled in third and trailed the lead by more than a second.

    Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Logano retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Larson while Byron, Harvick and Truex were running in the top five. Behind, Christopher Bell occupied sixth ahead of teammate Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Reddick and AJ Allmendinger while Michael McDowell, Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric, Ty Gibbs and Alex Bowman were in the top 15. Meanwhile, Brad Keselowski was in 16th ahead of Justin Haley, Kyle Busch, Chris Buescher and Erik Jones while Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Daniel Suarez, rookie Noah Gragson, Ryan Preece, Harrison Burton, Austin Dillon, Ty Dillon and Aric Almirola were mired in the top 30.

    Five laps later, Logano stabilized his advantage to nearly half a second over Larson while third-place Byron trailed by more than a second. By then, the top-10 field that included Harvick, Truex, Bell, Hamlin, Blaney, Reddick and Allmendinger were trailing the lead by under six seconds. Another lap later, Kyle Busch, who was running 18th, pitted his No. 8 Lenovo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 under green. A bevy of names that included Larson, Byron, Harvick, Bell, Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Bowman, Austin Cindric, Keselowski, Elliott and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. would pit during the proceeding lap under green and just as pit road closed with the first stage’s conclusion within sight.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 30, Logano captured his third Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Truex, the regular-season championship leader, followed suit in second while Hamlin, Reddick, Allmendinger, Michael McDowell, Bubba Wallace, Justin Haley, Chris Buescher and Erik Jones were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, a bevy of names led by Logano, including those who remained on the track during the first stage’s conclusion period, pitted while the rest led by Cole Custer and Byron, including those who pitted prior to the first stage’s conclusion, remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Hamlin exited first followed by teammate Truex, Reddick, Logano, McDowell and Allmendinger. Custer would then pit a lap after remaining on the track, which enabled Byron to cycle back into the lead.

    The second stage started on Lap 35 as teammates Byron and Larson occupied the front row. At the start and with the field fanning out entering the first turn, the caution quickly returned when Logano, who was running in the middle of the pack, received a bump from McDowell that caused Logano to get loose and bounce off of Reddick before he spun backward and hit the outside wall, with the driver unable to drive away due to flat-spotting his tires and needing a wrecker to tow his car back to pit road. At the same time, McDowell, who was turning left to avoid Logano, made contact with Wallace, which proceeded into Wallace clipping Suarez as Suarez also spun sideways and slapped the outside wall head-on. The incident not only left a huge dent to Suarez’s front nose of his No. 99 Jockey Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, but it also implicated his ensuing battle to make the top-16 cutline for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs as he came into Pocono trailing the cutline by a single point. The damage, however, was enough to terminate Suarez’s event in the garage.

    During the proceeding restart on Lap 41, teammates Byron and Larson dueled for the lead through the frontstretch and entering the first turn before the field navigated its way to Long Pond Straight. The caution, however, quickly returned when Austin Dillon, who was running 26th, got clipped by BJ McLeod as Dillon was sent spinning backward toward the outside wall in Turn 1.

    The following restart on Lap 45 restart generated another caution period as Larson, who dueled teammate Byron for the lead through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1, received a bump from Bell that got Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 sideways and spinning up the track backward toward the outside wall in Turn 1 while the rest of the field scattered to avoid him. During the caution period, select names that included Harvick, Chase Briscoe, Erik Jones, Cole Custer, Harrison Burton, Todd Gilliland and Ty Dillon pitted while the rest led by Byron remained on the track.

    On the ensuing restart on Lap 50, where Byron and Bell occupied the front row, Byron surged ahead with a huge push on the outside lane to retain the lead through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1. With the field navigating its way through Turn 1 and Long Pond Straight, Ty Gibbs was up in third behind Blaney, who surged his No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang into second, followed by Keselowski and Bell, who lost a handful of spots during the restart, while teammates Elliott and Alex Bowman battled for sixth. Truex would join the battle involving Bowman and Elliott during the following lap along with Hamlin while Reddick was in 10th ahead of a battle between Wallace, Kyle Busch, Cindric and Buescher.

    By Lap 55 and amid a series of on-track battles ensuing within the field, Byron was leading by six-tenths of a second over Blaney while third-place Ty Gibbs trailed by more than a second. Byron would continue to lead by nine-tenths of a second over Blaney at the Lap 60 mark while Ty Gibbs, Keselowski and Bell remained in the top five. With Elliott, Truex, Hamlin, Reddick and Bowman running in the top 10, Wallace was in 11th ahead of Buescher, Allmendinger, Haley and McDowell while Kyle Busch, who went up the track and nearly scrubbed the wall a few laps earlier, had fallen back to 16th in front of Ryan Preece, Cindric, Aric Almirola and Stenhouse. By then, Larson was mired in 24th in front of Harvick, Ross Chastain was in 27th and Chase Briscoe was in 30th.

    On Lap 63, Bowman and Kyle Busch, who were running 10th and 16th, respectively, pitted under green. Stenhouse would pit during the proceeding lap before Allmendinger pitted by Lap 65. By then, Kyle Busch was lapped by Byron amid a 17-second pit stop. Wallace would then pit under green on Lap 68 as Byron continued to lead through the Lap 70 mark.

    By Lap 72, Hamlin, who was running on fumes amid a shortage of fuel due to leaving his pit stall early while fueling his car during his previous pit stop under caution, pitted his No. 11 Mavis Tires & Brakes Toyota TRD Camry under green while running 11th. His driver Reddick would pit during the following lap as Byron retained the lead by more than a second over runner-up Blaney and more than two seconds over Ty Gibbs through the Lap 75 mark. Byron would extend his advantage to more than two seconds over Blaney and more than three seconds over Ty Gibbs by Lap 78. By then, Buescher and Chastain pitted under green as Keselowski would follow suit.

    Then on Lap 79, Byron surrendered the lead to pit his No. 24 Raptor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 followed by Blaney, Bell, Cindric, and Almirola as Ty Gibbs cycled into the lead. Elliott and McDowell would follow suit on Lap 80 as Ty Gibbs pitted his No. 54 He Get Us Toyota TRD Camry on Lap 81 along with teammate Truex and Ryan Preece. By then, Larson cycled into the lead as Austin Dillon pitted his No. 3 BREZTRI Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 under green on Lap 83.

    Just past the Lap 85 mark, Larson was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Harvick while Erik Jones, Ty Dillon and LaJoie were in the top five. Behind, Byron cycled his way up to sixth while Harrison Burton, Bowman, Hamlin and Reddick were scored in the top 10 ahead of Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Wallace, Bell and Truex.

    With the event reaching its Lap 90 mark, select names like LaJoie and Erik Jones pitted under green. Harvick would then surrender the runner-up spot to pit his No. 4 Busch Light Peach Ford Mustang on Lap 91 along with Harrison Burton as Larson continued to lead. Then on Lap 91, the caution flew when Bell got loose and spun his No. 20 Yahoo! Toyota TRD Camry exiting Turn 1. The caution for Bell’s incident was enough for NASCAR to conclude the second stage scheduled to conclude on Lap 95 under caution as Larson, who was about to pit prior to Bell’s incident and was running low on fuel, coasted to his third Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Ty Dillon emerged in the runner-up spot while Byron, Hamlin, Bowman, Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Blaney, Wallace and Truex were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, some led by Larson, including a mix of competitors who had yet to pit prior to the stage’s conclusion and who pitted early from the stage’s conclusion like Hamlin, pitted while the rest led by Byron remained on the track.

    With 61 laps remaining, the final stage started as Byron and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Byron rocketed away with the lead on the outside lane through the frontstretch before the inside lane led by Blaney regained momentum as Blaney assumed the lead through Turn 1. Truex followed suit behind Blaney while Byron fell back to third.

    During the following lap with 60 laps remaining, Truex attempted to draw even with Blaney entering Turn 1 in his bid for the lead, but he stepped off the throttle as Blaney retained the lead while Byron tried to regain ground on the two leaders. Truex would then succeed in gaining the lead through the frontstretch during the following lap as Byron followed suit. Soon after, Blaney lost spots to Ty Gibbs, Buescher, Wallace and Bowman as he was dropkicked to seventh. He would continue to lose more spots during the ensuing lap as he reported a power issue to his car.

    With 55 laps remaining, the caution returned when Austin Dillon, who was vying for a spot in the top 10 and battling with Keselowski and Reddick, turned across the front nose of Reddick entering Turn 1 as Dillon spun up the track and pounded the outside wall hard. Compared to his previous incident in Turn 1, Dillon’s latest incident terminated his run with a wrecked race car and prompted the North Carolinian to toss his helmet at Reddick’s No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota TRD Camry to express his displeasure. At the moment of caution, Truex was leading ahead of Byron while Ty Gibbs, Buescher, Wallace, Bowman, Hamlin, Harvick, Elliott and Keselowski were in the top 10.

    During the caution period, select names that included Blaney, Keselowski, Almirola, Cindric, Stenhouse, Kyle Busch, LaJoie, Todd Gilliland and Harrison Burton pitted while the rest led by Truex remained on the track.

    As the race restarted with 50 laps remaining, Truex retained the lead amid a strong restart on the outside lane while Byron retained second in front of Ty Gibbs. Behind, Wallace carved his way up to fourth followed by Buescher while Bowman was in sixth ahead of Harvick and Elliott as the field cycled its way through Long Pond Straight, the Tunnel Curve and Turns 2 and 3.

    Ten laps later, Byron surrendered the runner-up spot to pit under green along with Buescher, McDowell, Keselowski, Cindric and Larson, who only opted for two fresh tires to cycle ahead of his fellow competitors. By then, Bowman had pitted a lap earlier while Truex retained the lead. With 39 laps remaining, however, the cycle of green flag pit stops continue to ensue as Truex pitted his No. 19 Interstate Batteries Toyota TRD Camry from the lead along with Wallace, Elliott, Chastain, Allmendinger and Haley while Ty Gibbs cycled into the lead. Gibbs would then pit with 38 laps remaining along with teammate Bell as Hamlin cycled into the lead followed by Harvick and Reddick.

    As Hamlin and Harvick both pitted for two fresh tires and fuel with 37 laps remaining, Reddick cycled into the lead while Larson, the first competitor running on two fresh tires and a full tank of gas, managed to cycle ahead of both Hamlin and Harvick on the track. With Reddick still leading with 30 laps remaining and despite having another pit stop within his horizon to have enough fuel to finish the event, Erik Jones trailed in the runner-up spot by more than three seconds followed by Stenhouse, LaJoie, Harrison Burton, Almirola, Gilliland, Yeley and Blaney, all of whom needing a pit stop to finish the event. Meanwhile, Larson, the first competitor running in prime position with his two fresh tires and a full tank of fuel, was in 10th followed by a hard-charging Hamlin while Truex, Bowman, Harvick, Byron, Ty Gibbs, Kyle Busch, Elliott, Buescher and Wallace followed pursuit.

    With 25 laps remaining, Erik Jones surrendered the runner-up spot to pit his No. 43 U.S. Air Force Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 under green as Reddick continued to lead by more than eight seconds over Stenhouse, who would pit his No. 47 Blue Buffalo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during the proceeding lap. Reddick would then surrender the lead to pit under green with 22 laps remaining as LaJoie cycled into the lead.

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, LaJoie was leading by more than five seconds over Almirola followed by Gilliland, all three of whom still needed to pit, while Larson cycled his way up to fourth despite trailing the top-three competitors by more than 11 seconds. Behind, a battle ensued between Joe Gibbs Racing’s Hamlin and Truex while Bowman, Harvick, Byron and Ty Gibbs were in the top 10. By then, Harrison Burton pitted under green.

    Then three laps later, the caution flew when contact from Ty Dillon sent Briscoe spinning and hitting the outside wall in Turn 3 as Briscoe limped his damaged No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang to his pit stall. During the caution period, some led by LaJoie and including Almirola, Gilliland, Byron, Elliott, Buescher, Yeley, Wallace, Allmendinger, Chastain, Keselowski, Blaney, Gilliland, Cindric, Preece, McDowell, Haley, LaJoie and Kyle Busch pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Cindric was penalized for speeding on pit road while LaJoie was held a lap in his pit box for overtaking the pace car while pulling up to his pit stall prior to his service.

    When the race restarted under green with 13 laps remaining, where Larson and Hamlin occupied the front row, Larson received a strong push from Truex on the outside lane to rocket ahead with the lead over Hamlin entering Turn 1. Through Long Pond Straight and as the field fanned out through the Tunnel Curve, Larson retained the lead over Truex as Bowman moved up to third while Hamlin fell back to fourth in front of Harvick.

    During the following lap, Truex started to launch his charge on Larson for the lead as he closed in to within a tenth of a second to Larson’s rear bumper through Long Pond Straight and the Tunnel Curve. Shortly after, the caution flew when Bowman, who was running third, spun sideways in front of Hamlin amid close-quarters racing, but with no contact made between both competitors, as Bowman backed his No. 48 Ally Best Friends Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 against the outside wall in Turn 3.

    Down to the final seven laps of the event, where Larson and Truex occupied the front row, the race restarted under green. At the start, Larson received another strong push on the outside lane, this time from Hamlin, to retain the lead entering Turn 1. Through Turn 1, however, Hamlin made his move beneath Larson in a bid for the lead as he even forced Larson up the track and caused Larson to scrub the outside wall. With Truex and Harvick joining the battle, Hamlin gained control of the field with the lead followed by Truex and Harvick while Larson dropped to fourth. Not long after, the caution returned when Haley wrecked in Turn 2. During the caution period, Larson bumped into Hamlin to express his displeasure over the contact.

    With the event restarting under green with three laps remaining, where teammates Hamlin and Truex occupying the front row, Hamlin launched ahead with another strong start on the outside lane and he would retain the top spot over Truex as he navigated his way into Long Pond Straight. Through the straightaway, Larson started to lose momentum and a bevy of spots towards the front amid his damage while Hamlin continued to lead Truex.

    Down to the final two laps of the event, Hamlin was leading by three-tenths of a second over Truex while Harvick was being challenged by Reddick for third. In the process, Ty Gibbs was in fifth ahead of Bell, Stenhouse, Erik Jones, Harrison Burton and Elliott while Larson plummeted to 14th.

    Then as Hamlin started to navigate his way towards the frontstretch to start the final lap of the event, Preece spun past the Tunnel Curve. NASCAR, though, opted keep the race under green flag conditions and display the white flag to start the final lap, where Hamlin remained as the leader by nearly eight-tenths of a second over Truex and Reddick. With Preece unable to drive away from his incident and as the field was approaching him through Long Pond Straight, NASCAR threw the caution to conclude the event. As a result, the leader Hamlin was awarded the victory as he notched the second Cup consecutive victory in recent weeks for Joe Gibbs Racing.

    With the victory, Hamlin notched his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season, his first since winning at Kansas Speedway in May amid a final lap dust-up involving Larson and he surpassed Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon in becoming the winningest Cup competitor at the Tricky Triangle with seven victories. In addition, he became the fifth competitor to achieve multiple Cup victories this season and the 15th different competitor to achieve 50 wins in NASCAR’s premier series as he moved into a tie with Hall of Famers Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson for 13th place on the all-time wins list. As an added bonus, Hamlin recorded the 600th overall victory for the Toyota nameplate across NASCAR with the manufacturer notching its seventh victory of the 2023 Cup season.

    Photo by Jeff Clemons for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “Both [Larson and Bowman] wrecked themselves,” Hamlin, who stood his ground over his late incidents involving Larson and Bowman, said on USA Network. “There was a lane. [Larson] missed the corner first and evidently, he didn’t have his right-side tires clean. When he gassed up, he just kept going again. You have an option in those positions that it’s either hold it wide open and hit the fence or lift and race it out. Those were choices they made. I didn’t hit either one of them. I didn’t touch them.”

    “I love it,” Hamlin, who reigned in the chorus of boos from the crowd, added. “They can boo my [winning] rock here in a few years. Honestly, we had the best car. The strategy worked out well. [Crew chief] Chris [Gabehart] just kept getting me more towards the front. This Mavis Tires & Brakes car was just really fast right from the get-go in practice. Just really happy that we’re finally winning these races that we should win.”

    Upon completion of the post-race inspection process, there were no issues assessed to Hamlin’s race-winning car this season compared to the previous season, which made Hamlin’s 2023 victory at Pocono official.

    Meanwhile, Larson, who ended up 20th and had initially placed himself in contention for the victory amid his early spin, maintained his composure but did not mince his words nor his displeasure to Hamlin over the on-track contact.

    “I’ve been cost a lot of good finishes by [Hamlin] throughout my career and I know he says I race a certain way, but I don’t think I’ve ever had to apologize to him about anything,” Larson said. “Not that I’m sure he’s gonna say sorry after this, but it is what it is. Whatever, just move on. Yes, this makes things [expletive] and awkward, but whatever. He’s always right. All the buddies know Denny’s always right, so I’m sure he was in the right there as well. I’m not gonna let it tarnish our friendship on track, but I am pissed. I feel like I should be pissed. I think at this point, I’m gonna have to [race him differently], right? Eventually, like he says, you got to start racing people a certain way to get the respect back. I don’t think I deserve to be run into before I ever got to the wall.”

    Behind Hamlin, Reddick rallied to come home in the runner-up spot followed by Truex, who fell short in winning back-to-back races in recent weeks. Harvick and Ty Gibbs finished in the top five.

    Bell, Stenhouse, Harrison Burton, Erik Jones and Chase Elliott finished in the top 10. Notably, Wallace ended up 11th, Byron settled in 14th behind Ross Chastain, Keselowski finished 16th, Kyle Busch ended up 21st behind Larson and Bowman fell back to 24th. In addition, Blaney ended up 30th, the final competitor on the lead lap.

    There were 14 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured 11 cautions for 44 laps. In addition, 30 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With five regular-season events remaining of this year’s Cup Series schedule, Martin Truex Jr. continues to lead the regular-season standings by 30 points over William Byron, 55 over Denny Hamlin, 75 over Christopher Bell and 98 over Ross Chastain.

    William Byron, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are currently guaranteed spots for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning at least once throughout the regular-season stretch. Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace and Michael McDowell currently occupy the remaining vacant spots in the Playoffs based on points, with McDowell occupying the 16th and final vacant spot by 17 points over AJ Allmendinger, 23 over Daniel Suarez, 28 over rookie Ty Gibbs, 45 over Alex Bowman, 56 over Chase Elliott, 60 over Austin Cindric and 62 over Justin Haley.

    Results.

    1. Denny Hamlin, nine laps led

    2. Tyler Reddick, 15 laps led

    3. Martin Truex Jr., 20 laps led

    4. Kevin Harvick

    5. Ty Gibbs, four laps led

    6. Christopher Bell

    7. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    8. Harrison Burton

    9. Erik Jones

    10. Chase Elliott

    11. Bubba Wallace

    12. Aric Almirola

    13. Ross Chastain

    14. William Byron, 60 laps led

    15. Todd Gilliland

    16. Brad Keselowski

    17. AJ Allmendinger

    18. Chris Buescher

    19. Michael McDowell

    20. Kyle Larson, 24 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    21. Kyle Busch

    22. Noah Gragson

    23. Austin Cindric

    24. Alex Bowman

    25. Cole Custer

    26. JJ Yeley

    27. Corey LaJoie, five laps led

    28. Ty Dillon

    29. Chase Briscoe

    30. Ryan Blaney, two laps led

    31. Ryan Preece, one lap down

    32. BJ McLeod, one lap down

    33. Justin Haley – OUT, Accident

    34. Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident

    35. Joey Logano – OUT, Dvp, 21 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    36. Daniel Suarez –  OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ second and final visit of this season to Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, July 30 at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • Truex dominates for third Cup victory of 2023 at New Hampshire

    Truex dominates for third Cup victory of 2023 at New Hampshire

    In his 30th start at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Martin Truex Jr. is no longer winless at the track dubbed the Magic Mile after capping off a dominant performance to win the rain-postponed Crayon 301 on Monday, July 17.

    The 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion from Mayetta, New Jersey, led five times for a race-high 254 of 301-scheduled laps, including the final 24, in an event where he swept both stages and dominated after assuming the lead from teammate and pole-sitter Christopher Bell on the second lap. Amid mixed strategy and a late call for two fresh tires during a late caution period, Truex reassumed the lead from Kevin Harvick with 24 laps remaining and had appeared to cruise to the victory before two late caution periods for two separate incident under the final 22 laps stalled his progress. Then during a nine-lap dash to the finish, Truex was not to be denied after he rocketed away from the field and held off a late charge from Joey Logano to capture his first elusive checkered flag at the Magic Mile and his third of the 2023 Cup season.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, July 15, Christopher Bell notched his first Cup pole of the 2023 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 124.781 mph in 30.524 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Martin Truex Jr., who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 124.752 mph in 30.531 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Kyle Busch dropped to the rear of the field due to repairs after wrecking his primary car during Saturday’s qualifying session.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced on Monday after Sunday’s scheduled start was postponed due to precipitation, Bell jumped ahead while starting on the outside lane and fended off teammate Truex and Joey Logano to retain the lead through the first two turns and entering the backstretch. As the field behind battled within two lanes before fanning out through Turns 3 and 4, Bell managed to lead the first lap ahead of Truex.

    On the second lap and as the field continued to fan out and jostle for early positions, Truex gained a run on Bell through the backstretch and made his move beneath his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate to assume the lead in his No. 19 Reser’s Fine Foods Toyota TRD Camry entering Turns 3 and 4. Bell, however, fought back as both dueled for the lead through the frontstretch before Truex managed to rocket ahead on the outside lane and clear Bell through the first two turns. As Logano tried to close in on Bell for the runner-up spot, Truex continued to lead at the fifth lap mark.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Truex was leading by nine-tenths of a second over teammate Bell followed by Logano, Aric Almirola and Ryan Blaney while Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace, William Byron, Daniel Suarez and Brad Keselowski were running in the top 10. Behind, AJ Allmendinger was in 11th ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chase Elliott, Michael McDowell and Denny Hamlin while Austin Dillon, Austin Cindric, Chris Buescher, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Larson were in the top 20. Meanwhile, Alex Bowman was in 26th ahead of rookie Ty Gibbs, Ross Chastain was mired in 29th behind Erik Jones, Chase Briscoe was strapped in 30th, Kyle Busch was back in 32nd and Ryan Newman was in 35th.

    Ten laps later, Truex stabilized his advantage to more than a second over teammate Bell while third-place Logano trailed by more than three seconds. With Almirola and Blaney continuing to run in the top five, Reddick, Byron, Wallace, Suarez and Keselowski continued to run in the top 10. By then, Hamlin moved up from 15th to 12th while Elliott lost a spot from 14th to 15th. In addition, Harvick moved up from 19th to 18th and Kyle Busch moved up from 32nd to 31st.

    Then on Lap 27, the first caution of the event flew when Allmendinger, who was running just outside the top 10, spun in Turn 2 after getting loose on his own, though he managed to proceed without sustaining any damage to his No. 16 Nutrien Ag Solutions Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Allmendinger’s spin served as the scheduled competition caution planned on Lap 30, with Truex still leading ahead of teammate Bell, Logano, Almirola and Blaney.

    During the competition caution period, nearly the entire field led by Truex pitted for service while Stenhouse remained on the track to assume the lead. Following the pit stops, Byron exited first after only opting for two fresh tires followed by Hamlin while Truex, the first competitor who changed for four fresh tires, exited third ahead of McDowell, Almirola, Suarez and Reddick amid mixed strategies ensuing. Amid the pit stops, Austin Dillon and Corey LaJoie were both penalized for speeding on pit road.

    When the race resumed under green flag conditions on Lap 33, the field fanned out through the first two turns as Truex tried to overtake both Byron and Stenhouse for the lead. With Truex briefly getting loose, Byron managed to cycle his No. 24 RAPTOR Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead followed by Truex. As the field continued to fan out and jostle amid competitors on mixed strategies, Almirola and Reddick moved up to third and fourth while Stenhouse was being intimidated by Hamlin and Suarez for fifth. With Bell, who endured a slow service during the competition caution, also trying to move back up to the front as he was mired in the top 10, Byron, running on two fresh tires, was still leading by half a second over Truex and his four fresh tires.

    Just past the Lap 40 mark, the battle for the lead started to intensify as Truex closed in and tried to gain a run to overtake Byron for the top spot. Then on Lap 43, Truex overtook and cleared Byron for the lead through Turns 3 and 4. With Truex back out in front, Reddick started to gain ground on the two leaders while Almirola and Hamlin were in the top five. Meanwhile, Stenhouse had drifted back to 25th in his No. 47 Kroger Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 while on four worn tires while Blaney, Bell, Suarez, McDowell and Logano were running in the top 10.

    At the Lap 50 mark, Truex was leading by more than a second over Byron followed by Reddick, Almirola and Hamlin while Blaney, Bell, Suarez, Logano and McDowell were in the top 10. Behind, Brad Keselowski was in 11th ahead of Larson, Bowman, Ty Gibbs and Buescher while Harvick, Wallace, Elliott, Ryan Preece and Cole Custer were mired in the top 20. Meanwhile, Chastain was in 21st ahead of Justin Haley, Briscoe was in 23rd ahead of Harrison Burton and Cindric, Allmendinger was mired back in 26th in front of Kyle Busch and Stenhouse had dropped back to 34th behind Austin Dillon and rookie Noah Gragson.

    Ten laps later, Truex extended his advantage to more than three seconds over Byron while third-place Reddick trailed by more than four seconds. Behind, Almirola, Blaney, Bell, Hamlin, Suarez, Logano and McDowell remained in the top 10 while Larson moved up to 11th ahead of Keselowski. In addition, Harvick cracked the top 15 in 14th, Elliott retained 18th and Kyle Busch only moved up to 26th behind Allmendinger.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 70, Truex captured his second stage victory of the 2023 Cup season. Byron fended off Reddick to settle in second while Almirola, Blaney, Bell, Hamlin, Suarez, Logano and McDowell were scored in the top 10. At the stage’s conclusion, Kyle Busch’s No. 8 Lenovo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 emerged with smoke after the two-time Cup Series champion made contact with the outside wall in Turn 1 and damaged the right side of his car, an incident that would end Busch’s long start in the garage. Behind Busch, Corey LaJoie also suffered the same fate as his car went dead straight towards the wall.

    Under the stage break, the field led by Truex returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Truex retained the lead after exiting first followed by Byron, Bell, Almirola, Blaney, Hamlin and Reddick. Amid the pit stops, Reddick and BJ McLeod were penalized for speeding while exiting pit road. Soon after, more pit issues struck for Bell, who pitted for a second time due to a loose wheel to his No. 20 Rheem Toyota TRD Camry as he was mired back in the field.

    The second stage started on Lap 77 as Truex and Byron occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out to three lanes entering the first two turns as Truex rocketed away with the lead. Behind, Almirola challenged Byron for second while Hamlin and Blaney also dueled for fourth. During the following lap and amid more on-track battles within the middle of the pack, Logano was in sixth ahead of a battle between Larson and Keselowski while Suarez and Wallace were in the top 10 ahead of McDowell, Harvick, Buescher, Ty Gibbs and Briscoe with Bowman, Chastain, Allmendinger, Haley and Elliott mired in the top 20.

    By Lap 90, Truex was leading by more than a second over Almirola while Hamlin cycled his No. 11 Mavis Tires & Brakes Toyota TRD Camry into third place followed by Blaney while Byron had fallen back to fifth. Behind, Larson moved his No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 up to sixth in front of Logano while Keselowski, McDowell and Suarez were in the top 10.

    At the Lap 100 mark, Truex extended his advantage by more than four seconds over Almirola while Hamlin, Blaney and Larson were running in the top five. By then, Byron had dropped to ninth as Logano, Keselowski and McDowell overtook him while Suarez retained 10th in front of Wallace, Harvick, Bell, Gibbs and Buescher. Meanwhile, Chastain was in 19th behind Allmendinger, Reddick was mired back in 21st and Elliott had fallen back to 24th.

    Twenty-five laps later, Truex continued to lead by more than three seconds over Almirola while third-place Hamlin trailed by more than five seconds. With Blaney and Larson still running in the top five, Bell returned to the top 10 as he was 10th while trying to close in on a two-car battle between McDowell and Harvick while Byron and Suarez had fallen to 11th and 12th.

    Another three laps later, green flag pit stops ensued as Reddick pitted his No. 45 Draft Kings Network Toyota TRD Camry. Bell would follow suit to pit along with Byron and Haley, both of whom made contact as Byron was trying to exit his pit stall while Haley was trying to enter his. Soon after, a bevy of names that included Wallace, Todd Gilliland, Cindric, Larson, Keselowski, McDowell, Bowman, Buescher, Briscoe, Almendinger, Chastain, Logano, Harvick, Ty Gibbs, Harrison Burton, Larson, Cole Custer, Hamlin and Blaney pitted. Truex would then pit from the lead on Lap 132 followed by Almirola and Suarez. At the conclusion of his pit stops, Truex, who exited pit road ahead of Almirola, quickly cycled back to the lead after Elliott, who cycled into a brief lead, pitted under green.

    At the halfway mark between Laps 150 and 151, Truex was leading by more than four seconds over Almirola followed by Hamlin, Blaney and Larson while Logano, Bell, Keselowski, Harvick and Austin Dillon were running in the top 10. By then, 19 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while names that included Briscoe, Noah Gragson, Harrison Burton, Elliott, Erik Jones, Cindric and Chastain were pinned a lap down.

    Then on Lap 161, the caution flew when Erik Jones, who was a lap down, spun his No. 43 Allegiant Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Turn 4. At the moment of caution, Wallace, who was mired in 18th, had managed to remain ahead of the leader Truex, who was leading by more than four seconds over Almirola, while Briscoe, who was in 19th, had managed to emerge as the first competitor a lap down over Harrison Burton and receive the free pass to cycle back on the lead lap.

    During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Truex pitted. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategy, Almirola cycled into the lead after only opting for two fresh tires along with Larson, Logano and Harvick, all of whom also opted for two fresh tires, while Truex, Hamlin and Blaney followed suit on four fresh tires.

    With 17 laps remaining in the second stage, the race restarted under green. At the start, however, trouble struck for Almirola, who veered sideways through Turns 1 and 2 before smacking the outside wall after the right-rear wheel on Almirola’s No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang was loose and preparing to come off of the car. The issue stemmed from Almirola’s two-tire pit service during the previous caution period, where the rear tire changer was unable to properly tighten the right-rear tire prior to Almirola leaving the pit box. With the caution quickly returning, Larson cycled into the lead followed by Logano, Truex, Hamlin and Harvick.

    During the ensuing restart with 11 laps remaining in the second stage, the field fanned out through the first two turns and the backstretch as Larson tried to fend off Truex for the lead. Truex, however, led the following lap before Larson attempted to fight back through the frontstretch before conceding to Truex, who was running on four fresh tires. With Truex back out in front, Larson retained second ahead of Logano, Harvick and Hamlin while Blaney, Wallace and Bowman pursued. Behind, contact was made between Keselowski and Reddick, though both continued to run within the top 10.

    With less than five laps remaining in the second stage, Blaney and Hamlin cracked the top five on the track while Harvick fell back to sixth. In addition, Keselowski battled 23XI Racing’s Reddick and Wallace for eighth while Truex extended his advantage to more than a second over Larson.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 185, Truex captured his third stage victory of the 2023 Cup season and second of the day after retaining the lead by eight-tenths of a second. Behind, Larson settled in second while Logano, Blaney, Hamlin, Harvick, Bowman, Keselowski, Reddick and Bell were scored in the top 10.

    Under the stage break, a majority of the field led by Larson pitted while the rest that included the leader Truex, Logano, Blaney, Hamlin, Keselowski, Harrison Burton, Briscoe, Elliott, Austin Dillon and Todd Gilliland remained on the track.

    With 110 laps remaining, the final stage started as Truex and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Truex rocketed away with the lead as the field fanned out and jostled for spots through the backstretch. With the field still fanning out and battling for spots for a full lap, Blaney retained second over teammate Logano while Keselowski and Hamlin were in the top five.

    Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Truex was leading by six-tenths of a second over Blaney followed by Logano, Keselowski and Larson while Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Briscoe, Burton and Wallace were in the top 10. A lap later, Bell moved up to ninth followed by Burton while Wallace fell back to 11th in front of Harvick, Elliott, Buescher and Ryan Preece while Chastain, McDowell, Bowman, Reddick and Ty Gibbs were mired in the top 20.

    Fifteen laps later, Truex stabilized his advantage to less than three-tenths of a second over Blaney, who also started to close in on Truex for the top spot, while third-place Logano trailed by more than two seconds. With Keselowski and Larson both trailed by more than three seconds within the top five, Bell was up to sixth while teammate Hamlin fell back to seventh. In addition, Wallace moved back up into eighth as he was running in between Briscoe and Harvick while Elliott was in 13th behind Austin Dillon and Burton.

    With less than 75 laps later, Truex slightly stretched his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Blaney followed by third-place Logano, who trailed by more than three seconds, as Keselowski and Larson remained in the top five.

    Then with 66 laps remaining, green flag pit stops commenced as Blaney pitted his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang from the runner-up spot. The following lap, Truex surrendered the lead to pit followed by Larson as McDowell, Bowman, Hamlin, Reddick, Elliott, Chastain, Gilliland, Stenhouse, also pitted. By the time Truex completed his pit service, he managed to blend back on the track and remain ahead of Blaney on the track. Meanwhile, more pit stops ensued as Keselowski, Wallace, Briscoe, Burton, Buescher, Ty Gibbs, Allmendinger, Bell, Haley and Logano, who briefly led, also pitted under green.

    With nearly the entire field having made a pit stop, with Harvick and Byron being the last two, Austin Dillon, who assumed the lead on Lap 245 and is faced in a “must-win” situation to make the Playoffs, was leading by more than seven seconds over Truex with 50 laps remaining. Dillon, however, was placed in a position where he still has to make a pit stop to finish the race. Once Dillon pitted his No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 under green with 44 laps remaining, Truex cycled back into the lead while Blaney and Larson followed suit in the top three.

    With 35 laps remaining, Truex, who was mired within lapped traffic, was leading by more than two seconds over both Blaney and Larson, both of whom were trying to gain ground on Truex late in the event, while Logano and Bell both trailed by more than five seconds in the top five. By then, Hamlin was in sixth while Keselowski, Wallace, Briscoe and Reddick were in the top 10.

    Three laps later, however, the caution flew when Noah Gragson blew a right-front tire and went dead straight into the Turn 1 outside wall after the Las Vegas, Nevada, native reported a potential brake rotor issue to his No. 42 Sunseeker Resort Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. At the moment of caution, Larson had overtaken Blaney for the runner-up spot as both were trailing the leader Truex by more than three seconds.

    During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by Truex pitted while Harvick and Austin Dillon, both of whom pitted later than the majority of the lead lap field during the latest green flag pit stop cycle, remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Truex exited first followed by Larson, Blaney, Logano, Hamlin and Briscoe, all of whom were among some who opted for two fresh tires while the rest opted for four fresh tires. Amid the pit stops, Blaney was penalized and sent to the rear of the field for running over his air hose while exiting his pit stall.

    When the race restarted with 24 laps remaining, Harvick jumped ahead with the lead followed by Truex as Austin Dillon struggled to launch. Truex then quickly reassumed the lead from Harvick entering the backstretch as Logano made his way up to the runner-up spot. With the field behind fanning out and jostling for late positions, Larson and Harvick battled for third during the following lap while Austin Dillon and Reddick battled for fifth.

    Then amid the battles, the caution returned with 22 laps remaining when Ty Gibbs sent Alex Bowman sideways entering the backstretch before Bowman was able to straighten his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 after getting hit by Erik Jones while the rest of the competitors running within the midfield scattered to avoid the carnage.

    During the proceeding restart with 16 laps remaining, Truex pulled away from Logano to retain the lead as Harvick tried to battle and overtake Logano for the runner-up spot. As Chastain went wide through Turns 3 and 4 amid the field fanning out, Truex retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over Logano while Larson overtook Harvick for third with 15 laps remaining. The caution, however, quickly returned with 14 laps remaining when Bell, who was looking to cap off his roller coaster afternoon within the top 10 as he was running in eighth, got loose entering Turns 3 and 4 and smacked the outside wall as he damaged the right rear of his pole-winning car.

    With the race restarting with nine laps remaining, Truex retained the lead after another strong start on the inside lane while Logano, who opted to restart behind Truex on the inside lane instead of alongside Logano on the outside lane, battled and overtook Larson for the runner-up spot. With the field fanning out to multiple lanes, Harvick and Reddick battled for fourth as Keselowski tried to join the battle.

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Truex was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Logano while Larson, Harvick and Keselowski were in the top five amid a series of late on-track battles ensuing behind.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Truex remained as the leader by six-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Logano. With Logano gaining more ground in his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang around the New Hampshire circuit for a final time, he ran out of time as Truex managed to cycle his Toyota back to the frontstretch and beat Logano by less than four-tenths of a second to capture his third checkered flag of the 2023 Cup season.

    With his third victory of the 2023 season and his first ever at New Hampshire, Truex notched his 34th career win in NASCAR’s premier series and his 15th while driving the No. 19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. The New Hampshire victory also marked his second of the season occurring on a Monday after he also won at Dover Motor Speedway in April on Monday due to precipitation postponing the event from its original start time on Sunday.

    “What we’ve been able to do here over the years is pretty remarkable and to not win was really getting frustrating,” Truex said on USA Network. “[Crew chief] James [Small] and I talked about it many times. We thought about it all weekend, talked about it with [teammate] Christopher [Bell] before the race. He was like, ‘Man, you’ve led more laps here than I have been racing Cup’. Just really awesome by everybody. What a race car we had today. Just proud of the whole team. Pit stops were flawless, race car was unbelievable. We had some challenges at times throughout the race and it was a handful at times, but we kept our heads down, kept digging. Man, this is feeling really, really good to do what we did today and finally cap it off with a lobster.”

    “I sat in Turn 1 with my mom [when I was eight years old],” Truex added. “This is the first big track I ever came to with my dad and watched, and first time I’d ever seen Cup cars in person and [Xfinity] cars in person. It’s been a special place for [my family] and being able to win K&N [Series], being able to win in the [Xfinity] Series, this one’s been eluding me for a long, long time. Just really, really happy. Really thankful. [I] Can’t say enough about my team. Man, they’re incredible. I’m the lucky guy to drive these things. This one’s sweet.”

    While Truex celebrated in Victory Lane, Logano ended up in the runner-up spot for the third time this season while Larson came home in third place for his ninth top-five result of the season.

    “Man, I thought I would have something [for Truex],” Logano said. “Right before that caution came out, two cautions to the end when we had tires on it, it seemed like [Truex] took a few laps to get going. I was running him down. I was like, ‘Man, I got a chance here’. That caution came out right when I was thinking I could make a move on the outside into [Turn] 3 and then, it seemed like the cycles helped him get his pressures up to where he can fire and be pretty quick the last couple of restarts. Dang it. [New Hampshire]’s a home track. There’s no place you want to win more than that. It stings a lot to not get the Shell/Pennzoil Ford into Victory Lane, but gosh, second just sucks sometimes. It stings the most when you’re that close, feeling like you had a shot at it, but still a good day for us.”

    “We had a shot [when I] lined up on the front row at the end of one of these Cup races, so that’s a great day,” Larson said. “It was a fun, hot race. [I] Came away with a top three [finish] at a track that doesn’t really suit me or Hendrick Motorsports.”

    Meanwhile, Kevin Harvick executed his late gamble to remain on the track on worn tires to perfection as he finished fourth for his fifth top-five result of the season and in his 40th and final Cup career start at New Hampshire.

    “We were fortunate that we had pitted late and were able to stay out and kind of salvage something there at the end,” Harvick said. “[The team] did a good job. We were just a little bit too loose to start the race and it took us a couple of laps to get going on the restarts. We definitely didn’t dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s, but we did a pretty good job all weekend. Just a couple of little things.”

    Keselowski posted his fourth top-five result of the season by finishing fifth while Reddick, Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon and Chase Briscoe finished in the top 10.

    Notably, Elliott finished 12th in between Erik Jones and Michael McDowell, Bowman rallied to finish 14th, Suarez ended up 16th, Blaney settled in 22nd in front of Chastain after never recovering from his late pit road penalty, Byron ended up 24th, Ty Gibbs fell back to 27th after hitting the wall prior to the final lap and Bell settled in 29th. In addition, Ryan Newman finished 30th in his second Cup Series start of the season while driving for Rick Ware Racing.

    There were 13 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 41 laps. In addition, 27 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With six regular-season events remaining of this year’s Cup Series schedule, Martin Truex Jr. leads the regular-season standings by 17 points over William Byron, 62 over Christopher Bell, 66 over Denny Hamlin, 74 over Kyle Busch and 78 over Ross Chastain.

    William Byron, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, Joey Logano and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are currently guaranteed spots for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning at least once throughout the regular-season stretch. Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher, 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 a single point over Daniel Suarez, 20 over AJ Allmendinger, 41 over rookie Ty Gibbs, 42 over Alex Bowman, 46 over Justin Haley, 51 over Austin Cindric and 60 over Chase Elliott.

    Results.

    1. Martin Truex Jr., 254 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    2. Joey Logano, two laps led

    3. Kyle Larson, six laps led

    4. Kevin Harvick, 10 laps led

    5. Brad Keselowski

    6. Tyler Reddick

    7. Denny Hamlin

    8. Bubba Wallace

    9. Austin Dillon, 12 laps led

    10. Chase Briscoe

    11. Erik Jones

    12. Chase Elliott

    13. Michael McDowell

    14. Alex Bowman

    15. Chris Buescher

    16. Daniel Suarez

    17. Justin Haley

    18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., three laps led

    19. AJ Allmendinger

    20. Harrison Burton

    21. Todd Gilliland

    22. Ryan Blaney

    23. Ross Chastain

    24. William Byron, nine laps led

    25. Austin Cindric

    26. Ty Dillon

    27. Ty Gibbs

    28. Ryan Preece, one lap down

    29. Christopher Bell, two laps down, one lap led

    30. Ryan Newman, two laps down

    31. BJ McLeod, six laps down

    32. Noah Gragson – OUT, Accident

    33. Corey LaJoie, 125 laps down

    34. Aric Almirola – OUT, Accident, four laps led

    35. Cole Custer – OUT, Accident

    36. Kyle Busch – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ lone event of this season to Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, July 23, at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Results.

    1. William Byron, 20 laps led

    2. Daniel Suarez

    3. AJ Allmendinger, six laps led

    4. Michael McDowell

    5. Kyle Busch

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

    7. JJ Yeley

    8. Justin Haley

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

    10. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    11. Erik Jones

    12. Austin Cindric, 10 laps led

    13. Chase Elliott

    14. Denny Hamlin

    15. Chris Buescher, 39 laps led

    16. Todd Gilliland

    17. Joey Logano, 11 laps led

    18. Aric Almirola, 46 laps led

    19. Ty Dillon

    20. BJ McLeod, one lap led

    21. Austin Dillon

    22. Chase Briscoe

    23. Christopher Bell

    24. Ryan Preece

    25. Bubba Wallace, five laps led

    26. Alex Bowman

    27. Tyler Reddick

    28. Harrison Burton, one lap down

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

    30. Kevin Harvick, four laps down

    31. Corey LaJoie, six laps down

    32. Cole Custer, seven laps down

    33. Noah Gragson, 11 laps down

    34. Ty Gibbs, 35 laps down

    35. Ross Chastain – OUT, Dvp

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

    37. Austin Hill – OUT, Dvp

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

  • Shane Van Gisbergen wins in NASCAR debut in inaugural Chicago Street Course event

    Shane Van Gisbergen wins in NASCAR debut in inaugural Chicago Street Course event

    History was made in the NASCAR Cup Series’ inaugural running of the Grant Park 220 at the Chicago Street Course on Sunday, July 2, as Shane Van Gisbergen succeeded against the stars of NASCAR’s premier series by scoring his first NASCAR victory in his series debut.

    Van Gisbergen, a three-time Supercars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, led nine of 78 over-scheduled laps, including the final eight, in a weekend where he made his inaugural presence in NASCAR as he was serving as the second-ever competitor to pilot Trackhouse Racing’s Project 91 entry. Qualifying in third place, he finished in the top five and scored stage points during both stage periods while remaining within sight of the front-runners in an event that was delayed by 90+ minutes due to heavy precipitation that ultimately shortened the event to 25 laps of its scheduled distance.

    After keeping pace with the front-runners, Van Gisbergen, who nearly overtook Justin Haley for the lead with eight laps remaining amid a late caution period, fended off a late challenge from Haley during a restart with five laps remaining to assume the lead. He then appeared to be cruising to victory before the caution returned with two laps remaining for another on-track incident and the event was sent into overtime. During the event’s lone overtime period, however, Van Gisbergen was not to be denied as he rocketed away from the field and held off the competition through a two-lap shootout to win in his NASCAR debut.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, July 1, Denny Hamlin claimed his third Cup pole of the season after posting a pole-winning lap at 89.557 mph in 88.435 seconds. Joining him on the front row was his 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 89.513 mph in 88.479 seconds.

    Prior to the event, the following names that included Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. dropped to the rear of the field as all started the event in backup cars. William Byron, Austin Cindric, Todd Gilliland and Justin Haley also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective cars.

    Once the engines fired and the competitors rolled off of pit road amid a delay of more than 90 minutes due to heavy precipitation that nearly flooded the course, the competitors filed in a single file line under a cautious pace and behind the pace car for several laps, with the second lap featuring the competitors rolling through pit road.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced amid a single file start, Hamlin received an early challenge from Reddick entering the first left-hand turn. With Hamlin slipping the turn, Reddick would maintain his early challenge on Hamlin through E. Balbo Dr. and entering the second, right-hand turn. Both would duel for the top spot through Turns 3 to 5 until Reddick pulled ahead with the lead entering S. Columbus Dr. in between Turns 5 and 6. Reddick continued to maintain the top spot through Turn 6 while behind, Aric Almirola spun his No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang just past Turn 5.

    Then ahead of Almirola’s incident, more early trouble ignited in Turn 6 when Erik Jones made contact with Brad Keselowski while trying to brake his No. 43 Draiver Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 amid the slick circuit entering Turn 6 as both competitors along with rookie Noah Gragson made light contact against the tire barriers with little damage to their respective entries. Amid the chaos, the race remained under green as all competitors continued. With the leaders returning to the frontstretch, Reddick proceeded to lead the first lap in his No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry ahead of Hamlin.

    During the second lap and with the field still navigating its way through the 12-turn circuit under competitive, slick conditions, early trouble struck for the pole-sitter Hamlin, who slipped and made contact against the Turn 2 tire barriers. With Hamlin falling back to 14th and the race remaining under green, Reddick continued to lead by more than a second over Christopher Bell while third-place Shane Van Gisbergen, a three-time Supercars champion who qualified an impressive third place in his NASCAR debut while piloting Trackhouse Racing’s No. 91 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, was in third. Behind, Daniel Suarez was in fourth ahead of Michael McDowell while Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Jenson Button and rookie Ty Gibbs were in the top 10.

    Then on the third lap, the first caution of the event flew when Kyle Busch, who was running in 16th, went dead straight into the Turn 6 tire barriers amid the slick conditions as the front nose and windshield of Busch’s No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was wedged underneath the tire barriers. In spite of the incident, Busch received assistance from a wrecker to have his car towed out of the barriers as he proceeded under a cautious pace.

    When the race restarted under green on the fifth lap, Reddick maintained the lead ahead of Bell, Van Gisbergen, Suarez and McDowell while the field behind remained in a long single file line before fanning out through the first five turns. With Reddick leading by more than a second over Bell, McDowell commenced his early charge to the front during the following lap by battling Suarez for fifth as Logano tried to close in to join the battle.

    On the eighth lap, Reddick slipped through Turns 6 and 7, which allowed Bell to capitalize and cycle his No. 20 Craftsman Toyota TRD Camry into the lead. By then, Van Gisbergen maintained third while McDowell and Truex were running in the top five ahead of Suarez and Kyle Larson.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Bell was leading by more than two seconds over Reddick followed by Van Gisbergen, McDowell and Truex while Suarez, Larson, Jenson Button, AJ Allmendinger and Ty Gibbs were running in the top 10. Behind, Logano had fallen back to 11th ahead of Hamlin, Chris Buescher, Corey LaJoie and Alex Bowman while Chase Briscoe, Ryan Preece, Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon and Josh Bilicki were running in the top 20. Meanwhile, Ryan Blaney was back in 21st ahead of Ross Chastain, Andy Lally, William Byron and Chase Elliott while Ty Dillon, Austin Cindric, Harrison Burton, Kevin Harvick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were mired in the top 30. By then, Brad Keselowski was strapped back in 35th and Kyle Busch was running in 37th, dead last.

    Two laps later and amid a series of jostles and on-track battles ensuing around the 12-turn circuit, the second caution of the event flew when Noah Gragson wrecked his No. 42 Wendy’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 against the Turn 6 tire barriers as he smoked his rear tires while unsuccessfully trying to reverse his car out of the barriers. Like Busch’s incident, Gragson received assistance from the wrecker to have his car towed out from the barriers before he proceeded under caution.

    During the second caution period, select names that included Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, Harvick and Gragson pitted while the rest led by Bell remained on the track.

    During the following restart on Lap 15, Bell launched ahead with a strong start as he maintained the lead through the first turn with Reddick in pursuit. With the field maintaining a long single file line through the first five turns, Bell started to stretch his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Reddick and more than a second over Van Gisbergen while Truex was in fourth ahead of McDowell, Suarez and Larson. In the midst of the on-track battles, Bowman and LaJoie, both of whom bumped and battled fiercely on the track earlier, battled hard for 14th through Turns 8 to 12 while Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece battled behind for 16th.

    At the conclusion of the first stage period on Lap 20, Bell captured his first stage victory of the 2023 Cup season. Reddick trailed in the runner-up spot by more than a second while Van Gisbergen, Truex, McDowell, Suarez, Larson, Allmendinger, Ty Gibbs and Jenson Button were scored in the top 10. Shortly after, select names that included Bowman, LaJoie and Briscoe pitted under green for slick tires. By then, Blaney, who slapped the Turn 6 concrete barriers, had plummeted to the bottom of the leaderboard as he continued without drawing a caution.

    With the event proceeding under green to start the second stage on Lap 21, Bell continued to extend his advantage to more than two seconds over Reddick while third-place Van Gisbergen also trailed by more than two seconds. During the Lap 22 mark, Logano wrecked against the Turn 6 tire barriers, but he managed to reverse his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang and proceed without drawing a caution. Shortly after, more trouble ensued as Jenson Button, who was trying to turn right and enter pit road under green in Turn 12, came across the path of Buescher as he was hit and spun backward towards the pit road entrance. Then as Button tried to loop his No. 15 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang around, he was nearly hit by Logano, who was also trying to pit, but both proceeded under a cautious pace for service.

    During the proceeding laps, a bevy of names that included McDowell, Buescher, Byron, Ty Dillon, Almirola, Todd Gilliland, Truex, Larson, Elliott, Andy Lally, Austin Dillon, Keselowski, Hamlin, Cindric, Erik Jones and Kyle Busch pitted under green for slick tires. The leader Bell would then pit under green along with Reddick, Ross Chastain, Suarez and Stenhouse at the Lap 25 mark while Van Gisbergen cycled into the lead followed by Ty Gibbs and Preece. By then, Elliott, who had collided against the tire barriers in Turn 2 moments after pitting, proceeded without drawing a caution.

    Once Van Gisbergen and Ty Gibbs pitted for slick tires through Laps 25 and 26, Bell cycled back into the lead. Van Gisbergen would manage to exit pit road and run in second ahead of Reddick, Truex and Suarez.

    On Lap 29, the event’s third caution period flew when Gragson wrecked and got his car stuck against the Turn 6 tire barriers for a second time, with the Las Vegas native unable to reverse his car and proceed without assistance.

    As the event restarted under green on Lap 33, Bell retained the lead while Reddick battled and overtook Van Gisbergen for second as Truex and Suarez battled for fourth. As the field made its way through the first five turns, Larson dive-bombed his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 up to fourth over Truex and Suarez as Bell navigated his way through Turns 6 to 12 while extending his advantage to more than a second.

    Two laps later and at the Lap 35 mark, Larson continued his charge to the front as he overtook Van Gisbergen for third. Suarez, Van Gisbergen’s teammate at Trackhouse Racing, would follow suit while Bell stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Reddick. Behind, Truex fell back to sixth while McDowell, Allmendinger, Ty Gibbs and Buescher were in the top 10.

    By Lap 40, Bell was leading by more than three seconds over the new runner-up competitor, Larson, as Reddick fell back to third. By then, Suarez and Van Gisbergen remained in the top five ahead of McDowell and Ty Gibbs while Truex, who was battling for a top-five spot a few laps earlier, slipped back to eighth in front of Allmendinger and Buescher. Shortly after, the fourth caution period flew when Alex Bowman, who was running in 11th, was hit by Hamlin as he spun his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Turn 11 and was mired with oncoming traffic while trying to straighten his car.

    With the event restarting under green with two laps remaining in the second stage, Bell retained the lead ahead of a hard-charging Larson through the first two turns as the field fanned out and jostled for positions. With the field still battling as Bowman parked his car near S. Columbus Dr. between Turns 5 and 6 due to a mechanical issue, Bell maintained the lead by over half a second over Larson while Reddick maintained third ahead of Van Gisbergen, McDowell, Ty Gibbs and Suarez, who hit the wall in Turn 1. With Bowman’s car starting to smoke amid the terminal mechanical issue, which affected his hopes of vying for a spot in the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs, the caution returned.

    The caution period for Bowman’s issue was enough for the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 45 to finish under caution as Bell captured his second consecutive stage victory. Larson settled in second ahead of Reddick, Van Gisbergen and McDowell while Ty Gibbs, Suarez, Truex, Allmendinger and Chase Briscoe were scored in the top 10.

    During the caution and stage break, a majority of the field led by Bell pitted while 11 competitors led by Justin Haley and Austin Dillon remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Bell exited first followed by Larson, Reddick, Ty Gibbs, McDowell, Suarez and Van Gisbergen. By then, NASCAR shortened its scheduled distance of the event from 100 to 75 due to the upcoming sunset and stemming from the early rain delay.

    When the final stage commenced under green with 27 laps remaining, Haley maintained a steady advantage over Austin Dillon and Chase Elliott while Logano, who restarted fourth, slipped in Turn 1, which allowed Byron to move up to fourth. With Bell strapped back in 11th, Haley maintained the lead through the first six turns before entering Turns 7 to 11 through S. Michigan Ave.

    Shortly after, the caution returned when Byron, who was running in the top five, collided into the Turn 11 tire barriers after overdriving his No. 24 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the corner. Byron’s incident ignited a massive stack-up as Harvick, who was trying to avoid hitting Byron, slipped sideways and spun his No. 4 Gearwrench Ford Mustang just past Turn 11 along with LaJoie, who got hit by Almirola as a host of competitors running within the top 15 towards the bottom of the leaderboard, had to jam on the brakes as the turn was blocked. Among the competitors stuck in the stack-up and the sideway competitors of Harvick and LaJoie included Bell, Larson and Truex while Reddick, Gibbs, Suarez, Van Gisbergen, Allmendinger and Buescher managed to escape the carnage.

    During the proceeding restart with 23 laps remaining, Haley rocketed away from the field following a strong restart as Austin Dillon tried to keep pace with Haley. With Elliott trailing in third place and more than a second behind, Logano was in fourth followed by Kyle Busch and Cindric while Reddick was still scored in seventh ahead of Ty Gibbs. With Truex spinning in Turn 5, the race remained under green flag conditions as Haley retained the lead by nearly half a second. Soon after, Wallace missed the corner in Turn 11 as he had to loop his No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota TRD Camry around to proceed and blend back onto the racetrack without drawing a caution.

    With 20 laps remaining, Haley was leading by seven-tenths of a second over Austin Dillon, Elliott, Logano and Kyle Busch while Reddick, Cindric, Gibbs, Almirola and Larson were in the top 10. By then, Bell was mired back in 11th ahead of Byron, Van Gisbergen, McDowell and LaJoie while Harvick, Allmendinger, Buescher, Hamlin and Suarez were running in the top 20. Soon after, more on-track drama continued as Chastain and Gilliland made contact in Turn 1 while Gragson spun and hit the wall in Turn 6 again. Not long after, Bell’s run that started off on a strong note and soon went to bad became worse as he spun in Turn 1, though he managed to continue without drawing a caution.

    Then with 18 laps remaining, the caution flew when Reddick, who was trying to charge his way back to the front and running in fourth, collided into the Turn 6 barriers, with the Californian unsuccessful in reversing his car out of the barriers as he smoked the rear tires off of his No. 45 Toyota.

    Down to the final 15 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Haley maintained the lead over Austin Dillon and Elliott as the field remained in a long single-file line while jostling for late positions. Through the 12-turn circuit and back to the frontstretch, Haley would continue to lead in his No. 31 Benesch Law Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 by half a second over Austin Dillon with Elliott’s No. 9 Hooters Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in close pursuit.

    Then during the following lap, Austin Dillon, who tried to set a move on Haley for the lead, bounced off the wall entering Turn 12, which caused his No. 3 Get Bioethanol Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to shoot back across the track and wreck against the tire barriers. Despite sustaining significant right-front damage to his car, Dillon proceeded without drawing a caution and would wait for the entire field to overtake him before he reversed his car onto pit road and to his pit box. This allowed Elliott to move up to second followed by Kyle Busch, Logano and Cindric while Haley retained the lead.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Haley was leading by more than a second over Elliott followed by a hard-charging Van Gisbergen, Kyle Busch and Larson while Logano, Cindric, McDowell, Ty Gibbs and Almirola were in the top 10. By then, more on-track issues ignited as Truex slid into Harvick entering Turn 1 as both spun and wrecked with Harrison Burton also wrecking into the tire barriers while trying to avoid the carnage.

    Two laps later, the caution flew when Truex wrecked again, this time against the tire barriers in Turn 1. At the time of caution, Haley was scored the leader by over Van Gisbergen, who had overtaken Elliott a few turns earlier and had nearly overtaken Haley for the lead in between Turns 6 and 7.

    With the race restarting under green with five laps remaining, Haley maintained the lead entering the first turn ahead of Van Gisbergen. Then in Turn 2, Van Gisbergen made his move beneath Haley and overtook him for the lead. Haley, however, returned the favor through Turns 3 and 4 and briefly reassumed the top spot before Van Gisbergen crossed over in his No. 91 Enhance Health Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 over Haley’s Camaro and overtook him again in Turn 5 and through S. Columbus Dr. in between Turns 5 and 6. Van Gisbergen then began to extend his advantage to nearly a second over Haley as the field behind jostled for positions with four laps remaining.

    With two laps remaining, Van Gisbergen was still leading by more than a second over Haley while third-place Elliott trailed by more than two seconds along with Larson and Kyle Busch. Then not long after and with Van Gisbergen having full control of the event, the caution flew and the event was sent into overtime when Bubba Wallace slid and sent Ricky Stenhouse Jr. into the Turn 1 barriers.

    At the start of the first overtime attempt, Van Gisbergen muscled away from Haley, Elliott and the field through Turns 1 and 2 before making his way through Turns 3 to 5 in clean air. Van Gisbergen started to place a reasonable gap between himself and Haley through S. Columbus Dr. before making his way through Turns 6 to 12 with the top spot.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Van Gisbergen remained as the leader by less than four-tenths of a second over Haley. With both Haley and Elliott unable to mount a late charge nor close back towards Van Gisbergen, the New Zealander was able to execute a flawless final lap out in clean air and through the 12-turn circuit in Downtown Chicago before he cycled back to the frontstretch and win in his NASCAR debut by more than a second over Haley.

    With the victory in the inaugural Chicago Street Course, Shane Van Gisbergen became the 204th different competitor to achieve a win in the NASCAR Cup Series and the first competitor in the modern era of NASCAR, seventh overall and the first since Johnny Rutherford won at Daytona in 1963 to win in a premier series debut.

    In addition to recording the fifth overall victory for Trackhouse Racing and the second in recent weeks after the team won at Nashville Superspeedway with Ross Chastain last week, the 33-year-old Van Gisbergen, who has notched three Supercars titles and holds 78 victories in the division, also recorded the first win for Trackhouse’s Project No. 91 entry led by former championship-winning crew chief Darian Grubb, who notched his 24th career victory and first since winning with Carl Edwards at Darlington Raceway in September 2015. The win was also the first for the number 91 in the Cup Series since 1953 made by Tim Flock.

    Shane Van Gisbergen, driver of the #91 Enhance Health Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, races to victory Sunday, July 2, 2023, during the first-ever NASCAR Cup Series street race, the Grant Park 220, through the streets of Chicago, Illinois. This is the first NASCAR CUP victory for the New Zealander in his first ever NASCAR Cup race. He is a three time Supercars champion. (Photo by Jim Fluharty/HHP for Chevy Racing).

    “No, of course not, but you always dream of it,” Van Gisbergen, who was asked on the possibility of winning, said on NBC. “Thank you so much to the Trackhouse team and the Enhance Health Project 91 [team]. Man, what an experience and the crowd out here. This was so cool. It’s what you dream of. Hopefully, I can come and do more. The racing was really good. Everyone was respectful and it was tough, but a lot of fun.”

    “Anything is possible,” Van Gisbergen, who evoked a message to his hometown fans in New Zealand, added. “The fans in Australia and New Zealand, the response and the support I’ve got from everyone, even over here, how welcoming everyone is, I can’t believe it. A dream come true. I’m doing one more year in [Australia] and then, I’d love to come over here [to NASCAR full time].”

    Haley, who led 23 laps compared to Van Gisbergen’s nine, ended up in the runner-up spot for his fifth top-five career result in the Cup circuit while Elliott, Larson and Kyle Busch finished in the top five.

    “It was tough,” Haley said. “It sucks, obviously, where we are right now. We aren’t in position to win every week, so coming that close, obviously, is not what you want, but [I’m] just really proud of everyone at Kaulig Racing. What an awesome event. [I] Can’t wait to come back next year…What is there to be disappointed about? We’ll go to Atlanta next week, try our best.”

    Austin Cindric came home in sixth place while McDowell, Logano, Ty Gibbs and Buescher finished in the top 10. Notably, Hamlin ended up in 11th, Bell salvaged an 18th-place result after leading a race-high 37 laps, Jenson Button settled in 21st in his second NASCAR career start, Gragson finished 25th following numerous incidents in Turn 6, Suarez and Reddick fell back to 27th and 28th, respectively, Harvick ended up 29th and Truex settled in 32nd, a lap down.

    There were seven lead changes for five different leaders. The inaugural Cup Series event at the Chicago Street Course featured nine cautions for 21 laps. In total, 31 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With eight Cup regular-season events remaining on the schedule, Martin Truex Jr. continues to lead the regular-season standings by nine points over William Byron, 18 over Ross Chastain, 21 over Christopher Bell and 31 over Kyle Busch.

    Martin Truex Jr., William Byron, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are currently guaranteed spots for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning at least once throughout the regular-season stretch. Kevin Harvick, Chris Buescher, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace and rookie Ty Gibbs currently occupy the remaining vacant spots in the Playoffs based on points, with Gibbs occupying the 16th and final vacant spot by six points over Daniel Suarez, 10 over Michael McDowell, 24 over AJ Allmendinger, 26 over Alex Bowman, 45 over both Justin Haley and Austin Cindric, 47 over Corey LaJoie and 55 over Chase Elliott.

    Results.

    1. Shane Van Gisbergen, nine laps led

    2. Justin Haley, 23 laps led

    3. Chase Elliot

    4. Kyle Larson

    5. Kyle Busch

    6. Austin Cindric

    7. Michael McDowell

    8. Joey Logano

    9. Ty Gibbs, one lap led

    10. Chris Buescher

    11. Denny Hamlin

    12. Aric Almirola

    13. William Byron

    14. Corey LaJoie

    15. Ryan Preece

    16. Erik Jones

    17. AJ Allmendinger

    18. Christopher Bell, 37 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    19. Todd Gilliland

    20. Chase Briscoe

    21. Jenson Button

    22. Ross Chastain

    23. Josh Bilicki

    24. Brad Keselowski

    25. Noah Gragson

    26. Andy Lally

    27. Daniel Suarez

    28. Tyler Reddick, eight laps led

    29. Kevin Harvick

    30. Harrison Burton

    31. Bubba Wallace

    32. Martin Truex Jr., one lap down

    33. Ryan Blaney, one lap down

    34. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap down

    35. Ty Dillon – OUT, Suspension

    36. Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident

    37. Alex Bowman – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the second and final trip of the season to Atlanta Motor Speedway. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, July 9, at 7 p.m. ET on USA Network.

  • Allmendinger rolls to a chaotic Xfinity victory at Nashville

    Allmendinger rolls to a chaotic Xfinity victory at Nashville

    AJ Allmendinger survived a series of caution periods and on-track chaos, including one that involved him at the start of the second stage, to muscle his way to the front, assume a late lead and fend off the field during two late-race restarts to win the Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday, June 24.

    The 41-year-old Allmendinger from Los Gatos, California, led three times for 25 of 196 over-scheduled laps in an event where he rolled off the starting grid in 11th place. After settling in third place at the conclusion of the first stage, he was then involved in a multi-car wreck at the start of the second stage that eliminated a handful of front-runners that included Cup Series rookie Ty Gibbs.

    Following a methodical drive back to the front for the remainder of the event, he then muscled his way into the lead with 46 laps remaining. Despite losing ground amid a slow pit service under green during the proceeding laps, Allmendinger then managed to reassume the lead from Parker Kligerman with 11 laps remaining. Despite having to endure two late-race restarts, including an overtime attempt, Allmendinger did not relent as he fended off the field of Xfinity Series regulars to grab his second checkered flag of the 2023 season.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Cole Custer notched his third pole position of the season after posting a pole-winning lap at 157.020 in 30.493 seconds. Joining him on the front row was rookie Chandler Smith, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 156.302 mph in 30.633 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Connor Mosack and Zane Smith dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries. Joey Gase also dropped to the rear of the field as he started the event in a backup car and as a result of a driver change, where he replaced CJ McLaughlin.

    When the green flag waved and the race commenced, early trouble struck through Turns 1 and 2 when Jeb Burton and Kyle Sieg made contact and triggered a multi-car wreck that included Ryan Sieg, his brother Kyle and Stefan Parsons while the rest of the field veered to the bottom lane to avoid the carnage. Also involved was Justin Allgaier, winner of last year’s event at Nashville, after he collided into Parsons sideways while Parsons smacked the outside wall head-on. Despite suffering cosmetic damage to his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro, Allgaier managed to continue while remaining on the lead lap along with the Sieg brothers and Jeb Burton while Parsons retired.

    During the following restart on the eighth lap, Custer, who retained the lead through the event’s start and early caution period, continued to lead ahead of rookie Sammy Smith while Chandler Smith and Ty Gibbs battled for third. Entering the backstretch, Gibbs and Smith made contact, which caused the field behind Custer and Sammy Smith to fan out to three lanes. Then entering Turns 3 and 4, Austin Hill, who tried to overtake Gibbs and Chandler Smith for third amid three lanes, made contact beneath Gibbs and was sent spinning up the track as he barely clipped Jeb Burton before lightly backing his No. 21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet Camaro into the outside wall while the rest of the field managed to dodge Hill’s incident. The incident was enough to draw the event’s second caution period.

    At the start of the proceeding restart on Lap 14, Sammy Smith and Custer dueled for the lead as the field fanned out. With Ty Gibbs also fanning out and overtaking teammate Smith for second, Custer retained the lead as the field navigated its way through a full lap under green flag conditions. With Custer leading, Carson Hocevar, winner of Friday night’s Craftsman Truck Series event at Nashville, muscled his way into third while Sammy Smith and Riley Herbst occupied the top five ahead of AJ Allmendinger.

    Three laps later, the event’s third caution flew when Chad Chastain, who was running in the middle of the pack, got loose entering Turns 3 and 4 and spun backward toward the outside wall as he also collected Ryan Ellis, who veered sideways and scrubbed the wall, while the rest of the field escaped unscathed.

    When the race restarted on Lap 21, Custer and Ty Gibbs dueled for the lead as the field fanned out to three lanes entering Turn 1. Through the turns, Gibbs started to peek ahead with the lead ahead of Custer before he assumed the spot with full authority during the following lap. With Gibbs leading Custer, Sammy Smith was in third followed by Hocevar and Allmendinger while Herbst was in sixth ahead of Chandler Smith, Parker Kligerman, Brandon Jones and rookie Parker Retzlaff.

    At the Lap 30 mark, Ty Gibbs was leading by more than a second over Custer followed by Sammy Smith, Allmendinger and Hocevar while Chandler Smith, Herbst, Parker Kligerman, Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer were in the top 10. Behind, Brandon Jones was in 11th ahead of John Hunter Nemechek, Josh Berry, Allgaier and Hill while Retzlaff, Zane Smith, Brett Moffitt, Daniel Hemric and Kaz Grala occupied the top 20.

    Nearing the Lap 40 mark, Ty Gibbs extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Custer while third-place Sammy Smith trailed by more than four seconds. Behind, Allmendinger and Hocevar remained in the top five while Chandler Smith was in sixth ahead of Herbst.

    When the first stage concluded on Lap 45, Ty Gibbs, who was making his fourth Xfinity start of the season and swept both stages at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, claimed his third Xfinity stage victory of the 2023 season. Custer trailed in second place by more than a second while Allmendinger, Hocevar, Sammy Smith, Chandler Smith, Herbst, Mayer, John Hunter Nemechek and Kligerman were scored in the top 10.

    Under the first stage break, the lead lap field led by Ty Gibbs pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Hill exited first after only opting for fuel to his car followed by Gibbs. During the pit stops, Nemechek was penalized for having too many crew members over the pit wall.

    The second stage started on Lap 52 as Hill and Gibbs occupied the front row. At the start, trouble struck for the front-runners when Hill made contact with Gibbs and sent Gibbs’ No. 19 He Gets Us Toyota Supra spinning through the first two turns, where he clipped Allmendinger and sent him spinning with damage before being hit by Hocevar’s No. 77 Premier Security Chevrolet Camaro against the outside wall as the rest of the field turned to the bottom of the track to avoid the carnage. In the midst of the carnage, Custer escaped with the lead followed by Mayer, Chandler Smith, Herbst and Creed while Gibbs and Hocevar retired.

    During the proceeding restart on Lap 59, Custer and Mayer battled dead even for the lead until Custer, who restarted on the outside lane, prevailed to retain the lead ahead of Mayer. The caution, however, quickly returned during the following lap when Connor Mosack slid sideways toward the outside wall in Turn 2. While trying to straighten his car, his car then jerked back across the wall and smacked the wall before emerging with extensive damage on both the front and rear ends.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 65, Mayer peeked ahead to lead a lap for himself, but Custer reassumed the top spot amid a fierce battle between himself, Chandler Smith and Mayer. On Lap 67, Chandler Smith made his move to the front and emerged as the new leader while Mayer, Custer and Herbst battled for second. During the following lap, the caution flew again when Sammy Smith, who was battling Sheldon Creed for fifth place, was bumped by Creed through Turns 1 and 2. The contact sent Smith back hard against the outside wall as the rear end of Smith’s No. 18 Pilot Flying J Toyota Supra was left destroyed while Creed, who veered sideways amid the contact, was hit by an oncoming Brandon Jones, who veered sideways with left-front damage to his No. 9 Menards Chevrolet Camaro.

    As the event restarted under green on Lap 75, Chandler Smith retained the lead ahead of Mayer while Custer rocketed his way up to third followed by Hemric, Herbst and Zane Smith.

    By Lap 80, Chandler Smith was leading by more than a second over Mayer followed by Custer, Hemric and Herbst while Zane Smith, Nemechek, Josh Berry, Brett Moffitt and Retzlaff were in the top 10 ahead of Kligerman, Ryan Sieg, Allgaier, Hill and Grala.

    When the second stage concluded on Lap 90, Chandler Smith claimed his second stage victory of the 2023 season. Custer settled in second followed by a hard-charging Hemric while Mayer, Herbst, Nemechek, Zane Smith, Berry, Retzlaff and Moffitt were scored in the top 10.

    During the second stage break, where the event surpassed its halfway mark, the lead lap field led by Chandler Smith pitted. Following the pit stops, Chandler Smith retained the lead after exiting first followed by Custer, Hemric, Herbst, Nemechek and Zane Smith. Amid the pit stops, Herbst was penalized and sent to the rear of the field for an uncontrolled tire violation. In addition, Mayer, who pitted from fourth place, exited just outside of the top 10 amid a slow pit service, where he had to back his car while trying to leave his pit box after being blocked by Blaine Perkins.

    With 91 laps remaining, the final stage started as Chandler Smith and Custer occupied the front row. At the start, Chandler Smith retained the lead following a push from teammate Hemric while Hemric challenged Custer for second. With Custer retaining the runner-up spot over Hemric, Chandler Smith continued to lead while Nemechek charged his way in fourth followed by Zane Smith and Allmendinger.

    Six laps later, the caution returned when Kligerman spun in Turn 4 after receiving a bump by Kaz Grala, though Kligerman managed to quickly straighten his car below the apron and proceed without sustaining any significant damage.

    With the race restarting under green with 79 laps remaining, Chandler Smith retained the lead ahead of Custer and Hemric, with Hemric launching his charge for the lead as he overtook Custer for second. Then two laps later, Hemric assumed the lead over teammate Chandler Smith. Smith, however, reignited another charge on his Kaulig Racing teammate as he reassumed the top spot during the following lap with Custer rechallenging Hemric for second. Behind, Nemechek and Allmendinger battled for fourth as Chandler Smith stabilized his advantage to half a second.

    With 70 laps remaining, Chandler Smith was leading by four-tenths of a second over Custer and by more than a second over teammate Hemric while Nemechek and Allmendinger trailed in the top five. Smith would continue to lead with 60 laps remaining, but his advantage decreased to a tenth of a second over Custer as Custer methodically caught and challenged Smith for the lead. By then, Allmendinger, Hemric and Berry were in the top five while Nemechek, who was running in the top five a few laps earlier, made an unscheduled pit stop after reporting a vibration to his No. 20 Pye Barker Fire and Safety Toyota Supra.

    Five laps later, the battle for the lead intensified as Custer drew his No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang into a side-by-side battle against Chandler Smith’s No. 16 Quick Tie Products Chevrolet Camaro. While Custer had the advantage on the inside lane, Smith refused to relent as he remained on the gas and maintained the momentum with a narrow lead on the outside lane. With both continuing to duke for the lead, Allmendinger joined the battle as he gained massive ground on the two leaders in his No. 10 Bailey Zimmerman – Religiously Chevrolet Camaro. The battle amongst Smith, Custer and Allmendinger soon narrowed down to six-tenths of a second with the trio still dueling for the lead with 50 laps remaining.

    Two laps later, Allmendinger made his way into the runner-up spot after overtaking Custer before he proceeded to challenge his Kaulig Racing teammate Chandler Smith for the lead. With Custer losing ground on the two leaders, Allmendinger, who had managed to methodically carve his way back to the front following his Stage 2 incident, assumed the lead for the first time with 46 laps remaining while their third teammate, Hemric, was trailing in fourth place by more than three seconds.

    Then with under 45 laps remaining, green flag pit stops commenced as Allgaier pitted along with Custer, Chandler Smith and Jeremy Clements. The race leader Allmendinger and teammate Hemric would also pit with 43 laps remaining as Berry cycled his way into a brief lead. Amid the pit stops, Smith and Custer managed to cycle ahead of Allmendinger, who endured a slow pit stop.

    Down to the final 30 laps of the event and with nearly the entire field having made a pit stop under green, Kligerman, who had yet to pit, was leading followed by Allmendinger, who had overtaken teammate Chandler Smith, who was dealing with an ill-handling race car amid a slide, on the track while Brandon Jones, Smith and Custer were in the top five.

    With 20 laps remaining, Kligerman, who remained on the track and was trying to conserve fuel to finish, continued to lead by more than six seconds in his No. 48 Spiked Light Coolers Chevrolet Camaro and over a hard-charging Allmendinger with third-place Custer trailing by more than nine seconds. Kligerman would proceed to lead by more than two seconds over Allmendinger with 15 laps remaining.

    Then with 11 laps remaining, Allmendinger, who methodically gained ground and drew himself alongside Kligerman during the proceeding lap, overtook Kligerman for the lead entering Turn 1. Allmendinger would proceed to stretch his advantage to more than two seconds over Kligerman, who continued to run on fuel-conserve mode, with 10 laps remaining while third-place Custer trailed by more than three seconds.

    Then with six laps remaining, the event’s 10th caution period flew when Chad Chastain spun in Turn 4. The caution period stalled Allmendinger’s progress as he was leading by more than two seconds over Custer while Kligerman was in third. During the caution period, six competitors that included the leader Allmendinger, Chandler Smith, Hill, Herbst, Berry and Hemric remained on the track while the rest led by Custer and Kligerman pitted.

    With the race restarting under green with two laps remaining, Allmendinger was drafted into the lead with help from Hill as the front-runners fanned out, among which included Herbst as he bolted his way towards the front. Then in Turns 1 and 2, trouble struck for Chandler Smith after contact with Berry amid a tight four-wide action that also included Custer and Hemric sent Smith spinning up the track while the rest of the field scrambled to the bottom of the track to avoid Smith’s incident. Amid the incident, Allmendinger remained as the leader followed by Herbst, Hill, Hemric, Berry and Kligerman, but the return of the caution sent the event into overtime.

    At the start of the first overtime attempt, Allmendinger managed to rocket away from Herbst and the field. The field behind would then fan out to multiple lanes through the backstretch as Allmendinger continued to muscle away with the lead entering Turns 3 and 4.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Allmendinger remained as the leader by eight-tenths of a second over Herbst, who was trying to fend off Hemric. Then just past the start/finish line, Hemric veered sideways, but he managed to straighten his car without triggering a wreck. Hemric’s loose moment, however, cost him a bevy of spots as Herbst, Hill and Mayer went by him. By then, Allmendinger was long gone with an advantage of more than a second through the backstretch. With the field battling amongst one another for as high as second, Allmendinger was able to cycle his way back to the finish line uncontested and score his second Xfinity victory of the 2023 season just as a multi-car wreck in the middle of the field erupted.

    With his first victory at Nashville, Allmendinger scored his 17th career win in the Xfinity Series, his second of the season after winning at Circuit of the Americas in March and his first oval, superspeedway venue victory since winning at Talladega Superspeedway in October 2022. In addition, this marked the third victory of the season for Kaulig Racing’s No. 10 “all-star” entry: twice made by Allmendinger and once by Kyle Larson at Darlington Raceway in May.

    “All thanks to all the men and women at Kaulig Racing,” Allmendinger said on USA Network. “We got [country artist] Bailey Zimmerman. He flew in from Chicago this morning. [It’s] Awesome to have him here and win a race for him. The car was really good. [I] Got caught up in that wreck on that one restart. [I] Thought at least our chance to win was over, but the guys did such a great job of fixing [the car]. This is one of those iconic trophies [Gibson guitars] you wanna win. What a cool way to do it.”

    “All these wins are amazing,” Allmendinger added. “I love winning on ovals because I know a lot of people doubt me being on an oval. What a great time.”

    Herbst, racing for the first time with new crew chief Davin Restivo, settled in a career-best second place for the third time in his career and after coming off eight consecutive events of finishing no higher than 14th. Mayer ended up third while Hill and Berry finished in the top five.

    Nemechek came home in sixth place while Zane Smith, Hemric, Custer and Retzlaff finished in the top 10. Behind, Kligerman, Moffitt and Allgaier, all of whom wrecked approaching the finish line, ended up 11th, 14th and 15th, respectively, while Chandler Smith rallied his way to 12th.

    There were 17 lead changes for 11 different leaders. The race featured a record-tying 11 cautions for 58 laps. In total, 16 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.

    With 11 Xfinity regular-season events remaining on the schedule, John Hunter Nemechek leads the regular-season standings by nine points over Austin Hill, 41 over Justin Allgaier and 51 over Cole Custer.

    Results.

    1. AJ Allmendinger, 25 laps led

    2. Riley Herbst

    3. Sam Mayer, six laps led

    4. Austin Hill, three laps led

    5. Josh Berry, one lap led

    6. John Hunter Nemechek

    7. Zane Smith

    8. Daniel Hemric, one lap led

    9. Cole Custer, 32 laps led

    10. Parker Retzlaff, three laps led

    11. Parker Kligerman, 22 laps led

    12. Chandler Smith, 74 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    13. Jeb Burton

    14. Brett Moffitt

    15. Justin Allgaier

    16. Kaz Grala

    17. Sheldon Creed, one lap down

    18. Kyle Weatherman, one lap down

    19. Ryan Sieg, one lap down

    20. Brennan Poole, one lap down

    21. Joe Graf Jr., one lap down

     22. Jeremy Clements, one lap down

    23. Anthony Alfredo, one lap down

    24. Brandon Jones, one lap down

    25. Kyle Sieg, one lap down

    26. Blaine Perkins, two laps down

    27. Jeffrey Earnhardt, two laps down

    28. Ryan Ellis, two laps down

    29. Chad Chastain, two laps down

    30. David Starr, three laps down

    31. Joey Gase, three laps down

    32. Mason Massey, 10 laps down

    33. Josh Williams – OUT, Alternator

    34. Sammy Smith – OUT, Accident, one lap led

    35. Connor Mosack – OUT, Dvp

    36. Carson Hocevar – OUT, Accident

    37. Ty Gibbs – OUT, Accident, 28 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    38. Stefan Parsons – OUT, Accident

    Next on the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ inaugural event at the Chicago Street Course in Downtown Chicago, Illinois. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, July 1, at 5 p.m. ET on USA Network.