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  • Hamlin manages tire wear to claim dramatic Cup victory at Bristol

    Hamlin manages tire wear to claim dramatic Cup victory at Bristol

    In an event where tire management was the name of the game, Denny Hamlin implemented his racing roots by preserving his tires to the very end, which enabled him to fend off teammate Martin Truex Jr. and win a wild conclusion to the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 17. 

    The three-time Daytona 500 champion from Chesterfield, Virginia, led 13 times for a race-high 163 of 500-scheduled laps after starting in third place and quickly making his presence at the front known by leading for the first time on Lap 21. Then, amid a series of caution periods and tire wear issues that plagued several front-runners and stars, Hamlin preserved his tires and managed to carve his way through traffic and run up front.

    He traded the lead on several occasions with his fellow competitors and Joe Gibbs Racing teammates and stretched his worn tires further than his competitors before pitting under green with 53 laps remaining. After cycling back to the lead shortly after, he then managed to fend off a late challenge from Truex while leading 47 of the remaining 48 laps, which was enough for him to claim his first checkered flag of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series. 

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup on Saturday, March 16, Ryan Blaney secured his first Cup pole position of the 2024 season and the 10th of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 124.954 mph in 15.356 seconds. Joining him on the front row was rookie Josh Berry, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 124.792 mph in 15.376 seconds. 

    When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Blaney muscled his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead to take the lead and managed to fend off both Berry and teammate Joey Logano for a full circuit around the Last Great Coliseum’s concrete surface to lead the first lap. Blaney and Berry battled dead even for the lead during the following two laps before Berry muscled his No. 4 SunnyD Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead of Blaney who fell back to second in front of teammate Logano and Chase Briscoe while Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott joined the battle. 

    Through Laps 5 to 10, Berry retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Blaney while Briscoe, Hamlin and Elliott were running in the top five. Behind, Michael McDowell moved up to sixth followed by Bubba Wallace and Truex while Logano fell back to ninth in front of Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and William Byron. 

    Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Berry was leading by a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Hamlin followed by Blaney, Elliott and Wallace while Chase Briscoe, Truex Jr., McDowell, Larson and Brad Keselowski were running in the top 10 ahead of Harrison Burton, Erik Jones, Ty Gibbs, William Byron and Christopher Bell. Meanwhile, Logano had fallen to 16th ahead of Kyle Busch, rookie Zane Smith, Austin Cindric and Tyler Reddick. 

    A lap later, however, Hamlin overtook Berry for the lead. By then, Byron, who was running in the top 15, had fallen off the pace after he was hit by Logano, who was hit by Bell first, entering the backstretch, which resulted in Byron getting loose, scraping the backstretch’s outside wall and bumping across Bell before slipping towards the outside wall in Turn 3. Byron would pit with a broken toe link to his No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 as the event’s first caution period flew on Lap 22 due to debris reported in between Turns 3 and 4. 

    During the event’s first caution period, nearly the entire field led by Hamlin pitted for service for the first time while Reddick remained on the track. Following the pit stops amid mixed strategies, Berry exited first with two fresh tires ahead of Wallace, Elliott, Truex, McDowell and Hamlin. Amid the pit stops, Erik Jones was penalized for equipment interference. 

    When the event restarted under green on Lap 30, Reddick muscled ahead with the lead ahead of Berry and teammate Wallace. As the field cycled back to the frontstretch, however, the caution quickly returned after Reddick received a bump from Berry and was pinned in a tight three-wide battle with Wallace and Berry for the lead entering the frontstretch that got Reddick’s No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE spinning sideways in front of McDowell, Elliott and the field. With Reddick spinning below the track, he was then hit by rookie Zane Smith while Daniel Hemric, Corey LaJoie, AJ Allmendinger and rookie Carson Hocevar, all of whom were running towards the rear of the field, all wrecked across the frontstretch while stepping off the gas. 

    As the event restarted under green on Lap 38, Wallace fended off Berry from the outside lane to retain the lead while McDowell followed suit in a close third place. With Wallace still leading just past the Lap 40 mark, Hamlin and Elliott battled dead even for fourth place while Blaney and Ty Gibbs battled for sixth. Berry, however, would make his move beneath Wallace to reassume the lead through the frontstretch by Lap 41 while McDowell tried to follow suit. This allowed Hamlin to narrow the gap and challenge McDowell for third place, which he would succeed in doing so on Lap 44 while Blaney and Elliott joined the battle. Amid the early battles towards the front, Berry continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over Wallace. 

    On Lap 47, Wallace cycled his No. 23 Leidos Toyota Camry XSE past Berry to reassume the lead. Team owner Hamlin would quickly follow suit in second along with Blaney and Elliott as Berry settled in fifth by the Lap 50 mark, where Wallace would continue to lead. Three laps later, however, Hamlin assumed the lead in his No. 11 Express Oil Change Toyota Camry XSE following a strong move to the outside lane with four fresh tires entering the backstretch over Wallace. Blaney would also follow suit to move into the runner-up spot followed by Elliott while Wallace fell back to fourth as he was being challenged by Brad Keselowski, Ty Gibbs and Briscoe for more. 

    Just past the Lap 60 mark, Hamlin was overtaken by Elliott for the race lead in front of a stacked field jostling for positions amid two lanes. With Elliott leading in his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, Blaney battled Hamlin for second in front of Keselowski while Kyle Busch battled Wallace for fifth place. 

    Nearing the Lap 70 mark, the event’s second caution period flew due to debris reported across the frontstretch after Zane Smith blew a right-front tire. By then, Blaney had led Laps 65 to 68 before the lead was acquired by Kyle Busch, starting on Lap 69. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Busch returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin exited pit road first ahead of Blaney and Elliott while Busch, Keselowski, Briscoe and Bell followed suit. Amid the pit stops, McDowell was penalized for having too many crew members over the pit wall. 

    With the event restarting under green on Lap 79, Hamlin retained the lead after rocketing away from the field past the restart zone as Blaney and Elliott battled for second in front of Busch, Keselowski and Briscoe. With the field behind battling dead even amongst one another for spots, Hamlin would continue to lead until Blaney shoved his way into the lead through the frontstretch on Lap 83. Blaney would stretch his advantage to as high as two-tenths of a second during the following six laps until Hamlin cycled back into the lead on Lap 89. Behind, Kyle Busch prevailed in a tight battle with Elliott for third place as he tried to close in on the two leaders while Keselowski, Briscoe, Bell, Larson Ty Gibbs and Wallace followed suit in the top 10. 

    Through the first 100 scheduled laps, Hamlin stretched his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Busch followed by Blaney, Elliott and Keselowski while Bell, Briscoe, Gibbs, Larson and John Hunter Nemechek occupied the top 10 in front of Wallace, Alex Bowman, Chris Buescher, Berry and Justin Haley. Meanwhile, Erik Jones was in 16th ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Truex, Logano and Todd Gilliland while Ryan Preece, McDowell, Austin Cindric, LaJoie and Ross Chastain trailed in the top 25. 

    Ten laps later, Hamlin continued to lead by over three-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Busch as Blaney and Bell were running third and fourth, with teammates Elliott and Larson fending off Gibbs for fifth and sixth. Hamlin would then stretch his advantage to more than a second over Blaney, with he and Bell overtaking Busch by the Lap 115 mark. By then, Larson retained fifth in front of Gibbs while Elliott was overtaken by Keselowski and Buescher for seventh and eighth. 

    Then on Lap 120 and with the majority of the field being mired with tire wear concerns, Blaney overtook Hamlin for the lead as Gibbs and Larson followed suit while Hamlin went wide up the track in Turn 1. By then, Busch and Wallace were falling off the pace and losing a bevy of spots amid concerns of losing their tires towards the end of the first stage period. Gibbs then overtook Blaney for the lead on Lap 121 as he proceeded to lap Austin Cindric while Larson moved into the runner-up spot.  

    Two laps later, the caution flew after Busch spun in Turn 2 after he lost a right-tire tire to his No. 8 FICO Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, where Busch would proceed to reverse his entry through the backstretch before spinning it back to the front below the apron as he lost a lap to the leaders. Busch’s incident occurred after Hamlin had hit the outside wall entering the frontstretch due to getting bumped by Byron, with Hamlin also cutting a tire but proceeding straight.

    Busch’s incident was enough for the first stage period to conclude under caution as Ty Gibbs captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2024 season and of his career. Larson settled in second followed by Buescher, Keselowski and Nemechek while Blaney, Truex, Preece, Berry and Bell were scored in the top 10. 

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Gibbs returned to pit road for service and for another round of fresh tires. Following the pit stops, Larson edged Gibbs off of pit road to exit first while Keselowski, Blaney, Buescher and Nemechek followed suit.  

    The second stage period started on Lap 140 as Larson and Keselowski occupied the front row. At the start, Larson muscled ahead with a brief advantage through the first two turns and the backstretch before Gibbs rocketed his No. 54 SiriusXM Toyota Camry XSE back into the lead during the following lap. John Hunter Nemechek would follow suit in second along with Berry, with the latter then battling Nemechek for second and challenging Gibbs for the lead by the Lap 145 while Larson fell back to fourth along with Nemechek. Shortly after, teammate Martin Truex Jr., who was quick to carve his way to the front, rocketed his No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry XSE into the lead by Lap 146 before teammate Gibbs cycled back into the lead by Lap 150. By then, all four Joe Gibbs Racing entries were running in the top five while Larson was battling for second in front of Bell, Truex and Hamlin.  

    On Lap 154 and with the field running stacked amongst one another through the high banks of Bristol, Larson assumed the lead. Gibbs would reassume the lead three laps later before teammate Hamlin cycled into the lead another two laps.  

    By Lap 175, Gibbs, who reassumed the lead four laps earlier, was leading by nearly two-tenths of a second over teammate Truex followed by Berry, teammate Bell and Buescher while Keselowski, Larson, Logano, Preece and Nemechek occupied the top 10. Meanwhile, Hamlin had fallen to 11th in front of Blaney, Haley, Daniel Suarez and Kaz Grala. 

    A lap later, the caution flew after Stenhouse, who was running in the top 20, was mired in a midfield stack-up that started with him making contact with McDowell through the backstretch before he made contact with Hemric and Zane Smith through Turn 4 as Stenhouse’s No. 47 Ball Park Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 emerged wobbling entering the frontstretch while Hemric and Smith hit the outside wall. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Gibbs returned to pit road for service and fresh tires. Following the pit stops, Buescher exited first followed by Gibbs and Truex while Bell, Gilliland, Larson, Logano and Keselowski followed suit. Not long after, Ty Gibbs made an extra pit stop for qualifying scuff tires to preserve his sticker tires. 

    As the field restarted under green on Lap 189, Buescher retained the lead from the outside lane over Bell and Truex. Buescher would continue to lead by the Lap 200 mark before Bell would zip by Buescher through the frontstretch during the following lap. Teammate Truex would follow suit in second over Buescher while Nemechek and Larson were running in the top five in front of a stacked field. A few laps later, Daniel Suarez nearly wrecked after making contact with Justin Haley through Turns 1 and 2 while battling for a top-10 spot, but he kept his car straight and dropped to 17th while the event remained under green flag conditions. 

    Twenty-five laps later and amid a series of jostling for positions occurring around the field, Truex cycled past teammate Bell for the lead. By then, teammate Gibbs carved his way back to third place followed by Nemechek and Keselowski while Logano was running sixth ahead of Berry, Hamlin, Grala and Larson. 

    Another three laps later, the caution flew after Kyle Busch, who was mired in 31st and a lap down, spun for a second time on his own in Turn 2. With nearly the entire field led by Bell pitting again, Bell retained the lead after exiting first with four fresh tires while Nemechek, Logano, Hamlin, Larson and Truex followed suit in the top six. Back on the track, however, Spire Motorsports’ LaJoie and Hocevar remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Blaney was penalized for speeding on pit road. 

    With the event restarting with 11 laps remaining to the second stage’s conclusion, LaJoie led the field entering the first turn before Bell used the four fresh tires to his advantage as he zipped his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry XSE past the Spire entries for the lead. Logano would quickly follow suit in second along with Nemechek as the field stacked up while navigating past Hocevar and LaJoie.  

    On Lap 242, Logano gave Bell a bump through Turns 1 and 2 in his bid for the lead, but Bell withstood his ground as he retained the lead. Logano would give Bell another hit on the side during the following lap as they both battled dead even for the lead in front of Nemechek and Gibbs. With Logano claiming the lead and clearing Bell by Lap 245, Gibbs navigated his way past teammate Bell for second during the following lap while Keselowski and Nemechek battled Bell for third. In the process, Logano retained a narrow lead over Gibbs before Gibbs claimed the lead back on Lap 248.  

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 250, Ty Gibbs claimed his second consecutive Cup stage victory of the day and of the 2024 season. Keselowski overtook Logano through the frontstretch to claim second place while Nemechek, Bell, Truex, Hamlin, Larson, Wallace and Ryan Preece were scored in the top 10. 

    During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Gibbs peeled off the track to pit road. Following the pit stops, Gibbs retained the lead after exiting pit road first with two fresh tires ahead of Logano, Truex, Bell, Gilliland, Nemechek and Keselowski, who was hit on the right front side by Austin Cindric while trying to exit his pit stall. Amid the tire concerns generated by all teams since the event’s start, Goodyear released an extra set of tires for all teams to use. 

    With 236 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as teammates Gibbs and Truex occupied the front row. At the start, Gibbs retained the lead over Truex while teammate Bell settled in third ahead of Logano, Nemechek and Keselowski. With the field stacked amid two lanes, Gibbs stretched his advantage to three-tenths of a second with 230 laps remaining. By then, Gilliland moved up to fourth as he was running in between Bell and Nemechek while Keselowski and Logano dropped to eighth and ninth as they were running behind Larson and Hamlin on the track. In addition, Ross Chastain was running 10th on two fresh tires as he was trying to retain the spot over Berry and Wallace. 

    With 115 laps remaining, Truex cycled past teammate Gibbs for the lead as teammate Bell trailed by half a second in third place. By then, teammate Hamlin was running in sixth place behind Nemechek and Larson while Berry and Haley cracked the top 10. In addition, Logano was plummeting in the leaderboard as he had dropped out of the top 20 while nearly making contact with teammate Blaney. 

    Down to the final 200 laps of the event, Truex was leading by three-tenths of a second over teammate Bell while teammate Gibbs trailed by half a second in third place. Behind, Nemechek was in fourth place ahead of Hamlin, thus placing five Toyota competitors in the top five, while Keselowski, Larson, Berry, Gilliland and Haley were running in the top 10 ahead of Grala, Chastain, Blaney, McDowell and Wallace. Meanwhile, Logano dropped to 27th behind Austin Dillon and Buescher was in 20th while Elliott was mired in 23rd in between Hocevar and LaJoie. 

    Nine laps later, the caution flew after Berry, who was running in the top 10, slipped sideways and did a full 360 spin entering the backstretch, but managed to keep his No. 4 entry off the wall. By then, all four Joe Gibbs Racing competitors led by Truex were running first through fourth in front of Keselowski, Larson and Nemechek. As the lead lap field led by Truex drove to pit road for service, Hamlin emerged with the lead after he exited pit road first ahead of teammates Bell and Gibbs followed by Larson while teammate Truex exited fifth ahead of Keselowski, Nemechek and Blaney. 

    With the event restarting under green with 178 laps remaining, Hamlin muscled ahead with the lead through the first two turns before teammate Gibbs rocketed past Hamlin through the backstretch to return to the lead. Behind, Hamlin fended off teammates Bell and Truex to retain second while Larson tried to challenge Truex for fourth place as he was running ahead of Gilliland, Nemechek and McDowell. As the field behind jostled for late positions, Gibbs stabilized his advantage to three-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin with 170 laps remaining.  

    With 160 laps remaining, Gibbs continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin while teammate Bell trailed in third place by eight-tenths of a second. With a three-wide action ensuing between Gilliland, Berry and Alex Bowman for top-15 spots and more battles ensuring around the Last Great Coliseum, Gibbs stabilized his narrow advantage to two-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin while teammate Bell, Larson, Keselowski and teammate Truex were running third to sixth with 150 laps remaining. Additionally, Haley was running seventh in front of McDowell, Blaney and Bubba Wallace while Kaz Grala and Nemechek settled in the top 12.  

    Through the final 135 laps of the event, Hamlin zipped by teammate Gibbs for the lead through the frontstretch. By then, Daniel Hemric and Noah Gragson each made separate contact with the outside wall, but the event remained under green flag conditions.  

    Two laps later, the caution returned after Cindric, who was trying to remain on the lead lap from the leader Hamlin, slipped up the track while avoiding Gilliland and made contact with Stenhouse, who was a lap down, that sent both for a spin in Turn 4 as Hamlin, Gibbs and Bell scattered to avoid the chaos. The caution period prompted the leaders to return to pit road for service, where Hamlin retained the lead after exiting pit road first ahead of teammates Bell and Gibbs along with Larson, teammate Truex and Keselowski. Amid the pit stops, Larson was penalized for an equipment interference penalty. 

    During the ensuing restart period with 121 laps remaining, Hamlin retained the lead after muscling away from teammates Bell and Gibbs, though Bell managed to muscle ahead and lead the proceeding lap before Hamlin reclaimed the top spot by the next lap as Gibbs battled teammate Bell in front of teammate Truex and Keselowski. As Hamlin retained the lead in front of his three Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota teammates with 110 laps remaining, Keselowski settled in fifth ahead of McDowell while Haley was running in seventh ahead of Blaney, Wallace and Nemechek. 

    Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Gibbs, who reassumed the lead from teammate Hamlin a lap earlier, was leading ahead of teammates Bell, Hamlin and Truex, respectively, while Keselowski retained fifth ahead of McDowell, Haley, Nemechek, Wallace and Berry.  

    Fifteen laps later, Gibbs continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over teammate Bell as teammates Hamlin and Truex followed suit in the top four. Another nine laps later, Hamlin nearly took the lead from teammate Gibbs, but he had to move up the track to avoid hitting Gilliland as Gibbs retained the lead in front of Hamlin and Truex while Bell was in fourth ahead of Keselowski. 

    Not long after and with the concern of tire wear returning amongst the teams, Hamlin, who assumed the lead with 75 laps remaining, was leading over teammate Truex. By then, a bevy of competitors including Berry, Blaney, Bell, Larson and Gilliland were losing ground of the leaders due to tire wear. Gibbs would then lose ground of the lead as his tires were wearing out, which allowed Keselowski to move up to third place. With Briscoe also falling off the pace, Blaney fell off the pace after he lost a tire, which forced him to pit, and Larson pitted under green. Bell would then pit under green with 60 laps remaining due to a flat tire while Hamlin retained a narrow lead over teammate Truex as he was trying to preserve his tires. 

    With 55 laps remaining and with nearly the entire field being pinned a lap down after having made a pit stop under green for fresh tires, the top-six competitors led by Hamlin were scored on the lead lap. Two laps later, Hamlin surrendered the lead to pit under green as Hocevar made contact with the wall, though the event remained under green flag conditions. Teammate Truex would pit another two laps later along with Keselowski. Once Alex Bowman pitted from the lead with 49 laps remaining, Hamlin cycled back into the lead. 

    Down to the final 40 laps of the event, Hamlin was leading by more than a second over teammate Truex while Berry, Keselowski and Larson were scored in the top five ahead of Buescher, Bell, Nemechek, Haley and Bowman. Hamlin’s advantage would then shrink to three-tenths of a second over Truex with 30 laps remaining as they were mired in lapped traffic.  

    With 20 laps remaining, Hamlin continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over teammate Truex as they both continued to be mired in lapped traffic. With Keselowski scored in third ahead of Berry and Larson, Hamlin managed to navigate his way through the lapped traffic to fend off Truex and retain the lead with 10 laps remaining.  

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Hamlin stabilized his advantage to four-tenths of a second over Truex as both cleared a majority of the lapped traffic, but the latter kept the former within his sights.  

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hamlin remained as the leader by half a second over Truex. With Truex unable to mount a final lap charge on his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate for a final circuit, Hamlin was able to preserve his tires and navigate his way around the Bristol circuit smoothly for a final time as he claimed the checkered flag by a second over Truex. 

    With the victory, Hamlin, who became the fifth winner through the 2024 season’s first five events, recorded his 52nd career win in the NASCAR Cup Series, his fourth at Bristol, with the victory being his first in the spring, and his first since winning the Bristol Night Race last September. The 2024 Cup season marks Hamlin’s 18th season where he has achieved at least one victory in NASCAR’s premier series as he also recorded the second consecutive victory in recent weeks for both Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota.  

    Photo by Chad Wells for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “[Tire management], That’s what I grew up doing here in the short tracks of the whole mid-Atlantic [region],” Hamlin said on FOX. “South Boston [Speedway], Martinsville [Speedway], all those tracks. It’s just what I grew up doing. Once it became a tire management race, I really liked our chances, but obviously, the veteran in Martin [Truex Jr.], he knew how to do it as well. We just had a great car. Great team. The pit crew just did a phenomenal job all day. Can’t say enough about them. Man, it feels so good to win at Bristol.” 

    Truex, who has finished in the top 15 through this season’s first four-scheduled events, came home with a strong runner-up result for his first top-five finish of the 2024 campaign. 

    “Just really proud of my team, everybody on our Auto-Owners Camry,” Truex said. “[Crew chief] James [Small] and the guys did a great job this weekend in having a plan coming here. I guess this tire management thing fit into my wheelhouse here at Bristol. The difference was just coming down to the pits so far behind Denny. I had to use mine [tires] up more than him on the last run and then, the last four or five laps of the race, my right rear [tire] was cored. We gave it a hell of an effort. I had a lot of fun today. Second always hurts a little, but it’s a really good run for us here. It’s been a great season so far for us.” 

    Keselowski settled in third place while Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson finished in the top five and as the final group of competitors to finish on the lead lap. John Hunter Nemechek, Buescher, Elliott, Ty Gibbs and Bell, who were all a lap down, finished in the top 10. 

    Notably, Berry finished 12th, pole-sitter Blaney ended up 16th, Logano fell back to 22nd and Kyle Busch ended up 25th behind teammate Austin Dillon. 

    There were a race-record 54 lead changes for 16 different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 98 laps. In addition, only five of the 36 starters finished on the lead lap. 

    Following the fifth event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Kyle Larson and Truex Jr. are tied for the regular-season lead in the points standings as they are both ahead by seven points over Ty Gibbs, eight over Ryan Blaney and 12 over Denny Hamlin. 

    Results. 

    1. Denny Hamlin, 163 laps led 

    2. Martin Truex Jr., 54 laps led 

    3. Brad Keselowski, one lap led 

    4. Alex Bowman, three laps led 

    5. Kyle Larson, 19 laps led 

    6. John Hunter Nemechek, one lap down 

    7. Chris Buescher, one lap down, 17 laps led 

    8. Chase Elliott, one lap down, five laps led 

    9. Ty Gibbs, one lap down, 137 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner 

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

    11. Michael McDowell, one lap down 

    12. Josh Berry, one lap down, 25 laps led 

    13. Chase Briscoe, two laps down 

    14. Ryan Preece, two laps down 

    15. Ross Chastain, two laps down 

    16. Ryan Blaney, two laps down, 14 laps led 

    17. Justin Haley, two laps down 

    18. Daniel Suarez, two laps down 

    19. Kaz Grala, two laps down 

    20. Erik Jones, two laps down 

    21. Corey LaJoie, two laps down, four laps led 

    22. Joey Logano, two laps down, five laps led 

    23. AJ Allmendinger, two laps down 

    24. Austin Dillon, two laps down 

    25. Kyle Busch, two laps down, five laps led 

    26. Todd Gilliland, three laps down 

    27. Carson Hocevar, three laps down 

    28. Daniel Hemric, four laps down 

    29. Bubba Wallace, four laps down, 15 laps led 

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

    31. Austin Cindric, five laps down 

    32. Harrison Burton, five laps down 

    33. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., five laps down 

    34. Noah Gragson, six laps down 

    35. William Byron, eight laps down 

    36. Zane Smith – OUT, Engine 

    Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ fourth annual running of the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The event is scheduled for next Sunday, March 24, and will air at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX. 

  • Christopher Bell muscles to first Cup victory of 2024 at Phoenix

    Christopher Bell muscles to first Cup victory of 2024 at Phoenix

    Christopher Bell was not to be denied. His fast No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry XSE entry enabled him to rally from restarting towards the middle of the pack during a late-race restart period to leading the final 41 laps en route to a strong victory in the Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, March 10. 

    The 29-year-old Bell from Norman, Oklahoma, led twice for 50 of 312-scheduled laps in an event where he started 13th and spent the first stage period running within the top 15 before his car came to life during the second stage period, which allowed him to carve his way to the front and claim the second stage victory over Toyota teammate Tyler Reddick.  

    Despite losing ground for the lead following a slow pit stop prior to the start of the final stage, Bell, who dodged a series of cautions and on-track incidents during the final stage’s start, pitted along with the majority of the front-runners for fresh tires and fuel during a late caution period with less than 98 laps remaining. During the final restart with 92 laps remaining, Bell used the four fresh tires to his advantage and methodically navigated his way back towards the front. Once teammate Martin Truex Jr. pitted for fresh tires and fuel with 41 laps remaining, the lead was all Bell’s as the Oklahoma native maintained a sizeable gap between himself and Chris Buescher and teammate Ty Gibbs for the remainder of the event, which was enough for him to claim his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2024 season. 

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, March 9, Denny Hamlin claimed his first Cup Series pole position of the 2024 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 132.655 mph in 27.138 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Ty Gibbs, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 132.227 mph in 27.226 seconds. 

    Prior to the event, rookie Josh Berry dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments and repairs made to his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry after he spun and hit the wall during his qualifying attempt. 

    When the green flag waved and the event commenced, teammates Hamlin and Ty Gibbs dueled for the lead through the frontstretch and entering the first two turns until Gibbs rocketed his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE into the lead from the outside lane entering the backstretch. As the field fanned out to as large as four lanes, Gibbs proceeded to lead the first lap while Erik Jones battled and overtook Hamlin for the runner-up spot. 

    Through the second to fifth lap marks, Gibbs maintained a steady lead that would grow to half a second over Erik Jones and teammate Hamlin while Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott followed suit in the top five. Behind, William Byron trailed in sixth ahead of Chase Briscoe and rookie Carson Hocevar while Michael McDowell, Martin Truex Jr. and Noah Gragson battled for ninth place in front of Daniel Suarez and Kyle Larson. 

    Then approaching the sixth lap, the event’s first caution flew after Derek Kraus spun sideways on the bottom lane through Turn 2 and back across the track entering the backstretch before he was hit by both Austin Dillon and Austin Cindric, the latter of which would retire from further competition. During the event’s first caution period, some including Kyle Busch pitted while the rest led by Ty Gibbs remained on the track. 

    When the event restarted under green on Lap 12, Gibbs muscled ahead of the field to retain the lead on the inside lane while Reddick ignited a three-wide battle on Hamlin and Erik Jones for the runner-up spot. Jones would use the outside lane to fend off both Toyota teammates for second place as Elliott and Byron trailed closely in the top six. In addition, Briscoe and Hocevar battled for seventh place along with McDowell while Gibbs stretched his early advantage by nearly half a second over Jones by the Lap 15 mark. 

    Through the first 25 scheduled laps, Gibbs was leading by four-tenths of a second over Jones followed by Hamlin, Reddick and Chase Elliott while William Byron, Michael McDowell, Carson Hocevar, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Blaney followed suit in the top 10. Behind, Martin Truex Jr. was in 11th ahead of Noah Gragson, Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez and Christopher Bell while Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch and John Hunter Nemechek trailed in the top 20. Meanwhile, Josh Berry was mired in 21st ahead of Chris Buescher, Joey Logano, Ryan Preece and Alex Bowman while Todd Gilliland, Corey LaJoie, Harrison Burton, Daniel Hemric and Justin Haley rounded out the top 30. 

    Ten laps later, Gibbs stabilized his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Jones while Hamlin and Reddick trailed by within one-and-a-half seconds. Elliott would trail the top-four competitors by more than two seconds and teammate Byron would trail by more than three seconds as Gibbs maintained the lead by four-tenths of a second over Jones, who was slowly closing in on the leader, by the Lap 40 mark. 

    By Lap 50, Gibbs stabilized his advantage to two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Reddick, who moved into the runner-up spot, followed by Hamlin while Jones fell back to fourth place. In the process, Hendrick Motorsports’ Elliott and Byron remained in fifth and sixth, respectively, as they trailed the lead by more than two seconds while McDowell, Blaney, Briscoe and Truex were running in the top 10 ahead of Larson, Gragson, Hocevar, Suarez and Keselowski. 

    Seven laps later, Reddick, who navigated his way around Phoenix’s racing lanes to narrow the gap between himself and Gibbs, drew himself into a side-by-side battle with Gibbs for the lead through the backstretch and the frontstretch. Gibbs would try to fight back from the outside lane, but Reddick used the inside lane to muscle his No. 45 Mobil 1 Toyota Camry XSE ahead with the top spot. 

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 60, Reddick, who capitalized late on his battle with Ty Gibbs, captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2024 season as he also stretched his advantage to six-tenths of a second. Gibbs settled in second followed by Hamlin, Jones and Elliott while Byron, Blaney, McDowell, Briscoe and Truex were scored in the top 10. 

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Reddick pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin emerged as the new race leader after he exited pit road first from the first pit box while Reddick, Byron, Elliott, Gibbs, Blaney, Briscoe, Larson, Keselowski and Jones followed suit in the top 10. Not long after, Larson pitted his No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for a second time due to a left-rear tire issue while Hocevar also pitted again for a loose wheel. 

    The second stage period started on Lap 69 as Hamlin and Reddick occupied the front row. At the start, Hamlin muscled his No. 11 Mavis Brakes Plus Toyota Camry XSE ahead with the lead as the front-runners dived below the frontstretch dog-leg and fanned out entering the first two turns. With Hamlin leading the race, Reddick maintained the runner-up spot while a three-wide action for third place involving Gibbs, Byron and Elliott ensued in front of Blaney. In the process, Keselowski was in seventh ahead of another three-wide battle involving Truex, Briscoe and Jones while Hamlin was leading just past the Lap 70 mark. 

    Through the first 80 scheduled laps, Hamlin extended his advantage to a second over Reddick followed by Elliott, Gibbs and Byron while Blaney, Truex, Keselowski, Bell and Gragson trailed in the top 10 ahead of Erik Jones, Suarez, Briscoe, Bowman and McDowell. Hamlin would stretch his lead to more than two seconds over Reddick by the Lap 90 mark while Elliott, Gibbs and Byron remained in the top five. 

    At the Lap 100 mark, Hamlin continued to lead by nearly two seconds over Reddick followed by Elliott, Byron and Gibbs while Truex, Bell, Blaney, Keselowski and Gragson were scored in the top 10. Behind, Erik Jones trailed in 11th followed by Suarez, Briscoe, Bowman and McDowell while Buescher, Wallace, Chastain, Preece and Larson were running in the top 20 ahead of Nemechek, Logano, LaJoie, Kyle Busch and Berry. 

    Fifteen laps later, Hamlin stabilized his lead to more than a second over Reddick as Elliott and Byron remained in the top four. Meanwhile, Bell carved his No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE into fifth place followed by teammate Truex while teammate Ty Gibbs dropped to seventh. 

    Shortly after, green flag pit stops commenced as Blaney pitted his No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse along with Chastain and Larson. More names like Byron, Bell, Truex, Keselowski, Bowman, Wallace, Buescher, Preece, Logano, LaJoie, Daniel Hemric, Elliott, Gibbs, Briscoe, Nemechek, rookie Zane Smith, Justin Haley and Reddick would pit during the ensuing laps, starting from Lap 116, before Hamlin pitted from the lead on Lap 119. 

    Just past the Lap 120 mark and with nearly the entire field having made a pit stop under green, Todd Gilliland, who has yet to pit, was leading ahead of Kyle Busch, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Hocevar and Kraus, all of whom have yet to pit, while Hamlin, the first competitor who pitted and who nearly made contact with Suarez while trying to enter his pit stall, trailed in sixth place as he also had Reddick closing in on him for position. 

    On Lap 133, Reddick, who overtook Hamlin through the first two turns a lap earlier, used the outside lane to rocket past Gilliland for the race lead. Hamlin would quickly follow suit for the runner-up spot as Byron and Bell trailed in the top five within six seconds. By then, Stenhouse and Hocevar remained on the track in sixth and seventh, respectively, while Kyle Busch was scored a lap down after he pitted under green. 

    Just past the Lap 145 mark, Reddick stretched his advantage to nearly a second over Hamlin as Gilliland, who led 14 laps, continued to run on the track in third place ahead of Bell, Byron and Truex. Reddick would maintain his lead by eight-tenths of a second over Hamlin while Bell and Byron overtook Gilliland for third and fourth by Lap 150. 

    By the halfway mark on Lap 156, Reddick continued to lead within a second over Hamlin while Bell, Byron and Truex trailed in the top five ahead of Gilliland, Blaney, Elliott, Keselowski and Gragson, all of whom were running in the top 10 and trailing the lead by 14 seconds. Reddick would maintain the lead by eight-tenths of a second over Hamlin while Bell trailed in third place by more than a second as Gilliland pitted under green by the Lap 165 mark. 

    By Lap 175, Reddick, who was mired in lapped traffic as he was trying to lap Logano, retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Bell, who nearly overtook Reddick for the lead entering the first two turns, while third-place Hamlin trailed by nearly a second as Byron and Truex trailed from a distance in the top five. Bell would then capitalize on his charge to overtake Reddick for the lead through the first two turns with four laps remaining to the second stage’s conclusion. 

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 185, Bell captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Reddick trailed in second followed by Hamlin, Byron and Truex while Blaney, Elliott, Gragson, Keselowski and Chris Buescher were scored in the top 10. By then, 19 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while Ryan Preece, who was running 19th, managed to fend off Logano to emerge as the first competitor scored a lap down and receive the free pass.  

    During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Bell returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin benefitted from having the first pit box towards the exit of pit road for a second time as he exited first followed by Reddick, Byron, Elliott, Blaney and Truex. Amid the pit stops, Harrison Burton was penalized for speeding on pit road. 

    With 118 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Hamlin and Reddick occupied the front row. At the start, the front-runners fanned out and dived through the frontstretch dog-leg as Hamlin maintained the lead in front of a side-by-side battle between Reddick and Byron for the runner-up spot. With the field still fanning out across multiple lanes from the backstretch through the frontstretch, Hamlin maintained the lead in front of Reddick and Byron. The caution, however, would return two laps later after Kyle Busch, who was mired in 25th, got loose through Turn 2 and was bumped by Zane Smith into Kaz Grala before Busch spun his No. 8 zone Premium Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 within the middle of the track through the backstretch.  

    During the following restart with 110 laps remaining, the front-runners dived through the frontstretch dog-leg as Reddick overtook Hamlin for the lead. With the field fanning out through the backstretch, Reddick was leading by nearly half a second over Hamlin followed by Blaney, Byron and Truex as Ross Chastain, who was running in the middle of the pack, scraped the outside wall towards the frontstretch, though the event remained under green flag conditions. 

    With 107 laps remaining, the caution returned after Logano, who was scored as the first competitor a lap down, received a huge bump by Nemechek entering Turn 1 that sent his No. 22 Hunt Brother’s Pizza Ford Mustang Dark Horse spinning below the apron before he came back across the track and was hit by Corey LaJoie, with Kraus, Zane Smith and Berry also involved as Logano’s long afternoon came to a late end. 

    As the event restarted with 100 laps remaining, the leaders dived through the frontstretch dog-leg as Reddick battled and fended off Hamlin to retain the lead. With Hamlin fighting back during the following lap by drawing even with Reddick, Truex joined the tight three-car battle for the lead while Byron maintained fourth place in front of a three-wide battle involving Gragson, Keselowski and Wallace as Blaney and Bell battled for ninth.  

    The caution, however, returned with 98 laps remaining after Hamlin, who was battling Reddick for the lead, got loose underneath Reddick entering Turn 1 as he slid into Reddick and spun sideways from the middle to the bottom lane through Turn 2 while the rest of the field scattered to avoid hitting Hamlin. During the caution period, a majority of the front-runners led by Reddick pitted for fresh tires and fuel while the rest led by Truex remained on the track. 

    With the event restarting with 92 laps remaining, the field fanned out and dived through the frontstretch dog-leg as Truex maintained the lead in front of the field. During the following lap, Truex was leading by three-tenths of a second over Preece, Gilliland, Chastain and Buescher while Ty Gibbs, who pitted for two fresh tires and a full tank of fuel, carved his way up to seventh place. Amid the tight battles between those who pitted and those who did not, Wallace, who was getting pinned in between Briscoe and Erik Jones while battling for a top-10 spot, got loose and got Jones’ No. 43 Family Dollar Toyota Camry XSE sideways entering Turn 1, which resulted with Jones making contact with the outside wall and plummeting in the leaderboard, though the event remained under green flag conditions. 

    Back at the front of the pack, Ty Gibbs continued to use the two fresh tires to his advantage as he carved his way up to third place while Truex continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over Preece with 90 laps remaining. By then, names like Chastain, McDowell, Gilliland, Buescher, Briscoe, Keselowski and Suarez were running in the top 10 while front-runners Reddick, Bell, Blaney, Elliott, Hamlin and Byron were mired in 12th, 13th, 15th, 17th, 18th and 20th, respectively. 

    With 75 laps remaining, Truex was leading by two seconds over Preece as Ty Gibbs was trying to close in and overtake Preece for the runner-up spot. Behind, Chastain was running in fourth place ahead of Buescher, Keselowski and McDowell while Bell carved his way up to eighth place with four fresh tires in front of Gilliland and Briscoe. By then, Reddick was mired in 12th while Blaney was in 14th. Meanwhile, Hamlin was in 16th while Wallace was back in 18th.  

    Fifteen laps later, Truex, who continued to hold strong on old tires and with questions arising on how much fuel he had to make it to the scheduled distance, was still leading as he stretched his advantage to four seconds over teammate Ty Gibbs, who overtook Preece for the runner-up spot six laps earlier. Behind, Chastain was in fourth while Bell navigated his way into the top five on his four fresh tires. Bell would then overtake both Preece and Chastain to move his strong race car into third place another two laps later as he trailed his teammate by less than six seconds. 

    With 50 laps remaining, Truex continued to lead by five seconds over teammate Bell, who overtook teammate Ty Gibbs for the runner-up spot on four fresh tires and with enough fuel for the scheduled distance as he was running faster lap times compared to his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates. Behind, Chastain and Buescher were running in the top five ahead of Preece, Keselowski, McDowell and Gilliland while Reddick was able to navigate his way back into the top 10 as he was in 10th followed by Gilliland, Gragson, Blaney, Suarez and Hamlin.  

    Nine laps later, Truex surrendered the lead to pit his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE under green for fresh tires and a full tank of fuel as he ended up a lap down. This allowed teammate Bell to assume the race lead as he was leading by more than two seconds over teammate Ty Gibbs while Chastain, Buescher and Keselowski were scored in the top five. As Preece pitted under green, Truex would manage to overtake teammate Bell to un-lap himself while the latter stretched his advantage by more than four seconds over teammate Gibbs with 30 laps remaining. By then, Reddick was up to eighth place ahead of Blaney and Gragson while Hamlin was in 11th. 

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Bell stabilized his advantage to more than four seconds over teammate Gibbs while Buescher, Chastain and Keselowski continued to hold strong in the top five. Behind, Reddick moved his Mobil 1 entry up to seventh behind McDowell, Blaney was in eighth ahead of Briscoe and Gragson, Hamlin was still mired in 11th, Larson was in 14th and Byron was mired in 18th behind Truex.  

    Five laps later, Bell stretched his lead slightly to five seconds over teammate Gibbs while third-place Buescher trailed by less than six seconds. Bell would extend his lead by another second to six seconds over Buescher, who overtook Gibbs for the runner-up spot, with 10 laps remaining as Keselowski and Chastain battled fiercely for fourth place. 

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Bell maintained the lead by more than six seconds over Buescher and teammate Gibbs while Keselowski and Chastain continued to run in the top five ahead of Blaney and McDowell. Behind, Briscoe, Truex and Reddick battled for eighth while Gragson and Hamlin battled for 11th.  

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Bell remained as the leader by more than five seconds over Buescher’s No. 17 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse. With the gap between the leader and the runner-up spot large, Bell was able to navigate his way around the Phoenix circuit smoothly for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch and claimed his first checkered flag of the 2024 Cup Series season. 

    With the victory, Bell, who became the fourth winner through the first four events of the 2024 Cup season, captured his seventh Cup Series career victory and his first at Phoenix as he extended his winning streak in the Cup circuit to four consecutive seasons. Bell also registered the first Cup victory of the 2024 season for both Joe Gibbs Racing and the Toyota nameplate while also recording the first official victory for Toyota’s Camry XSE stock car. 

    “This one feels really good,” Bell said on the frontstretch on FOX. “A credit to my engineers, my crew chief and all the mechanics on this [No. 20 car]. You don’t get cars like that very often as you know. Just super, super proud to be on this No. 20 car. This Rheem Camry was amazing today. I feel like we have [a] capability of running races like this a lot. Hopefully, this [win] is the first of many this year.” 

    Buescher, whose previous best result in the Cup Series is ninth during the first three events on this year’s schedule and who is coming off an early accident last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway due to a loose wheel that resulted in the suspension of two of his crew members, settled in the runner-up spot followed by Ty Gibbs, who led 57 laps and notched a career-best result.  

    “[The runner-up finish]’s huge,” Buescher said. “We’ve talked a lot internally. We’ve been able to lead, at any point, on all three races leading up to this. We didn’t quite get there today but certainly, a great finish for our BuildSubs.com Ford Mustang. Really proud of everybody. I know we had a rough go last weekend. This [finish] was good to get everybody back together and prove that we’re in this together. We’re gonna win or lose these things as a team. That was almost a win today.” 

    Keselowski came home in fourth place while Blaney edged Chastain to finish fifth. 

    Chastain, Truex, McDowell, Briscoe and Reddick finished in the top 10. 

    Notably, Hamlin, who led the most laps at 68 along with his 23XI Racing driver Reddick, ended up 11th ahead of Noah Gragson, Larson settled in 14th, Wallace ended up 16th, Byron finished 18th ahead of teammates Elliott and Alex Bowman and Kyle Busch capped off his long afternoon in 22nd. In addition, Carson Hocevar emerged as the highest-finishing rookie candidate in 15th place.  

    There were 10 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 40 laps. In addition, 21 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap. 

    Following the fourth event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Ryan Blaney leads the regular-season standings by 10 points over both Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr., 17 over William Byron and 21 over both Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs. 

    Results. 

    1. Christopher Bell, 50 laps led, Stage 2 winner 

    2. Chris Buescher 

    3. Ty Gibbs, 57 laps led 

    4. Brad Keselowski 

    5. Ryan Blaney 

    6. Ross Chastain 

    7. Martin Truex Jr., 55 laps led 

    8. Michael McDowell 

    9. Chase Briscoe 

    10. Tyler Reddick, 68 laps led, Stage 1 winner 

    11. Denny Hamlin, 68 laps led 

    12. Noah Gragson 

    13. Daniel Suarez 

    14. Kyle Larson 

    15. Carson Hocevar 

    16. Bubba Wallace 

    17. Todd Gilliland, 14 laps led 

    18. William Byron 

    19. Chase Elliott 

    20. Alex Bowman 

    21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 

    22. Kyle Busch, one lap down 

    23. Ryan Preece, one lap down 

    24. Justin Haley, one lap down 

    25. John Hunter Nemechek, one lap down 

    26. Josh Berry, two laps down 

    27. Harrison Burton, two laps down 

    28. Daniel Hemric, two laps down 

    29. Zane Smith, three laps down 

    30. Kaz Grala, three laps down 

    31. Erik Jones, seven laps down 

    32. Austin Dillon, eight laps down 

    33. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Accident 

    34. Joey Logano – OUT, Accident 

    35. Derek Kraus – OUT, Accident 

    36. Austin Cindric – OUT, Accident 

    Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the return of the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, March 17, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX. 

  • Larson dominates for first Cup victory of 2024 at Las Vegas

    Larson dominates for first Cup victory of 2024 at Las Vegas

    With Tyler Reddick hounding behind on three different scenarios, Kyle Larson struck gold during all three stages, including the latest, to land a dominant NASCAR Cup Series victory in the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 3. 

    “I knew Tyler (Reddick) was going to be the guy to beat,” Larson said after the race. “From the first stage, he was really fast there. I was hoping those guys were going to get racing a little bit longer behind me because I felt it was going to time out to where he was running really hard and getting the tow to catch me at the end. Thankfully, I was able to air-lock him a couple of laps and get him tight. I thought (Reddick) and Bubba (Wallace) were going to get working together again to build a run, so I was happy that didn’t happen.

    “All in all, such a great, great job by this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team. Just their execution, restarts, pit road.. all of that was great. Cool to get a win here in Las Vegas again, back-to-back, and swept all the stages. Can’t ask for much more than that.”

    The 2021 Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, led eight times for a race-high 181 of 267 scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row alongside pole-sitter Joey Logano but quickly made his presence known by assuming the lead for the first time on the third lap.

    In an event highlighted by gusty wind temperatures, pit strategies and racing that fanned out to nearly five lanes, Larson fended off late charges from Reddick to capture both Stage 1 and 2 of the event. During the final restart with 27 laps remaining, Larson would then fend off Ross Chastain amid a late-race duel. He then spent the remainder of the event fending off another charge from Reddick, who used every inch of the circuit and the outside wall to overtake Larson but was unable to do so as Larson capitalized to achieve his first Cup victory of the 2024 season and cash in on a Vegas victory for a second consecutive time.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, March 2, Joey Logano secured his second Cup pole position of the 2024 season and the 30th of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 184.357 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Kyle Larson, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 184.225 mph in 29.312 seconds. 

    Prior to the event, Ross Chastain dropped to the rear of the field due to a replaced hood wrap. Ryan Preece also dropped to the rear of the event in a backup car after he wrecked his primary car during the practice session along with Justin Haley with a changed steering rack that prevented him from qualifying. 

    When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Logano muscled his No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead with the lead entering the first two turns as the field fanned out to multiple lanes. With the field still fanned out through the backstretch and through Turns 3 and 4, Logano proceeded to lead the first lap ahead of a hard-charging Larson while Austin Cindric, William Byron, Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace followed suit. Amid the early battles, Larson would then assume the lead from Logano by the third lap. 

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Larson was leading by half a second over teammate Byron followed by Logano, Cindric and Martin Truex Jr. while Briscoe, Chris Buescher, Wallace, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ty Gibbs occupied the top 10 in front of Chase Elliott, rookie Carson Hocevar, Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick. By then, rookie Zane Smith made an unscheduled pit stop under green after he hit the backstretch’s outside wall a few laps earlier. 

    On Lap 10, the event’s first caution period flew after Bell, who was mired within the top 20, fell off the pace through the frontstretch as he emerged with smoke and a flat right-rear tire to his No. 20 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry XSE.  

    During the event’s first caution period, the lead lap field led by Logano pitted for service. Following the pit stops amid mixed strategies, Chris Buescher exited in first place after only opting for a two-tire pit stop followed by Briscoe, Corey LaJoie, Reddick and Suarez while Larson, the first competitor who emerged with four fresh tires, exited sixth ahead of Byron, Logano, Cindric and Wallace. Amid the pit stops, Todd Gilliland was penalized for crew members over the pit wall too soon. 

    When the race restarted on Lap 15, Buescher and Briscoe dueled for the lead through the first two turns and they continued to battle dead even for the lead through the backstretch and back to the frontstretch until Byron and LaJoie attempted to make it a four-wide battle for the lead. With Byron going from fourth to second through the frontstretch, he then battled Briscoe on four fresh tires through the first two turns until he muscled ahead through Turns 3 and 4 before the Lap 17 mark. With Byron leading ahead of Briscoe, LaJoie and Larson, Daniel Suarez was in fifth ahead of Bubba Wallace and Buescher while Tyler Reddick, Cindric, Logano, Truex and Stenhouse followed suit in the top 12. 

    Through the first 25 scheduled laps, Byron was leading by more than a second over teammate Larson followed by Briscoe, Corey LaJoie and Wallace while Suarez, Buescher, Reddick, Truex and Austin Cindric were running in the top 10 ahead of Logano, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs, Stenhouse, Ryan Blaney, Hocevar, Michael McDowell, Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman and Austin Dillon. 

    A lap later, Buescher, who was running seventh on two fresh right-side tires, went dead straight into the outside wall in Turn 1 after losing a right-front wheel to his No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang Dark Horse due to a lug nut not being tight, which drew the event’s second caution period as Buescher’s event came to an early end. During the caution period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Byron returned to pit road for service while the rest led by Suarez and McDowell remained on the track. Following the pit stops amid another round of mixed strategies, Truex exited pit road first on two fresh tires while Kyle Busch, Larson, Byron, Hamlin, Wallace and Briscoe followed suit. The event would then be placed in a red flag period for more than 10 minutes to allow the on-track safety crew to finalize repairs to the outside wall towards Turn 1. 

    When the red flag lifted and the event restarted under green on Lap 35, Suarez received a shove from Truex to maintain the lead through the first two turns as the field fanned out to three lanes entering the backstretch. Amid the battles between those who pitted and those who either took two or four fresh tires during the previous caution period, Suarez maintained the lead during the following lap ahead of a side-by-side battle involving McDowell and Truex while John Hunter Nemechek, Larson, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Byron and Wallace jostled within the top 10 along with LaJoie, Reddick and Hocevar.  

    On Lap 43, Kyle Busch battled and overtook Suarez for the lead as Larson and Truex also joined the battle towards the front. Larson would then quickly move into the runner-up spot as Suarez was trying to fend off Truex for third place ahead of McDowell and Nemechek, both of whom were running on old tires, as Hamlin followed suit in seventh. A few laps later, the battle at the front between Kyle Busch and Larson slowly started to brew as Larson trailed Busch by two-tenths of a second. 

    On Lap 48, Byron, who was running towards the front early in the event, made an unscheduled pit stop under green to have a large piece of black debris removed from the front nose of the No. 24 Z by HP Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. With Byron losing a lap in the process, Larson continued to pressure Busch for the lead through every turn and straightaway while Suarez trailed in third place by nearly two seconds. 

    By Lap 60, Kyle Busch retained the lead by a tenth of a second over Larson. Two laps later, however, Larson zipped his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 around Busch’s No. 8 BetMGM Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the first two turns and entering the backstretch, with the former leading the event. By then, Reddick trailed in third place by more than two seconds followed by Toyota competitors Truex, Hamlin and Ty Gibbs while Suarez retained seventh ahead of Cindric, LaJoie and a hard-charging Bell. 

    At the Lap 70 mark, Larson stretched his advantage to more than half a second over Busch followed by Reddick, Truex and Hamlin while Ty Gibbs, LaJoie, Bell, Chastain and Cindric trailed in the top 10. By then, Suarez fell back to 14th behind Logano, Blaney and Bowman, Elliott was in 17th and Wallace had fallen back to 20th. 

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 80, Larson captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Reddick charged his way to a runner-up result followed by Truex and Busch while Ty Gibbs, Hamlin, LaJoie, Chastain, Cindric and Bell were scored in the top 10. By then, 33 of 37 starters were scored on the lead lap while Byron, who was mired in 34th, fended off JJ Yeley to emerge as the first competitor who was scored a lap down and received the free pass during the stage break period.  

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted. Following the pit stops, Truex exited first followed by teammate Hamlin, Larson, LaJoie, Busch, Ty Gibbs, Bell, Bowman, Logano and Cindric. Amid the pit stops, Reddick plummeted to 16th after he pitted too close to his pit wall after he slid into his stall, which forced him to reverse and straighten his car. 

    The second stage period started on Lap 88 as teammates Truex and Hamlin occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out to three lanes as teammates Truex and Hamlin battled dead even for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch until Hamlin muscled his No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota Camry XSE ahead with the lead. With Truex being pressured by LaJoie, Larson and Ty Gibbs for the runner-up spot, Hamlin maintained the lead by nearly four-tenths of a second in front of the field that continued to jostle for spots. 

    By Lap 100, Hamlin was leading by half a second over a hard-charging Larson while Truex, Kyle Busch, LaJoie, Ryan Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Chastain, Bell and Bowman were running in the top 10. Behind, Reddick was up to 11th ahead of Logano, Hocevar, Cindric and Elliott while Briscoe, Noah Gragson, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace and Harrison Burton followed suit in the top 20 ahead of Suarez, Todd Gilliland, Brad Keselowski, McDowell and Stenhouse. Meanwhile, Byron was mired back in 28th behind rookie Josh Berry and Ryan Preece, Erik Jones was in 29th and Nemechek was back in 31st in front of Daniel Hemric and newcomer Derek Kraus. 

    Ten laps later, Larson, who reassumed the lead five laps earlier, had stretched his advantage to eight-tenths of a second over Hamlin while Busch, LaJoie and Truex were running in the top five. 

    Another eight laps later, a cycle of green flag pit stops slowly commenced as Wallace and Stenhouse pitted along with Blaney, Suarez, Austin Dillon, Byron, Truex, Ty Gibbs, Hamlin, Bowman, Logano, Cindric, Elliott, Kyle Busch and others. The leader Larson would then pit by Lap 120 along with LaJoie before Chastain, who led the previous lap, pitted under green. Amid the pit stops, Cindric, Hemric and Chastain were all penalized for speeding on pit road. With the green flag pit stops cycling through by Lap 122, Larson cycled back into the lead as he was leading by nearly half a second over Hamlin while Blaney, Busch and Ty Gibbs were running in the top five. 

    At the halfway mark between Laps 133 and 134, Larson extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Hamlin while third-place Busch also trailed by more than two seconds. Behind, Blaney and Ty Gibbs were running in the top five while Truex, Reddick, Logano, LaJoie and Elliott occupied the top 10 spots in front of Austin Dillon, Briscoe, Hocevar, Bell and Suarez. Meanwhile, Byron was in 17th, Nemechek was mired in 22nd, Chastain was the first competitor scored a lap down in 30th and Wallace was scored three laps down in 35th.  

    By Lap 150, Larson continued to stretch his advantage as he was leading by four seconds over Busch while Hamlin, Blaney and Ty Gibbs continued to run in the top five. Behind, Reddick retained sixth ahead of Truex, Logano, Elliott and LaJoie while Austin Dillon, Briscoe, Byron, Bell and Hocevar occupied the top 15 in front of Bowman, Suarez, Noah Gragson, Brad Keselowski and McDowell. 

    Five laps later, the caution flew after Bell, who was running 14th behind Briscoe, got loose through Turns 1 and 2 before he spun from the middle to the bottom of the track entering the backstretch. By then, Hocevar, who pitted five laps earlier due to a flat right-front tire, was mired a lap down while Derek Kraus received the free pass by being the first competitor scored a lap down ahead of Kaz Grala and Chastain. 

    During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Bowman exited first following a two-tire pit stop while teammate Larson, the first competitor with four fresh tires, followed suit along with Hamlin, Reddick, Blaney, Logano, Truex, Elliott, Austin Dillon and Byron. Amid the pit stops, Ty Gibbs was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation during a slow pit service while Brad Keselowski lost a bevy of spots after he had to reverse to leave his pit stall. In addition, Kyle Busch dropped to 18th after he endured a slow pit stop to get the right front tire tightened. 

    With the event restarting with four laps remaining to the second stage’s conclusion, the field fanned out to multiple lanes as Bowman retained a narrow advantage over teammate Larson, Hamlin, Reddick, Blaney and Truex. Larson would then overtake Bowman through the frontstretch during the following lap as Reddick tried to follow suit in his No. 45 Nasty Beast Toyota Camry XSE. With Bowman and Reddick battling for the runner-up spot, the latter would prevail during the ensuing lap as Hamlin, Blaney and Truex would overtake Bowman on four fresh tires.  

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 165, Larson fended off another late charge from Reddick to capture his second consecutive Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Reddick settled in second ahead of Hamlin, Blaney and Truex while Elliott, Austin Dillon, Bowman, Logano and Erik Jones were scored in the top 10. By then, 32 of 37 starters were scored on the lead lap. 

    During the stage break, some led by Bowman pitted while the rest led by teammate Larson remained on the track. 

    With 95 laps remaining, the final stage commenced under green as Larson and Reddick occupied the front row. At the start, Larson muscled ahead with the lead from the inside lane while Reddick, Hamlin and Truex fanned out to three lanes while battling for second place in front of another three-wide battle that involved Blaney, Elliott and Briscoe. With Reddick prevailing in the three-wide battle for second, Larson retained the lead as Blaney, Briscoe and Elliott continued to battle amid three lanes for fifth place in front of Logano and Austin Dillon. Blaney, Briscoe and Elliott continued to battle dead even amid three lanes for fifth place during the ensuing laps and in front of more on-track battles while Larson was leading by more than a second over Reddick. 

    With 80 laps remaining, Larson was leading by less than two seconds over Reddick while Hamlin, Truex and Briscoe were running in the top five ahead of Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon, Busch and Elliott. Behind, hometown hero Noah Gragson was up in 11th ahead of Logano, Hocevar, Erik Jones and LaJoie while Bowman, Byron, Chastain, Suarez and Josh Berry occupied the top 20 in front of Todd Gilliland, Harrison Burton, Stenhouse, McDowell and Nemechek. 

    Fifteen laps later, Larson continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over Reddick, who was slowly gaining ground on Larson as teammate Wallace, who was multiple laps down to have a lug nut cut loose from his entry, was helping Reddick gain ground on the leader, while Truex, Blaney and Hamlin were running in the top five. Behind, Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon, Busch and Elliott were running sixth through ninth while Hocevar carved his way into the top 10 and he was running 10th ahead of a hard-charging Byron. Meanwhile, teammates Gragson and Briscoe battled for 12th while Logano and Erik Jones occupied the top 15 ahead of Chastain, LaJoie, Suarez, Bowman and Berry. 

    With 63 laps remaining, another cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Briscoe pitted his No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse. Bowman would pit his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during the following lap as Larson retained the lead by half a second over Reddick. Ty Gibbs would then pit his No. 54 He Gets Us Toyota Camry XSE with 59 laps remaining before Logano, Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, Reddick, Blaney, Hamlin and Kyle Busch would follow suit to pit under green. The leader Larson would then pit with 56 laps remaining along with more competitors before Byron and Hocevar would pit during the following lap. Amid the pit stops, Kyle Busch was penalized for pitting outside his pit box. 

    With 52 laps remaining, Suarez, who led the previous four laps, pitted his No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 from the lead as McDowell and Kraus, both of whom have yet to pit, remained on the track. By then, Larson, who managed to blend back onto the track ahead of Reddick, was trying to close the gap from third place while Reddick and Blaney followed suit in the top five. McDowell, who would lead four laps, would then pit with 48 laps remaining and hand the lead to Kraus, who would be overtaken by Larson for the lead with 46 laps remaining as Kraus, who led his first two laps in the Cup Series, would then pit. 

    Down to the final 40 laps of the event, Larson was leading by nearly two seconds over Reddick as Blaney, Truex and Ty Gibbs trailed in the top five. Behind, Hamlin was back in sixth ahead of Logano, Bowman, Elliott and Austin Dillon while Gragson, Hocevar, Byron, Berry and Erik Jones were running in the top 15.  

    Seven laps later, the caution flew after LaJoie, who was running 18th, slid sideways in front of Keselowski as he spun his No. 7 USANA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 up towards the outside wall in between Turns 1 and 2 before he slid back down across the apron. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted. Following the pit stops, Larson retained the lead after exiting first ahead of Chastain, Reddick, Blaney, Hamlin, Logano, Elliott, Truex, Bowman and Ty Gibbs. 

    As the event restarted with 27 laps remaining, the field fanned out through the first two turns as Larson, who nearly slid up the track, was battling Chastain for the lead through the backstretch. Larson then managed to rocket ahead from the inside lane entering Turn 3 while Reddick was battling Hamlin for third place in front of Blaney and Truex. Chastain then tried to mount another fight and challenge Larson from the outside lane for the lead during the following lap as Hamlin joined the battle. Larson, however, cleared Chastain’s No. 1 Kubota Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during the proceeding lap as Reddick and Hamlin battled again for third place with nearly 25 laps remaining. 

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Larson was leading by a second over Reddick, who navigated his way past Chastain for the runner-up spot, as Blaney and Gragson were scored in the top five. Meanwhile, Hamlin slipped to seventh behind teammate Ty Gibbs while Truex, Logano and Elliott were battling in the top 10 ahead of Austin Dillon, Suarez, Keselowski, Byron and Bowman. 

    With 15 laps remaining, Larson stabilized his advantage to nearly a second over Reddick while Blaney and Chastain dueled for third place in front of Gragson and Ty Gibbs. Five laps later, however, Larson’s advantage dropped to four-tenths of a second over Reddick as the latter, who was running faster lap times, started to gain ground on the former for the lead. By then, Blaney was in third along with Chastain, both of whom were trailing the leaders by three seconds, while Ty Gibbs and Hamlin overtook Gragson for fifth and sixth. 

    With five laps remaining, Larson continued to lead by a narrow margin over Reddick as the latter continued to stalk and keep Larson within his sights around every corner and straightaway while also trying to narrow the gap. 

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson, who fended off Reddick to break his momentum during the previous lap, remained as the leader by four-tenths of a second over Reddick. With Reddick unable to regain his momentum, Larson was able to navigate his way around the Vegas circuit with the top spot and cycle back to the frontstretch to claim the checkered flag by four-tenths of a second over Reddick 

    With the victory, Larson notched his 24th career victory in the Cup Series and his third at Vegas as he also became the third different winner through the first three events of the 2024 Cup Series season. He also made Chevrolet three-for-three through the first three Cup events on the 2024 schedule and he delivered the 10th Vegas victory for Hendrick Motorsports as he ignites his early bid for his second title in NASCAR’s premier series.

    “I knew Tyler [Reddick] was gonna be the guy to beat from the first stage,” Larson, who celebrated with his kids on the frontstretch, said on FOX. “He was really fast there. I was hoping those guys were gonna get racing a little bit longer behind me because I felt like it was gonna time out to where he was running really hard and getting the toe to catch me at the end. Thankfully, [I] was able to air-block him a couple laps and get him tight. All in all, such a great job by this HendrickCars.com Chevy team. Just their execution, pit road, restarts, all that was great. Cool to get a win here at Vegas again. Back-to-back [wins], swept all the stages again. Can’t ask for much more.”

    Reddick, who finished second behind Larson during both stages and in the final running order, was left disappointed over the result and falling one spot short of capturing the first victory of the season for himself and 23XI Racing.

    “Kyle [Larson] did a really good job there of pretty much taking away every option I had to close the gap,” Reddick said. “He seemed pretty good in the middle [lane] and I was obviously really good on the bottom. He just never let me have it right, so I kept trying to run higher and higher. He was running right around the middle of the racetrack there and was pretty efficient to block both lanes. Every time I got close, we were running just wide-open enough in Turn 1 and 2 that he could defend pretty well. It’s frustrating. I feel like we were never upfront really all day long until it got to the stage’s ends. We’ll continue to work on it, but good rebound for our team today.”

    Blaney came home in third place followed by Chastain, who made the two fresh tires work to his advantage, and Ty Gibbs. Noah Gragson recorded a strong sixth-place result while Martin Truex Jr., Hamlin, Logano and Byron finished in the top 10.

    Notably, Suarez finished 11th in front of Elliott, Keselowski, Erik Jones and rookie Carson Hocevar. In addition, Kyle Busch ended up 26th, Kraus finished 28th in his Cup Series debut and LaJoie ended up 32nd.  

    There were 24 lead changes for 15 different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 35 laps. In addition, 31 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Following the third event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Kyle Larson leads the regular-season standings by eight points over Ryan Blaney, 14 over Martin Truex Jr., 15 over William Byron and 20 over Ross Chastain and 23 over both Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott. 

    Results. 

    1. Kyle Larson, 181 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    2. Tyler Reddick, one lap led

    3. Ryan Blaney 

    4. Ross Chastain, two laps led 

    5. Ty Gibbs 

    6. Noah Gragson 

    7. Martin Truex Jr., four laps led

    8. Denny Hamlin, 16 laps led

    9. Joey Logano, two laps led

    10. William Byron, 15 laps led

    11. Daniel Suarez, 15 laps led

    12. Chase Elliott 

    13. Brad Keselowski 

    14. Erik Jones 

    15. Carson Hocevar 

    16. Austin Dillon 

    17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 

    18. Alex Bowman, three laps led

    19. Daniel Hemric, one lap led

    20. Josh Berry 

    21. Chase Briscoe, one lap led

    22. John Hunter Nemechek 

    23. Ryan Preece 

    24. Todd Gilliland 

    25. Michael McDowell, four laps led 

    26. Kyle Busch, 18 laps led

    27. Justin Haley 

    28. Derek Kraus, two laps led 

    29. Austin Cindric 

    30. Harrison Burton 

    31. Kaz Grala 

    32. Corey LaJoie, one lap down 

    33. Christopher Bell, two laps down 

    34. JJ Yeley, six laps down 

    35. Bubba Wallace, 13 laps down 

    36. Zane Smith, 13 laps down 

    37. Chris Buescher – OUT, Accident, two laps led

    Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, March 10, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX. 

  • Reddick bested by Larson’s blocks in Las Vegas

    Reddick bested by Larson’s blocks in Las Vegas

    Kyle Larson dominated, Sunday, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He led 181 of the 267 laps and swept the stages. The Pennzoil 400 was his race to lose. Even with Corey LaJoie’s spin with 34 laps to go, Larson fended off Ross Chastain to pull away from the field.

    With 12 laps to go, however, Tyler Reddick ran faster laps and turned the race to the finish into a game of cat and mouse.

    “I knew I was going to have to kind of catch him off guard with a late kind of block,” Larson said.

    And he blocked multiple times.

    Reddick, who ran the bottom line to reel Larson in, ran higher and higher to close the gap. Larson responded by hogging the middle line and blocking in a way that would get him black-flagged in the NTT IndyCar Series.

    “Every time I sort of got close, I mean, we’re running just wide open enough in Turn 1 and 2, you can kind of defend pretty well,” Reddick said.

    The closing laps showcased two generational talents trying to make the other flinch. With two to go, Reddick closed the gap into Turn 1. He expected Larson to hold the middle, while he slipped by underneath.

    Larson didn’t fall for it, and Reddick’s car tightened up.

    Even with a lap and a half left, he ran out of time. Just as he did in both stages, Reddick finished runner-up to Larson.

    Both were evenly matched in the closing laps. So what more could he have done?

    “I don’t know if there was anything that I really could’ve done to get around him,” he said. “He would have had to make a big mistake or had some traffic kind of knock his wind around.”

    Nevertheless, compared to lackluster runs at both Daytona and Atlanta, his run at Las Vegas was a change of fortune that pole-vaulted him from 24th to 12th in points. Furthermore, if this was any indication, he’s a threat to win at any of the 1.5 mile tracks, this season.

    “We had a really good Nasty Beast Toyota Camry,” he said. “Just stupid mistakes on pit road. Same shit, different year, right? Kind of frustrating. We’ll continue to work on it, but a good rebound for our team today.”

  • Reddick wins first Bluegreen Vacations Duel amid last-lap pass; Johnson rallies to make Daytona 500 field

    Reddick wins first Bluegreen Vacations Duel amid last-lap pass; Johnson rallies to make Daytona 500 field

    After posting the 36th-fastest qualifying lap during Wednesday night’s single-car qualifying session for this year’s Daytona 500, Tyler Reddick responded with vengeance and in dramatic style after executing a final lap pass on Kyle Larson to storm to the victory in the first of two Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday, Feb. 15.

    The two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion from Corning, California, led only the final lap of 60 scheduled laps in an event where he rallied from starting towards the rear of the field to methodically carve his way to the front. After nearly getting in a wreck following a bump by Martin Truex Jr. during the event’s lone cycle of green flag pit stops with nearly 20 laps remaining, Reddick would draft his way from the top 10 toward the front during a six-lap shootout before overtaking Larson on the final lap to win his first Duel event at Daytona of his career.

    In the midst of Reddick’s victory, Jimmie Johnson rallied from being involved in a late multi-car wreck to overtake JJ Yeley on the final lap and claim a transfer spot into this year’s Daytona 500.

    Prior to the event, Joey Logano, the 2024 Daytona 500 pole winner, started on the pole position and was joined on the front row by Kyle Larson.

    When the green flag waved and the first Duel event commenced, Logano and Larson dueled for the lead through the first two turns and through the backstretch until Larson started to muscle ahead from the outside lane with drafting help from Austin Dillon. Then through Turns 3 and 4, Larson managed to muscle ahead and clear the field as he managed to fend off Logano to lead the first lap in his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 while Logano was locked into a side-by-side battle with Dillon amid a tight packed lane fanning out two lanes.

    During the proceeding laps, Larson continued to lead as he also remained on the outside lane while receiving drafting help from Austin Dillon while Logano remained as the first competitor leading the inside lane with drafting help from Chase Elliott. The outside lane, however, would continue to gain the advantage through the straightaways as Larson, who then transitioned from the outside to the inside lane, maintained the lead while Todd Gilliland battled Dillon for the runner-up spot. In addition, Chris Buescher was in fourth while Logano was mired in fifth as he was battling Daniel Suarez, Erik Jones and Elliott, with the field battling amid two tight-packed lanes.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Erik Jones was the leader ahead of Daniel Suarez, who overtook Larson for the lead during the previous lap. With Jones and Suarez dueling for the lead amid two tight-packed lanes, Jones had Martin Truex Jr. drafting him on the outside lane while Suarez had Larson drafting him on the inside lane.

    At the Lap 10 mark, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. made his way into the lead by 0.069 seconds over Jones while Truex, Corey LaJoie, Suarez, Jimmie Johnson, Larson, Ty Gibbs, Gilliland and Alex Bowman were running in the top 10. By then, Logano had fallen back to 15th while JJ Yeley, who was battling Johnson for a transfer spot into this year’s Daytona 500, was mired back in 17th. In addition, Anthony Alfredo, who guaranteed himself a starting spot for the Daytona 500 based on his qualifying speed from Wednesday night’s single-car qualifying session, dropped back to 21st place, dead last, to preserve his primary car for the main event.

    Not long after, a side-by-side battle for the lead ignited between Stenhouse and LaJoie as Stenhouse had Jones’ No. 43 AdventHealth Toyota Camry XSE drafting him for the lead on the inside lane while LaJoie had drafting help from Johnson’s No. 84 Carvana Toyota Camry XSE on the inside lane. Stenhouse, however, would receive another strong shove from Jones through the backstretch to muscle away from LaJoie and clear the field to gain sole possession of the lead ahead of the pack nearing the Lap 15 mark.

    A few laps later, the top three competitors led by Stenhouse and including Jones and Truex cleared the field while the rest of the field led by a side-by-side battle between Suarez and Johnson were stacked in two tight-packed lanes.

    By Lap 20, Stenhouse maintained the lead ahead of Jones, Truex and Suarez while Johnson tried to ignite another run to the front from the outside lane. Meanwhile and as the field slowly started to fan out to three lanes, LaJoie, who was battling towards the front, was drifting to the back of the field after he was placed in the middle of a three-wide battle and lost the draft.

    Six laps later and with the field returning to running in two tight-packed lanes, Truex gained a huge run through the backstretch to draft his way into the lead from the outside lane followed by Larson and Johnson while Stenhouse, who transitioned from the outside to inside lane to keep Erik Jones drafting him, fell back to within the top five. Two laps later, however, Stenhouse fought his way back from the inside lane as he drew Truex into a side-by-side battle exiting the frontstretch and through the backstretch.

    At the halfway mark on Lap 30, Truex was drafted into the lead from Larson ahead of Stenhouse while Johnson, Jones, Ty Gibbs, Suarez, Tyler Reddick, Bowman and Chastain were battling in the top 10. By then, Johnson was in a transfer spot ahead of JJ Yeley, who was mired back in 14th, while Logano was scored in 18th behind Austin Dillon and rookie Carson Hocevar.

    With 25 laps remaining, Truex was leading from the outside lane in his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE as he had Larson drafting him along with Johnson while Stenhouse remained on the inside as he had Jones drafting him while he continued to keep Truex within his sights. By then, Alfredo, who pitted under green, was penalized for speeding on pit road, which dropped him out of the lead lap category.

    Then with 21 laps remaining, pit stops under the green flag commenced as the Toyota competitors Johnson, Reddick, Jones and Ty Gibbs pitted. Prior to the pit stops, Truex bumped and nearly sent Reddick sideways into Ty Gibbs as Reddick was trying to make the turn to pit road while Austin Dillon nearly got turned in the middle of the pack as he barely squeezed Gilliland up against the outside wall. The following lap and with the field dispersed, Austin Dillon and Stenhouse pitted under green while Larson was leading ahead of Chastain, Suarez, Bowman and Elliott.

    Then with 17 laps remaining, a majority of the field, led by Larson, pitted under green as Todd Gilliland assumed the lead. During the pit stops, Chastain was penalized for speeding on pit road and was forced to make another trip to pit road to serve a pass-through penalty. Shortly after, the following names that include Gilliland, Logano, Ryan Preece and Buescher pitted under green.

    Following the pit stops, Larson rocketed his way back into the lead followed by Chevrolet teammates Suarez, Elliott and Bowman while Logano, who tried to blend in front of the Chevrolet competitors, fell back to fifth. Amid the completion of pit stops, Johnson continued to run in a transfer spot within the top 10 with less than 15 laps remaining in the event.

    Then with 10 laps remaining, the first Duel’s first caution flew after Daniel Hemric, who briefly stepped off the gas as the field briefly checked up in front of him while fanned out to nearly four lanes, was bumped by Stenhouse, which sent Hemric’s No. 31 Cirkul Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 sideways and head-on into the outside wall in Turn 3. Amid Hemric’s wreck, Stenhouse, Austin Dillon and Johnson made contact that sent all three spinning below the apron. Amid the incident, Hemric retired while Stenhouse, Dillon and Johnson continued, with the latter now locked in a tight battle with Yeley to claim a transfer spot for Sunday’s Daytona 500.

    With the race restarting with six laps remaining, Larson and Suarez dueled for the lead ahead of Elliott and Ty Gibbs while Johnson, who pitted during the caution period, was trying to regain speed to keep pace with Yeley towards the rear of the field. As the field continued to jostle and battle amid two stacked lanes from the backstretch and through the frontstretch, Larson and Suarez remained dead even for the lead followed by Ty Gibbs, Elliott, Hocevar and Logano as the event reached its final five-lap mark remaining.

    As the laps continued to dwindle, Larson and Suarez remained dead even of one another for the race lead ahead of the pack while Johnson was trying to keep pace and remain ahead of Yeley towards the rear of the field, but with a starting spot for the Daytona 500 up for grabs.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson was scored the lead as he started to muscle ahead of teammate Elliott, Suarez and the field through the frontstretch. Entering Turns 1 and 2, Elliott transitioned from the outside to the inside lane as he was drafted into a brief lead by Hocevar before Larson fought back with drafting help from Reddick. Then through the backstretch, Reddick seized an opportunity by veering to the left and making his move beneath Larson for the lead, which he executed as Larson got loose off the front nose of teammate Bowman and lost the draft.

    With Larson losing ground as the field fanned out entering the frontstretch, Reddick was able to muscle his No. 45 Nasty Beast Toyota Camry XSE away from the field and beat a hard-charging Elliott by 0.056 seconds to win the first Duel event.

    With the victory, Reddick, whose previous best Duel result was eighth, was awarded a handful of championship points and the third-place starting spot for this year’s 66th running of the Daytona 500 that is set to occur this upcoming Sunday, February 18. Reddick also became the first Toyota competitor to win a Daytona Duel event since his owner Denny Hamlin made the last accomplishment in 2017 as he also recorded the first Duel victory for 23XI Racing. The 2024 Cup Series season is set to mark Reddick’s fifth full-time campaign in NASCAR’s premier series and sixth consecutive attempt to win his first Great American Race.

    Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “It’s a great way to start off the weekend,” Reddick said on FS1. “Man, this [car] is a beast. It’s a great way to kick off a brand-new product. Go out and get some Hard Tea, have a good time tonight. I know we are.”

    Chase Elliott settled in second place followed by teammate Bowman, Hocevar and Erik Jones while Suarez, Logano, Ty Gibbs, Larson and Chris Buescher finished in the top 10 on the track.

    Meanwhile, Jimmie Johnson was also left smiling after rallying from his late incident to race his way into the Daytona 500 after overtaking JJ Yeley entering the frontstretch and crossing the finish line in 12th place while Yeley ended up in 16th place, which left him and NY Racing out of this year’s Daytona 500 field.

    With his accomplishment, Johnson will make his 21st career start in the Great American Race at Daytona, his second in a row as a driver/co-owner of Legacy Motor Club and his first piloting a Toyota Camry XSE stock car. He will also pursue a third Daytona 500 victory.

    Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “I’ve never been in a position like this before and I have such a greater appreciation for everyone before me that’s tried to race their way in,” Johnson said. “It’s very stressful. I’m very thankful we got this Carvana Toyota into the race. I knew the first half of the race was going too easy. I knew there’d be a challenge thrown at us and we got it just in time. Hats off to JJ Yeley. He put up a heck of a fight in a very competitive car. We were just in the right spot at the right time when the checkered [flag] fell.”

    There were 15 lead changes for nine different leaders. The event featured one caution for four laps.

    Results.

    1. Tyler Reddick, one lap led

    2. Chase Elliott

    3. Alex Bowman

    4. Carson Hocevar

    5. Erik Jones, five laps led

    6. Daniel Suarez, two laps led

    7. Joey Logano, one lap led

    8. Ty Gibbs

    9. Kyle Larson, 20 laps led

    10. Chris Buescher

    11. Ross Chastain

    12. Jimmie Johnson

    13. Ryan Preece

    14. Martin Truex Jr., 14 laps led

    15. Corey LaJoie

    16. JJ Yeley

    17. Todd Gilliland, one lap led

    18. Austin Dillon

    19. Anthony Alfredo, one lap down

    20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, DVP, 15 laps led

    21. Daniel Hemric – OUT, Accident

    The second Bluegreen Vacations Duel at Daytona International Speedway is underway and will complete the starting lineup for the 66th running of the Daytona 500 scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 18, at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

  • Hamlin reigns supreme with fourth Busch Light Clash victory, first at The Coliseum

    Hamlin reigns supreme with fourth Busch Light Clash victory, first at The Coliseum

    Amid an off-season surgery that nearly placed his availability status for NASCAR’s exhibition event at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in question, Denny Hamlin responded with resurgence and early momentum after surviving a war of attrition evening to win the third annual Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday, February 3.

    The three-time Daytona 500 champion from Chesterfield, Virginia, led twice for 58 of 151 laps in an event where he claimed the pole position for The Clash based on setting the fastest lap during the event’s practice session that set the starting lineup. The event was bumped a day early from its original starting time on Sunday amid threat concerns of rain and flash flooding.

    Despite losing the lead to Joey Logano early, Hamlin regained the lead on the third lap and led through Lap 49 until he was overtaken by teammate Ty Gibbs. Amid a series of bumps and on-track chaos ensuing throughout the event, Hamlin would then capitalize on a 10-lap restart to overtake Gibbs and Logano for the lead. He retained the lead to fend off Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney during a two-lap shootout to achieve his fourth career victory at The Clash.

    The eligibility for the event included all NASCAR Cup Series chartered and non-chartered team competitors. The lineup for The Clash was initially set to be determined through each competitor’s fastest lap time from their final practice session that was originally scheduled to occur on Saturday. This would then be followed by four heat events and a Last Chance Qualifier Race between Saturday and Sunday that would feature 36 participants battling for 23 entrance spots.

    With the exhibition event being rescheduled to occur on Saturday night instead of Sunday due to the threat of rain and flooding on Sunday within the Southern California region, the starting lineup was instead determined through the event’s practice sessions separated into three groups, including the final session being a qualifying session, where the first 22 starting spots were determined based on practice speeds while the 23rd and final provisional spot was left for the top finisher in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series standings who has not qualified for the event.

    At the conclusion of the practice sessions that included qualifying, Denny Hamlin secured the pole position for the main event after posting a pole-winning speed at 68.498 mph in 13.139 seconds during his practice session. Joey Logano joined Hamlin on the front row after he posted the second-fastest speed at 67.925 mph in 13.25 seconds while Ty Gibbs, Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, William Byron, Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace and Justin Haley started in the top 10. The following names that included Tyler Reddick, Ryan Preece, Brad Keselowski, Chase Elliott, Todd Gilliland, Michael McDowell, Noah Gragson, Corey LaJoie, Martin Truex Jr., Ricky Stenhouse Jr., John Hunter Nemechek and Chase Briscoe started 11th through 22nd, respectively, while Ryan Blaney was awarded the provisional, 23rd and final, starting spot into the main event based on being last year’s Cup Series champion.

    The following names that include Josh Williams, Carson Hocevar, Josh Berry, Daniel Suarez, Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, Chris Buescher, Austin Cindric, Daniel Hemric, Christopher Bell, Kaz Grala, Harrison Burton and Zane Smith did not qualify for the main event.

    When the main event commenced under green, Hamlin and Logano dueled for the lead amid two tight-packed lanes entering Turn 1 until Logano used the outside lane to rocket his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead of Hamlin through Turn 2. Despite Hamlin’s efforts in side-drafting and making contact with Logano to stall his momentum, Logano managed to withstand his ground as he proceeded to lead the first lap. With Logano leading Hamlin, Ty Gibbs and Alex Bowman battled for third place before William Byron joined the battle along with Kyle Busch.

    Two laps later, Hamlin prevailed in his early battle and on-track skirmish with Logano to lead for the first time in his No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota Camry XSE, where he moved in front of Logano in Turn 3, as Ty Gibbs would assume the runner-up spot over Logano during the following lap. Gibbs would then find himself locked in a tight situation of fending off Logano, Byron and a bevy of competitors for the runner-up spot while teammate Hamlin retained the lead by the fifth lap mark.

    Through the first 10 laps of the event, Hamlin was leading by six-tenths of a second over teammate Ty Gibbs followed by Logano, Byron and Kyle Busch while Alex Bowman, Ryan Preece, Kyle Larson, Justin Haley and Ross Chastain were scored in the top 10. Behind, Bubba Wallace occupied 11th place in front of Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick, Martin Truex Jr. and Michael McDowell while Noah Gragson, Corey LaJoie, Todd Gilliland, Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. John Hunter Nemechek and Ryan Blaney rounded out the 23-car field.

    Ten laps later, Hamlin extended his advantage to nearly a second over teammate Gibbs while Logano, Byron and Busch occupied the top five in front of Bowman, Preece, Larson, Haley and Chastain. Meanwhile, Blaney, mired in 22nd place, was trying to carve his way up the leaderboard to avoid being pinned a lap down.

    Another 10 laps later, Hamlin lapped last-place Noah Gragson, all while having his advantage shrink to within four-tenths of a second over teammate Gibbs and nearly a second over third-place Logano. In the process, Byron and Busch remained in the top five ahead of Bowman, Larson, Preece, Haley and Wallace.

    At the Lap 50 mark and with the leaders mired in tight lapped traffic, the battle for the lead re-ignited as Gibbs used the lapped competitors of Gragson to move into the lead. Behind, Logano challenged Hamlin for the runner-up spot while Busch and Byron remained within close distance.

    Just past the Lap 60 mark, Gibbs stretched his advantage to more than two seconds over Logano while Busch, Larson and Byron moved into the top five. Meanwhile, Hamlin fell back to seventh behind Bowman while Haley, Wallace and Chase Elliott were mired in the top 10.

    Then 10 laps later, the first caution of the event flew after Todd Gilliland spun sideways into the Turn 1 outside wall as he became the first retiree of the event.

    With the event restarting on Lap 71, where Gibbs and Logano occupied the front row, Logano and Gibbs dueled for the lead through Turn 1 until Gibbs bounced off of Logano and nearly got loose, which allowed Busch to place Gibbs and Logano in a tight three-wide battle for the lead until the latter muscled ahead from the outside lane in Turn 2. Logano would retain the lead through Turns 3 and 4 over Busch while Gibbs fell back to third in front of Larson and Byron. During the following lap, Hamlin would overtake Bowman for sixth place while Wallace tried to follow suit.

    Then on Lap 74 and just as Logano was within reach of reaching the halfway segment under green flag conditions, the caution returned after John Hunter Nemechek was sent for a spin in between Turns 3 and 4 after Corey LaJoie threw a divebomb move beneath Nemechek entering Turn 3 that sent the latter into a spin.

    During a one-lap shootout to the halfway mark, Logano and Busch dueled for the lead through the first turn until Logano managed to pull ahead with the lead through Turn 2. Shortly after, Larson and Gibbs placed Busch in a tight three-wide battle for the runner-up spot through Turn 2, which resulted in Larson assuming the runner-up spot as Gibbs and Busch nearly got sideways amid light contact, which allowed Byron to join the battle while Logano retained the lead. As the field returned to the start/finish line to reach the halfway mark on Lap 75, the event was placed in a brief intermission period. By then, Logano was scored the leader followed by Larson, Gibbs, Byron and Busch while Hamlin, Wallace, Bowman, Reddick and Chastain were scored in the top 10.

    At the conclusion of the intermission period, the event restarted under green on Lap 76. At the start, Logano retained the lead over Larson, Busch and Ty Gibbs until Larson made his move on the inside lane as he challenged Logano for the top spot during the following lap. The caution, however, would return on Lap 77 after Bowman bumped Reddick into Wallace entering Turn 3 as Wallace spun his No. 23 Columbia Toyota Camry XSE in between Turns 3 and 4. Amid the incident, Elliott took his car to the Coliseum’s infield area due to a mechanical issue to his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

    When the race restarted on Lap 78, Logano and Gibbs dueled for the lead again while Reddick, who restarted in the top 10, made a bold three-wide move on the inside lane to move his No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota Camry XSE up within the top five just before entering Turn 1. Amid more bumps and side-by-side action within the field, the caution quickly returned after McDowell and Stenhouse bumped against one another and proceeded to send Chastain for a spin in Turn 1 while LaJoie slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting Chastain’s No. 1 Busch Light Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. The incident resulted in McDowell and Stenhouse rubbing fenders under a cautious pace to express their displeasure towards one another. Meanwhile, Reddick, who made the three-wide move during the restart, was assessed a restart violation and sent to the rear of the field for pulling out of line before reaching the start/finish line.

    During another Lap 78 restart, Gibbs muscled ahead of Logano and cleared the field through Turns 1 and 2. Entering Turn 3 and as Gibbs retained the lead, Larson bumped and sent Hamlin up the track and almost into the path of Byron, which enabled Larson to move into third place followed by Truex while Hamlin was left battling and bumping Busch for fifth place. Four laps later, Larson engaged in repetitive bumps into Logano’s rear bumper for the runner-up spot while Truex maintained his distance in fourth place. Amid the battles, Gibbs stretched his advantage to more than two seconds.

    By Lap 90, Gibbs was leading in his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE by more than two seconds over Logano, who was continuing to fend off Larson for the runner-up spot as Truex, Busch, Hamlin, Preece, Byron, Bowman and Blaney followed suit in a tight single-file line in the top 10.

    At the Lap 100 mark, Ty Gibbs continued to lead by more than two seconds over Logano while Larson, Truex, Busch, Hamlin, Preece, Byron, Blaney and Bowman continued to run in the top 10. Behind, Wallace occupied 11th place in front of Chastain, Bowman, Haley and Keselowski while Stenhouse, Reddick, McDowell, Nemechek, LaJoie and Gragson occupied the remaining top-21 spots on the track.

    With 35 laps remaining, Ty Gibbs retained the lead by within two seconds over Logano. By then, Busch was up in third place in his No. 8 Morgan & Morgan Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 followed by Hamlin and Truex while Blaney continued his late march to the front in sixth place. Meanwhile, Larson dropped to seventh ahead of teammate Byron, Briscoe and Wallace while Preece was down in 11th ahead of Chastain, Bowman, Haley and Keselowski.

    Down to the final 25 laps of the event and as the leaders were navigating through lapped traffic, Gibbs continued to lead despite having his advantage decreased to a second over a hard-charging Logano. Behind, Hamlin trailed in third place by two seconds while Busch and Truex followed suit in the top five. Gibbs would continue to lead Logano by more than a second with 20 laps remaining, all while trying to bump and place Chastain a lap down.

    With 14 laps remaining, Haley, who was having a steady run within the top 15, fell off the pace due to a mechanical issue to his No. 51 Walmart Ford Mustang Dark Horse. Amid the issue, he managed to coast his entry into the infield without drawing a caution. Amid Haley’s late issues, Gibbs retained the lead by a second over Logano.

    Then with 10 laps remaining, the caution flew after McDowell, who was battling Chastain for 13th place, made contact with Chastain through Turn 2, which resulted in the latter sending the former sideways as he spun his No. 34 Margaritaville at Sea Ford Mustang Dark Horse backward towards the outside wall in Turn 3.

    As the event restarted with 10 laps remaining, Gibbs and Logano briefly dueled for the lead through Turn 1 until Gibbs slipped and moved Logano up the track, which resulted with Logano getting sideways and losing his momentum as Hamlin issued his challenge for the lead beneath teammate Gibbs through Turn 2. Then in Turn 3, Hamlin moved into the lead over teammate Gibbs as Busch joined the battle and tried to shove Gibbs up the track in Turn 1 while Hamlin locked up his front tires. Hamlin, though, maintained his ground through Turn 2 over teammate Gibbs and Busch while Logano was mired back in sixth behind teammate Blaney and Larson.

    With seven laps remaining, Hamlin went wide entering Turn 1, which allowed teammate Gibbs to draw even with Hamlin entering Turn 2 until Hamlin quickly rocketed back ahead with the lead. Hamlin would continue to retain the lead by a tight margin over teammate Gibbs, Busch and Blaney with five laps remaining despite getting constantly bumped by Gibbs through the turns.

    With four laps remaining, however, Gibbs overshot Turn 1, which allowed Busch to draw even with Gibbs entering Turn 2. As Busch and Gibbs made contact entering Turn 3, Blaney tried to shove his way in between both, but Busch assumed the runner-up spot during the following lap. Blaney would follow suit into third place followed by Logano as Gibbs fell back to fifth. Then just as Hamlin was about to start the final lap of the event, the caution flew after Gibbs was bumped and sent for a spin off the front nose of Larson in Turn 3 as he plummeted below the leaderboard.

    With the field restarting under green for a two-lap shootout to conclude the event, where Hamlin and Blaney occupied the front row, Hamlin launched ahead from the inside lane as he fended off both Blaney and Busch through Turns 1 and 2. Despite locking up his tires entering Turn 3, which allowed Busch to try and get to Hamlin’s rear bumper, Hamlin maintained the top spot as he started the final lap of the event.

    During the final lap, Hamlin again locked up his front tires entering Turn 1, which nearly provided another opportunity for Busch to use the bumper. Hamlin, though, managed to pull away from the field through Turn 2. With Hamlin placing a reasonable gap between himself and Busch with the lead through Turn 3, he was able to smoothly navigate his way to the fourth turn and streak across the finish line to claim the first checkered flag of the 2024 Cup Series season.

    With the victory, Hamlin notched his fourth career victory in The Clash, which makes him the second-winningest competitor in The Clash behind Dale Earnhardt, who has six Clash victories, and his first in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. He also recorded the first NASCAR victory for the new Toyota Camry XSE Cup Series’ stock car as the nameplate racked up its eighth victory in The Clash. The 2024 Clash victory was also the fourth in five years and the 12th overall for Joe Gibbs Racing.

    “A lot of it was just what happened in front of me, with [Gibbs] and [Logano], and you just never know what was going to happen there, but I got a really good run off of Turn 2 and just got position and was able to hang on from there,” Hamlin said on FS1. “It’s so chaotic, the restarts, with everyone just bumping and banging, but it feels great to win here at [Los Angeles]. [The win]’s just a great momentum boost. It doesn’t do much more than that, but I’ve cleaned off all the trophies every January 1st into the entryway of the house and now, we get to add one pretty quick. Really happy about that.”

    Meanwhile, Kyle Busch, a two-time winner of The Clash, settled in the runner-up spot for the second time in three years while Ryan Blaney, the reigning Cup Series champion, navigated his way from the rear of the field to settle in third place. Amid the disappointment of ending up in second place in The Clash, Busch remained optimistic ahead of the 2024 season.

    “[The runner-up finish] definitely does sting,” Busch said. “I felt like the first half [of the race], we were better. [I] Had a better car than [Hamlin], but some of the adjustments we made weren’t as good, some of the adjustments they made were better. All in all, just glad to have a good night. Glad to come out of here in one piece, even with all the bumping and banging and everything else that happens. We’ll try to figure out rest of the year.”

    Logano, who led eight laps, came home in fourth place followed by Larson while Bowman, Briscoe, Brad Keselowski, Truex and Byron finished in the top 10. Notably, Ty Gibbs, who led a race-high 84 laps, ended up in 18th place, the final competitor on the lead lap.

    There were seven lead changes for four different leaders. The race featured a total of seven cautions.

    Results.

    1. Denny Hamlin, 58 laps led

    2. Kyle Busch

    3. Ryan Blaney

    4. Joey Logano, eight laps led

    5. Kyle Larson

    6. Alex Bowman

    7. Chase Briscoe

    8. Brad Keselowski, one lap led

    9. Martin Truex Jr.

    10. William Byron

    11. Ryan Preece

    12. Bubba Wallace

    13. John Hunter Nemechek

    14. Tyler Reddick

    15. Ross Chastain

    16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    17. Corey LaJoie

    18. Ty Gibs, 84 laps led

    19. Michael McDowell, one lap down

    20. Noah Gragson, three laps down

    21. Justin Haley – OUT, Engine

    22. Chase Elliott – OUT, Steering

    23. Todd Gilliland – OUT, Brakes

    The NASCAR Cup Series teams and competitors will be taking a one-week break before returning to action at Daytona International Speedway in preparation for the 66th running of the Daytona 500. Qualifying that will determine the front row for the main event will occur on February 14 and air at 8:15 p.m. ET on FS1 while the rest of the lineup will be determined through the Bluegreen Vacation Duels on February 15, beginning at 7 p.m. ET on FS1. The Daytona 500, which will officially launch NASCAR’s 76th season of competition, is scheduled to commence on February 18 with the event’s coverage to occur at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

  • Blaney achieves first Championship 4 berth with dominant Cup victory at Martinsville; Byron rounds out Championship 4 field

    Blaney achieves first Championship 4 berth with dominant Cup victory at Martinsville; Byron rounds out Championship 4 field

    For the first time in his career, Ryan Blaney earned a spot into the Championship 4 round after capping off a dominant performance by winning the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, October 29.

    The third-generation racer from High Point, North Carolina, led four times for 145 of 500 scheduled laps in an event where he started 11th and methodically worked his way to the front in the early stages. After finishing in the runner-up spot behind Playoff rival Denny Hamlin during the first stage’s conclusion, Blaney made his presence at the front known as he led for the first time on Lap 194. After swapping and bumping with Hamlin for the lead on several occasions, Blaney took care of business by winning the second stage period and claiming more valuable stage points.

    Then after pitting during a late caution period with less than 178 laps remaining, Blaney, who restarted outside the top 10 with 168 laps remaining, spent the remainder of the event carving his way back to the front. After reassuming the lead from Aric Almirola with 22 laps remaining, Blaney was able to navigate his way through lapped traffic and beat Almirola by nearly nine-tenths of a second to grab his third checkered flag of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season and clinch a Championship 4 berth, where he will be one of four competitors who will contend for this year’s championship in next weekend’s season-finale event at Phoenix Raceway.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, October 28, Playoff contender Martin Truex Jr. notched his third Cup pole position of the 2023 season and the 23rd of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 94.153 mph in 20.112 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate and rookie Ty Gibbs, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 94.115 mph in 20.120 seconds.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Truex launched his No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota TRD Camry ahead from the outside lane as he jumped to an early lead through Turns 1 and 2 while teammate and Playoff rival Denny Hamlin battled Ty Gibbs for the runner-up spot. Amid the early battles ensuing behind, Truex proceeded to lead the first lap as Hamlin and Gibbs continued to battle for the runner-up spot in front of Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace.

    By the third lap, Hamlin managed to move his No. 11 FedEx Toyota TRD Camry in front of Ty Gibbs’ No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry and assume the runner-up spot to his sole possession. Behind, Playoff contender Kyle Larson cracked the top five as he moved into fifth place followed by Kevin Harvick while Truex stretched his advantage to more than a second by the fifth lap mark.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Truex was leading by a second over teammate Hamlin followed by teammate Ty Gibbs, Briscoe and Larson while Harvick, Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney and Ryan Preece were running in the top 10. Behind, Playoff contender William Byron was in 13th while Playoff contenders Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher were mired in 18th and 19th, respectively.

    Fifteen laps later, Truex stabilized his advantage to nearly a second over teammate Hamlin while teammate Ty Gibbs retained third in front of Briscoe and Harvick. Behind, Playoff contenders Bell, Larson and Blaney trailed in sixth through eighth while Preece and Wallace occupied the remaining top-10 spots. Behind, Chase Elliott was in 11th ahead of Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Byron and Aric Almirola while Ross Chastain, Todd Gilliland, Reddick, Buescher and Austin Cindric were scored in the top 20 in front of Michael McDowell, Harrison Burton, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Alex Bowman and Austin Dillon.

    Another 15 laps later, Truex, mired within lapped traffic, was leading by half a second over teammate Hamlin while third-place and teammate Ty Gibbs trailed by more than a second. With Briscoe and Harvick continuing to run in the top five, Playoff contenders Bell, Larson and Blaney remained in sixth through eighth while Byron was mired back in 14th. In addition, Reddick and Buescher continued to run 18th and 19th, respectively.

    At the Lap 50 mark, Hamlin, who overtook Truex for the race lead two laps earlier, was leading by two-tenths of a second over teammate Truex. Behind, Ty Gibbs retained third place ahead of Briscoe and Harvick while Bell, Blaney, Larson, Preece and Wallace continued to run in the top 10. By then, Byron, Reddick and Buescher retained 14th, 18th and 19th, respectively, while Elliott, Keselowski and Logano were running 11th through 13th. In addition, the following names that included Almirola, Chastain, Gilliland and Cindric continued to run within the top 20.

    Twenty-five laps later, Hamlin continued to lead by half a second over teammate Truex and by eight-tenths of a second over teammate Ty Gibbs while Briscoe and Harvick remained in the top five. With Playoff contenders Bell, Blaney and Larson continued to run sixth through eighth, Playoff contenders Byron, Reddick and Buescher retained 14th, 18th and 19th, respectively while Preece and Wallace continued to run in the top 10 on the track.

    At the Lap 100 mark, Hamlin extended his advantage to more than a second over teammate Truex as teammate Ty Gibbs, Briscoe and Harvick remained in the top five. Behind, Playoff contenders Blaney, Bell and Larson along with Preece and Wallace continued to run in the top 10 as Byron was in 15th behind Elliott, Keselowski, Logano and Almirola. In addition, Reddick was in 17th and Buescher was in 19th in front of Cindric.

    Three laps later, the first caution of the event flew when Harrison Burton, who was bumped and overtaken by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for 22nd place in Turn 3, was getting bumped by Alex Bowman in Turn 1, which ignited a brief stack-up as Burton then turned back into Bowman and got Bowman loose before he got bumped by Austin Dillon as Dillon turned Burton into Bowman’s No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, with the latter two spinning and Bowman getting hit by Corey LaJoie as the field scattered to avoid the carnage in the backstretch. The incident occurred just in front of Hamlin, who was in the process of lapping the competitors.

    During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Hamlin peeled off the track and onto pit road for service for the first time. Following the pit stops, Hamlin retained the lead after exiting pit road first ahead of teammate, Truex, Briscoe, Blaney, Bell, Keselowski and Harvick.

    When the race restarted on Lap 111, Hamlin retained the lead following a strong start on the outside lane while Blaney challenged and overtook Truex for the runner-up spot. As the field jostled for spots amid two stacked lanes, Hamlin continued to lead over Blaney and Truex while Briscoe, Keselowski, Bell and Ty Gibbs battled for fourth place in front of Preece, Logano, Larson, Harvick, Elliott and Byron, with the event surpassing the Lap 115 mark.

    By the Lap 120 mark, the battle for the lead slowly brewed between Hamlin and Blaney, with the latter keeping the former close within his front windshield and by nearly half a second as third-place Truex trailed by more than a second. Behind, Briscoe and Keselowski continued to run in the top five in front of Bell, Ty Gibbs, Preece, Logano and Harvick.

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 130, Hamlin, who came into the event 17 points below the top-four cutline to make this year’s Championship 4 field, captured his eighth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Blaney settled in second followed by Truex, Briscoe and Keselowski while Bell, Ty Gibbs, Preece, Logano and Harvick were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Larson, Byron, Buescher and Reddick were mired in 11th, 12th, 17th and 19th, respectively, and without the first wave of stage points.

    Under the stage break, some led by Keselowski and including Playoff contenders Larson, Byron, Buescher and Reddick pitted while the rest led by Hamlin remained on the track.

    The second stage period started on Lap 140 as Hamlin and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Hamlin gained another strong start, this time on the inside lane, as he retained the lead while Blaney fended off Truex to retain the runner-up spot. Behind, Briscoe and Ty Gibbs battled for fourth place in front of Bell, Logano and Preece while Elliott and Harvick trailed in the top 10. Further back in the pack, Larson was in 15th, Byron was mired in 18th behind Buescher and Reddick was down in 21st.

    Just past the Lap 150 mark, Hamlin was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Blaney while third-place Truex trailed by nearly two seconds. Behind, Bell was in sixth while Buescher, Larson and Reddick were mired within the top 20. Meanwhile, Byron had dropped to 21st. Byron would remain in 21st place behind McDowell and Reddick, who nearly spun a few laps earlier while dealing with water pressure issues to his No. 45 The Beast Unleashed Toyota TRD Camry, would drop to 24th place by the Lap 160 mark as Hamlin retained the lead by eight-tenths of a second over Blaney and nearly two seconds over Truex. By then, Bell retained sixth place, Buescher was in 15th place amid a battle with Wallace and Larson was down in 18th place behind Daniel Suarez.

    By Lap 175, Hamlin retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over Blaney while Truex was trailing by more than a second in third place. Behind, Ty Gibbs and Briscoe were in the top five ahead of Bell, Preece, Logano, Harvick and Keselowski while Buescher and Larson were scored in 15th and 18th, respectively. Meanwhile, Byron remained in 21st place while Reddick, who was rubbing fenders and bumpers with Erik Jones earlier, was down in 25th place.

    At the Lap 200 mark, Blaney, who overtook Hamlin for the lead six laps earlier, was leading in his No. 12 Discount Tire Ford Mustang by a second over Hamlin followed by Truex, Ty Gibbs and Briscoe while Bell, Preece, Logano, Harvick and Keselowski were scored in the top 10. Behind, Elliott, Almirola, Gilliand, Cindric and Buescher were running in the top 15 while Suarez, Wallace, Larson, Chastain and McDowell were running in the top 20 ahead of Austin Dillon, Byron, Erik Jones, LaJoie and Reddick.

    Fourteen laps later, the caution flew after Ryan Newman spun after he was hit by Playoff contender Bell in Turn 4. The caution flew moments after Blaney rubbed and lapped Playoff contender Reddick, with Reddick receiving the free pass to cycle back on the lead lap. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Blaney pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin cycled back into the lead after exiting pit road first ahead of teammate Truex, Blaney, Briscoe, Todd Gilliland, Logano, Ty Gibbs and Harvick. Amid the pit stops, however, Truex was sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road. Austin Dillon was also sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.

    When the race restarted under green on Lap 225, Hamlin fended off Blaney to retain the lead by a narrow margin and both would make slight contact during the following lap as Blaney tried to take the lead from the inside lane. Blaney would lead the Lap 227 mark before Hamlin pulled a crossover move and fought back on the inside lane, with both refusing to give an inch. As Hamlin and Blaney continued to rub fenders and fight for the lead, Briscoe trailed in third while Logano and Keselowski were mired in the top five ahead of Gilliland, Ty Gibbs, Preece, Harvick and Bell. Then just past the Lap 230 mark, Blaney would muscle ahead of Hamlin to regain the lead and have both lanes to his control.

    Just past the Lap 240 mark, Blaney was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Hamlin while Briscoe, Logano and Keselowski remained in the top five. Behind, Bell was in 10th, Buescher was in 14th and Larson was scored in 17th. Meanwhile, Truex was mired in 22nd behind Playoff rivals Byron and Reddick as Blaney retained the lead by six-tenths of a second over Hamlin at the halfway mark on Lap 250.

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 260, Blaney, who came into the event 10 points above the top-four cutline, captured his sixth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Hamlin settled in second followed by Briscoe, Logano and Keselowski while Ty Gibbs, Preece, Gilliland, Harvick and Bell were scored in the top 10. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Buescher, Larson, Byron, Reddick and Truex were mired in 14th, 17th, 20th, 21st and 22nd, respectively.

    During the stage break, some led by Briscoe and including Playoff contenders Truex, Byron, Bell, Buescher and Reddick pitted while the rest led by Blaney and Hamlin remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Truex’s car fell off the jack, which cost him time.

    With 230 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Blaney and Hamlin occupied the front row. At the start, Blaney retained the lead over Hamlin through the first two turns and the backstretch before he almost got turned by Hamlin exiting the backstretch. Amid the contact, Blaney and Hamlin continued to bump and jostle for the lead in front of Logano and Ty Gibbs, with Blaney managing to retain the lead. Then two laps later, the caution returned after Logano bumped and sent third-place Gibbs spinning in Turn 3 before Gibbs was hit hard by Suarez and Keselowski, with a stack-up that collected McDowell, Gilliland, Chastain, Cindric, LaJoie, Truex and Erik Jones.

    As the race restarted under green with 216 laps remaining, Blaney and Hamlin dueled for the lead for a full lap and they continued to battle dead even for another lap until Blaney cleared Hamlin for the lead with 214 laps remaining. As Blaney retained the lead over Hamlin, Wallace moved into third place followed by Logano and Cindric while Reddick was in sixth ahead of Larson, Preece, Almirola and Bell as Harvick tried to overtake Bell for 10th place. By then, Buescher was in 12th while Byron and Truex battled for 16th.

    With 200 laps remaining, Playoff contender Blaney was leading by more than a second over Hamlin while Wallace, Logano and Cindric were running in the top five. Behind, Playoff contender Reddick was in sixth ahead of Playoff rivals Bell and Larson along with non-Playoff contenders Almirola and Preece while the remaining Playoff contenders that included Buescher, Byron and Truex were mired in 12th, 16th and 17th.

    Two laps later, the caution flew after Ty Gibbs spun for a second time, this time in Turn 2 after getting hit by Carson Hocevar. During the caution period, some led by Larson pitted while the rest led by Blaney and Hamlin remained on the track.

    With the race restarting with 190 laps remaining, Blaney fended off Hamlin and Wallace to retain the lead. Wallace and Hamlin would battle for the runner-up spot as Blaney retained the lead ahead of the field. The caution, however, returned with 178 laps remaining after McDowell spun amid contact with Erik Jones in Turn 2. During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Blaney and Hamlin pitted amid mixed strategies while the rest led by Chase Elliott remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, the Dillon brothers along with Bowman and Newman were penalized for speeding on pit road.

    During the proceeding restart with 168 laps remaining and following a brief delay due to the primary pace car being towed due to a mechanical issue, the race restarted under green. At the start, Elliott and Corey LaJoie dueled for the lead for a full lap and they continued to battle dead even for the lead while Erik Jones and Almirola made contact while battling for third place in front of Larson and Buescher. As the field slowly fanned out and bumped while jostling for late spots, Hamlin was trying to carve his way back into the top 10 along with Blaney and Bell while Elliott was leading by half a second over LaJoie.

    With 150 laps remaining, Elliott was leading by two seconds over LaJoie as Almirola, Erik Jones, Larson and Buescher were running in the top six in front of Briscoe, Hamlin, Blaney and Gilliland. Behind, Bell was in 11th while Playoff rivals Byron, Reddick and Truex were running 20th through 22nd, respectively.

    Twenty-five laps later, Elliott continued to lead by more than a second over LaJoie while Almirola, Erik Jones and Larson continued to run in the top five. With Larson currently being scored as the highest-running Playoff contender, Playoff rivals Buescher, Hamlin, Blaney and Bell followed suit in sixth, seventh, eighth and 10th while Byron, Reddick and Truex were back in 19th, 21st and 22nd, respectively.

    Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Elliott retained the lead by more than a second over Almirola while third-place LaJoie trailed by more than three seconds. Behind, Erik Jones and Larson were in the top five followed by Buescher, Hamlin, Blaney, Briscoe and Bell while Gilliland, Logano, Stenhouse, Cindric, Preece, Chastain, McDowell, Wallace, Byron, Harrison Burton, Reddick and Truex trailed in the top 22.

    Ten laps later, the battle for the lead ignited between Elliott and Almirola as the latter challenged the former for the top spot. Another lap later, Almirola, who pitted during the previous caution period and announced his departure from Stewart-Haas Racing at this season’s conclusion a day ago, moved his No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang into the lead after clearing Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the frontstretch. With LaJoie retaining third in front of Erik Jones, Larson and Buescher, Blaney battled Hamlin for seventh place while Bell trailed in 10th. In addition, Byron was still mired back in 18th in front of Truex while Reddick was down in 22nd.

    With less than 70 laps remaining, Almirola retained the lead by more than a second over Elliott followed by LaJoie and Erik Jones while Blaney moved up to fifth place in front of Larson, Hamlin, Buescher, Briscoe and Bell. Behind, Byron and Truex were mired in 18th and 19th while Reddick was in 22nd as Almirola proceeded to extend his advantage by more than three seconds over Elliott with 60 laps remaining. By then, Blaney moved up to third place while Hamlin was mired in seventh behind Larson.

    With 50 laps remaining, Almirola continued to extend his advantage as he was leading by more than four seconds over Elliott while third-place Blaney trailed by more than six seconds. Behind, LaJoie and Hamlin were in the top five while Briscoe, Logano, Erik Jones, Larson and Bell trailed in the top 10 followed by Buescher. Behind, Truex and Byron swapped spots in 18th and 19th while Reddick was still mired in 22nd.

    Fifteen laps later, Almirola stabilized his advantage to two-and-a-half seconds over Blaney while third-place Elliott trailed by more than five seconds. Another 10 laps later, however, Blaney, who was carving his way back to the front, was only trailing the leader Almirola by three-tenths of a second. Blaney would proceed to reassume the lead from Almirola another three laps later as Hamlin was up to third place and trailing the lead by more than five seconds.

    Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Blaney was leading by more than a second over Almirola while Hamlin, Logano and Briscoe were scored in the top five as Elliott pitted under green. By then, 13th-place Byron was lapped by Blaney while Truex was scored the final competitor a lap down in 12th place.

    With five laps remaining, Blaney stabilized his advantage by nearly a second over Almirola while third-place Hamlin trailed by more than four seconds followed by Logano and Briscoe. By then, Byron, who was still back in 13th in his No. 24 PODS Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, still occupied the fourth and final vacant spot over Hamlin while Truex was still mired in 12th as Larson, Bell and Buescher were running sixth through eighth. Meanwhile, Reddick, who pitted under green, was down in 26th as his Playoff hopes were slowly coming to an end.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Blaney remained as the leader by a second over Almirola and more than four seconds over Hamlin. Despite being mired within lapped traffic and amid late concerns of not having enough fuel to finish, Blaney was able to coast his No. 12 Ford around the Martinsville circuit smoothly for a final time and cycle back to the frontstretch victorious as he claimed the checkered flag and punched his ticket into the Championship 4 round.

    With the victory, Blaney scored his 10th career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series, his third of the season, his first since winning at Talladega Superspeedway in early October and his first at Martinsville. Above all, Blaney, who raced his way into the Championship 4 round for the first time in his career and will represent Team Penske in this year’s title fight, will officially race for his first Cup Series championship next weekend at Phoenix Raceway.

    Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “It’s awesome,” Blaney said on NBC. “I grew up in High Point [North Carolina], so not too far from here. [It is] Closer to High Point, honestly, to Martinsville than Charlotte. It’s really cool. I’ve been wanting to win here for a long time. [I have] Just been super close for many years and awesome to close one out. We probably put together a really solid, strong Playoffs, especially in the Round of 8. We had a good run the whole Round of 8. Just overall, really proud of the whole effort. This is awesome. Can’t wait to get to Phoenix next week.”

    Amid Blaney’s celebration and automatic transfer into the Championship 4 round, William Byron, who came home in 13th place, was left relieved on pit road as he claimed the fourth and final transfer spot into the Championship 4 by eight points over Hamlin, who ended up in third place and led a race-high 156 laps but missed the Championship 4 cutline for a second consecutive season. As a result, Byron and Blaney will both be newcomers in the Championship 4 as they will square off against one another along with Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson for the 2023 Cup Series championship.

    Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “Obviously, we were not very good,” Byron said. “It’s our worst race of the year, but these guys deserve it so much. They worked so hard. With 50 [laps] to go, I felt really, really bad and I just had to drive the hell out of it. The guys stuck with me. They just kept motivating me through little bits and pieces and just kind of keeping my mind straight. I’m just really thankful for them. It was a slugfest. Just appreciate everyone racing me good there at the end. Man, we just had to hang on. I just had to dig a little bit deeper. The result just means more than anything. These guys work so hard and we’ve worked so hard all season. I’m just really proud of them.”

    “Ultimately, the mechanical failure last week, with the power steering, that’s our fate,” Hamlin said. “Really proud of this whole FedEx Toyota team for showing up today when we really needed to and having probably a mid-50-point day. [The team] did great. They did absolutely great. [Blaney] was the best car today, so congrats to them and all the final four [competitors] that made it. They’re all deserving. It’s gonna be a great show next week, but hate we’re not in [the Championship 4], for sure, with our FedEx Camry, but I was happy with the performance we had today and really, all around. Just in the Round of 8, you just can’t have one bad week and unfortunately, mechanical failure takes us from running really well to in the 30s and that’s it.”

    In addition to Hamlin, teammate Martin Truex Jr., Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher were eliminated from the Playoffs as their hopes of advancing into the Championship 4 for this season evaporated.

    “If we couldn’t find a way to flip track position pit stop-wise, we were never gonna get there,” Truex said. “Our car was good, but the field’s so tight and so close. Your car just drives so much worse in traffic. I felt like we did really good to get back where we did. You just burn the tires off so much worse back there, that hot dirty track and dirty air. You’re in more rubber. It’s just a dogfight, so we gave it a hell of an effort. I feel like we had a really strong car. I don’t think we could’ve beat [Blaney]. He was really, really strong, but we were definitely close. Something to work on for next time, but just really disappointed. I thought I was well under speed leaving that box. Clearly, we were speeding. Obviously, we got something to look at there and it’s devastating, but that’s racing.”

    “I’m really proud of everybody at [Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing],” Buescher said. “It’s been a heck of a season. We knew what we had to do today and we knew it was gonna be hard. We moved up, we got close there. Had some good strategy calls, some good stops from pit road. Had some good fire-off speed and really put ourselves in position where we were close. Just couldn’t quite pass like we needed to. Regardless, that was a good fight from everybody. Proud of that effort. Proud of everybody for the entire season we’ve had.”

    “We just didn’t have the handling we were expecting to have today,” Reddick said. “The car was really solid in practice, so we thought some of that would translate into the race. Obviously, our qualifying effort wasn’t ideal, but all day long, the Beast Unleashed Toyota Camry TRD, just really struggled with a number of things. We tried a number of different things to try and help one of the issues and go to the other. I felt like the more we tried, the worse it kind of got, which was really frustrating. It’s a tough day for us, but as a whole, everyone at 23XI’s [Racing] really come to the table. I love this team and what it’s about. It’s been a good first year. To be here a year early and just missing the Championship 4, I think that’s a really, really good start to my tenure at 23XI.”

    On the track, Almirola notched a strong runner-up result in his penultimate event as a Cup Series competitor for Stewart-Haas Racing while Briscoe and Logano finished fourth and fifth behind Hamlin.

    “I just needed my rear tires to hang on a little bit longer,” Almirola, who led 66 laps, said. “So frustrated. I had my family here, the people that helped me get my start in racing. I wanted so bad to celebrate with them in Victory Lane. Just proud of my race team. I wanted to celebrate with them too. They deserve it. I wanted to go out with a bang and just came up one spot short. Sad and frustrated, but still proud of the effort. This has been quite the journey and I’m just very thankful.”

    Larson, Bell, Buescher, Cindric and Todd Gilliland finished in the top 10 ahead of Wallace, Truex and Byron while Reddick ended up 26th, two laps down.

    *Notably, Chevrolet secured its third consecutive Cup Series’ manufacturers title and the 42nd overall, which completed a clean sweep for the manufacturer after previously securing its 11th Craftsman Truck Series manufacturers title and its 25th Bill France Performance Cup in the Xfinity Series.

    There were 12 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 61 laps. In addition, 12 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap.

    Results.

    1. Ryan Blaney, 145 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    2. Aric Almirola, 66 laps led

    3. Denny Hamlin, 156 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    4. Chase Briscoe

    5. Joey Logano

    6. Kyle Larson

    7. Christopher Bell

    8. Chris Buescher

    9. Austin Cindric

    10. Todd Gilliland

    11. Bubba Wallace

    12. Martin Truex Jr., 47 laps led

    13. William Byron, one lap down

    14. Ross Chastain, one lap down

    15. Harrison Burton, one lap down

    16. Kevin Harvick, one lap down

    17. Chase Elliott, one lap down, 83 laps led

    18. Ty Gibbs, one lap down

    19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap down

    20. Ryan Preece, one lap down

    21. Erik Jones, one lap down

    22. Corey LaJoie, one lap down, three laps down

    23. Austin Dillon, one lap down

    24. Ty Dillon, one lap down

    25. Michael McDowell, one lap down

    26. Tyler Reddick, two laps down

    27. Kyle Busch, two laps down

    28. AJ Allmendinger, two laps down

    29. Ryan Newman, three laps down

    30. Justin Haley, three laps down

    31. Carson Hocevar, four laps down

    32. Alex Bowman, four laps down

    33. Brad Keselowski, 194 laps down

    34. Daniel Suarez – OUT, Dvp

    35. JJ Yeley – OUT, Accident

    36. BJ McLeod – OUT, Overheating

    *Bold indicates Playoff contenders

    Playoff standings

    1. Ryan Blaney – Advanced

    2. Christopher Bell – Advanced

    3. Kyle Larson – Advanced

    4. William Byron – Advanced

    5. Denny Hamlin – Eliminated

    6. Martin Truex Jr. – Eliminated  

    7. Tyler Reddick – Eliminated

    8. Chris Buescher – Eliminated

    The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season is set to conclude next Sunday, November 5, at Phoenix Raceway, where a champion will be crowned. The event’s broadcast is slated to occur at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.

  • Bell clinches Championship 4 berth with dramatic Cup victory at Homestead

    Bell clinches Championship 4 berth with dramatic Cup victory at Homestead

    A week after coming within striking distance of securing a Championship 4 berth before being edged by Kyle Larson at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Christopher Bell earned a redemptive NASCAR Cup Series victory in the 4EVER 400 Presented by Mobil 1 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, October 22, to officially race his way into this year’s Championship 4 round.

    The 28-year-old Bell from Norman, Oklahoma, led two times for 26 of 267-scheduled laps in an event where he started 13th and flirted between running towards the top 10 to running outside the top 10 throughout the event’s first two stage periods. Then after leading for the first time with 37 laps remaining, Bell withstood three late caution periods that knocked out Larson along with teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin to assume the lead for the second and final time with 15 laps remaining amid an intense battle between Playoff rivals William Byron and Ryan Blaney. From there, Bell muscled away with the top spot and claimed the checkered flag by more than a second over Blaney to notch his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season and become the second Playoff competitor alongside Kyle Larson to secure one of four vacant spots into this year’s Championship 4 round.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, October 21, Playoff contender Martin Truex Jr. secured his second Cup Series pole position of the season and the 22nd of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 167.411 mph in 32.256 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Bubba Wallace, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 167.115 mph in 32.313 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Joey Logano dropped to the rear of the field in a backup car after he wrecked his primary car during Saturday’s practice session.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Truex and Wallace dueled for the lead through the first two turns as the field behind fanned out. Entering the backstretch, Wallace gained the momentum and pulled his No. 23 McDonald’s Grimace Toyota TRD Camry ahead of the pack, but Truex fought back on the inside lane through Turns 3 and 4 as he managed to lead the first lap by a hair over Wallace. Truex and Wallace would continue to duel dead even for the lead through the next two laps until Wallace used the outside lane to his advantage as he led the next two laps before clearing Truex to have both lanes to his control.

    Through the first five scheduled laps, Wallace was leading by a tenth of a second over Truex. Wallace would retain the lead by three-tenths of a second over Truex by the Lap 10 mark as Brad Keselowski, William Byron and Tyler Reddick were in the top five. Then during the following lap, Truex moved his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota TRD Camry back into the lead over Wallace as Keselowski and Byron battled for third place in front of Kyle Larson.

    At the Lap 20 mark, Byron emerged as the new leader over Truex followed by Keselowski, Larson and Tyler Reddick while Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon and Christopher Bell were running in the top 10. Behind, Kyle Busch trailed in 11th place ahead of Ross Chastain, Corey LaJoie, Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell while AJ Allmendinger, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, rookie Ty Gibbs and Austin Cindric occupied the top 20 in front of Kevin Harvick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Erik Jones, Aric Almirola, Ryan Preece and Playoff contender Chris Buescher. In addition, Logano was mired in 27th in between Buescher, Harrison Burton and Chase Briscoe while John Hunter Nemechek was in 34th behind Todd Gilliland.

    Ten laps later, Byron continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over Keselowski followed by Larson, Truex and Reddick while Blaney, Hamlin, Wallace, Austin Dillon and Bell were running in the top 10 on the track. Meanwhile, Playoff contender Buescher was mired back in 28th.

    Shortly after, the first wave of green flag pit stops commenced as Kyle Busch and Ryan Preece pitted their respective entries. Austin Dillon would pit by Lap 31 along with Chase Elliott, McDowell, Bowman and others before a bevy of names led by Keselowski, Larson, Truex, Blaney and Chastain pitted by Lap 32. By Lap 33, Byron surrendered the lead to pit his No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 under green before Reddick, who led a lap for himself, pitted his No. 45 McDonald’s Hamburglar Toyota TRD Camry during the proceeding lap along with teammate Wallace as Hamlin cycled into the lead.

    By Lap 40 and with most of the field having made a pit stop under green, Hamlin, who led the previous seven laps, surrendered the lead to pit his No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota TRD Camry along with Logano as Keselowski cycled into the lead ahead of Larson, Byron, Blaney and Truex.

    Ten laps later, Keselowski retained the lead by a second over Larson followed by Byron, Blaney and Truex while Reddick, Austin Dillon, Bell, Hamlin and Chastain were running in the top 10. With seven of eight Playoff contenders running in the top 10, minus Keselowski, Austin Dillon and Chastain, Buescher was the lone Playoff contender not running in the top 10 as he was mired in 26th behind Harrison Burton.

    Another four laps later, Larson muscled his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead over Keselowski while racing on the inside lane. Larson would proceed to lead at the Lap 60 mark by two seconds over Keselowski’s No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang while Byron, Blaney, Truex, Reddick, Austin Dillon, bell, Hamlin and Chastain were scored in the top 10. By then, Buescher was mired back in 27th while AJ Allmendinger, Wallace, Ty Gibbs, LaJoie and Kyle Busch occupied the top 15 in front of Kevin Harvick.

    By Lap 70, Larson stabilized his advantage to more than a second over Keselowski as Blaney, Byron and Truex battled in the top five ahead of Reddick, Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Bell and Ty Gibbs. Meanwhile, Buescher lost one spot in the process as he was down in 28th.

    Then on Lap 76, the first caution period of the event flew after Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who was running 18th, made contact with the backstretch’s outside wall before he spun below the track and damaged the right-rear toe link of his No. 47 Boost by Kroger/Vitaminwater Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. The caution for Stenhouse’s incident was enough for the first stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 80 to conclude under caution as Larson, who secured his spot into this year’s Championship 4 round by winning last weekend’s Playoff event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, captured his eighth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Keselowski settled in second while Blaney, Byron, Truex, Hamlin, Reddick, Austin Dillon, Bell and Ty Gibbs were scored in the top 10. By then, Buescher was the lone Playoff contender to not score the first round of stage points as he was mired in 27th.

    Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted. Following the pit stops, Larson retained the lead after exiting pit road first ahead of Keselowski, Byron, Truex, Blaney, Austin Dillon and Reddick.

    The second stage period started on Lap 85 as Larson and Keselowski occupied the front row. At the start, Larson muscled ahead on the outside lane as he retained the lead over Keselowski, Byron, Ty Gibbs and Truex while Blaney and Reddick battled for sixth place alongside Chastain. As the field behind jostled for spots, Larson proceeded to lead just past the Lap 90 mark over teammate Byron by two-tenths of a second as Keselowski, Truex and Blaney trailed in the top five. Behind, Chastain, Ty Gibbs, Reddick, Austin Dillon and Hamlin were in the top 10 while Bell and Buescher were mired in 14th and 26th, respectively.

    At the Lap 100 mark, Larson was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Keselowski while third-place Byron trailed by more than a second in third place. Behind, Blaney and Truex were scored in the top five ahead of Chastain, Reddick, Austin Dillon, Ty Gibbs and Hamlin while Allmendinger, LaJoie, Wallace, Logano and Bell occupied the top 15 ahead of Aric Almirola, Cindric, Erik Jones, Harvick and Chase Briscoe. Meanwhile, Suarez, Ryan Preece, Elliott, Kyle Busch and McDowell were running in the top 25 while Buescher was mired in 26th.

    Thirteen laps later, a second wave of green flag pit stops commenced as Ty Gibbs pitted under green along with Briscoe and Preece. Larson would then surrender the lead to pit under green by Lap 114 along with teammate Byron, Blaney, Logano, Almirola, Bell, Buescher and Ty Dillon as Keselowski assumed the lead. Keselowski would then pit from the lead on Lap 115 followed by Truex, Reddick, Austin Dillon, Chastain, LaJoie, Erik Jones and Jusitn Haley as Hamlin moved into the lead. Hamlin would lead through Lap 125 before he pitted under green as Larson cycled back into the lead followed by Keselowski, Blaney, Byron and Truex. By then, more names that included LaJoie, Allmendinger, Erik Jones, Suarez and Wallace had pitted under green.

    At the halfway mark between Laps 133 and 134, Larson was leading by more than four seconds over Keselowski followed by Blaney, Byron and Truex while Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon, Chastain and Allmendinger were scored in the top 10. Behind, Logano was up to 11th ahead of LaJoie, Briscoe, Hamlin and Almirola while Bell, Erik Jones, Wallace, Preece and Harvick were scored in the top 20 ahead of Suarez, Elliott, Cindric, Kyle Busch, McDowell and Buescher.

    By Lap 150, Larson stabilized his advantage to more than two seconds over Blaney while Byron, Keselowski and Truex were running in the top five ahead of Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon, Hamlin and Chastain. Meanwhile, Bell was mired back in 18th behind Wallace while Buescher continued to run in 26th behind McDowell.

    Then on Lap 162, Blaney tracked and overtook Larson for the lead. Byron would then overtake teammate Larson for the runner-up spot during the following lap as Blaney checked out with the lead by a second in his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang.

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 165, Blaney, who came into Homestead 17 points below the top-four cutline, captured his fifth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Byron settled in second followed by teammate Larson, Hamlin and Keselowski while Truex, Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon and Logano were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Bell and Buescher were scored in 22nd and 26th, respectively.

    During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Blaney pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Blaney retained the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Byron, Keselowski, Hamlin, Larson, Logano, Austin Dillon and Reddick.

    With 95 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Blaney and Byron occupied the front row. At the start, Blaney retained a brief advantage over Byron through the first two turns and the backstretch before Byron drew himself into a side-by-side challenge against Blaney for the top spot while running on the inside lane. Byron would then muscle ahead during the following lap before he engaged in another side-by-side duel against Blaney for the lead. Amid the duel, Blaney would use the inside lane to muscle ahead, slide up and clear Byron through the frontstretch with 92 laps remaining. In the process, Hamlin was in third place and trailing by eight-tenths of a second while Keselowski and Larson were in the top five.

    With 85 laps remaining, Blaney was leading by half a second over Hamlin while Byron, Larson and Chastain trailed in the top five. Behind, Truex, who endured a slow pit stop during the second stage break, and Keselowski made contact as Keselowski then hit the outside wall exiting the backstretch, but the race proceeded under green. Amid the late on-track battles, Blaney retained the lead by seven-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Hamlin while Larson, Byron and Chastain remained in the top five with 75 laps remaining. With Austin Dillon, Truex, Keselowski, Reddick and Bell running in the top 10, Buescher was mired back in 27th while racing a lap down.

    Then with 57 laps remaining, another wave of green flag pit stops commenced as Keselowski pitted followed by Truex, Ty Gibbs, Suarez, Ryan Newman and Chastain. Then amid the green flag pit stops, the caution flew with 55 laps remaining after Larson, who was trying to enter pit road behind the leader Blaney under green, locked up his front tires while trying to ease off of the throttle and hit the sand barrels towards the pit road entrance before he nursed his damaged No. 5 Chevrolet into his pit stall. The incident was enough for NASCAR to place the event in a red flag period as the track crews proceeded to clean up sand from the destroyed barrels towards pit road entrance.

    Following the red flag period that lasted more than 12 minutes, the field led by Hamlin returned under a cautious pace. During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Hamlin pitted while Blaney, who benefitted during Larson’s incident by pitting his No. 12 Ford Mustang and remaining on the lead lap, remained on the track as he inherited the lead. Following the pit stops, Hamlin exited pit road first followed by Byron, Harvick, Allmendinger, Bell, Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch. Amid the caution period, the following names that included Chastain, Truex, Briscoe, Ty Gibbs and Elliott took the wave around back to the lead lap while Keselowski received the free pass.

    With the race restarting under green with 46 laps remaining, Blaney and Hamlin dueled for the lead through the frontstretch and entering the first two turns until Hamlin motored ahead on the inside lane to assume the lead from Blaney as Bell joined the battle. Shortly after, the caution quickly returned after Keselowski, who was running in the middle of the pack and was sandwiched in between Chastain and John Hunter Nemechek entering the backstretch, sent both Nemechek and Chastain sideways and into one another, where they collected JJ Yeley in the process as Yeley spun and pounded the inside wall head on while Nemechek also spun towards the inside wall and Chastain spun sideways in the middle of the track. During the caution period, some that included Wallace, Keselowski, Truex, Briscoe, Ty Gibbs, Preece and Elliott pitted while the rest led by Hamlin remained on the track.

    During the following restart with 38 laps remaining, Hamlin and Blaney dueled for the lead in front of Bell and Byron through the frontstretch and entering the first two turns. With Blaney and Hamlin continuing to duel dead even for the lead through the backstretch, Bell made a bold three-wide move on both through Turns 3 and 4 to assume the lead during the following lap. With Bell checking out with the lead, another three-wide battle ensued for the runner-up spot between Hamlin, Blaney and Byron before Byron used the outside lane to clear both through Turns 3 and 4 and retain the runner-up spot. As Blaney and Hamlin continued to battle dead even for third place, another three-wide battle ensued behind between Harvick, Austin Dillon and Logano for fifth place while Bell was leading by nearly eight-tenths of a second over Byron with 35 laps remaining.

    Then three laps later, the caution flew after Playoff contender Hamlin, who was locked in a tight battle with Blaney for third place, went up the track in Turn 1 and pounded the outside wall hard as a result of a broken steering before he limped his damaged No. 11 Toyota TRD Camry to pit road and eventually retired from the event. In the process, concerns started to occur for teammate and Playoff contender Truex after light smoke was seen billowing out of the No. 19 Toyota TRD Camry, an issue that would result with Truex’s car being pushed to the garage.

    During the caution period, the field led by Bell pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Byron assumed the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Blaney, Bell, Harvick, Logano, Wallace and Reddick.

    The following restart with 25 laps remaining witnessed Byron and Blaney duel dead even for the lead through the first two turns and through the backstretch while Bell trailed closely behind. Byron and Blaney continued to battle dead even for the lead through the frontstretch as Bell, Logano and Wallace battled for fifth place. Then with 24 laps remaining, Byron managed to clear Blaney entering the backstretch and assume both lanes to his control while Bell challenged Blaney for the runner-up spot through the frontstretch.

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Byron was leading by three-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Bell as third-place Blaney trailed by seven-tenths of a second. Behind, Wallace overtook Logano for fourth place and Reddick was in sixth as Ty Gibbs, Allmendinger, Almirola and Austin Cindric were in the top 10.

    Then five laps later, Bell made his move beneath Byron as he assumed the lead by a hair through the frontstretch. Bell and Byron would duel for the top spot through the first two turns until Bell slid up the track and cleared Byron through the backstretch. As Bell assumed the lead, Blaney, who was trailing the two leaders by nearly two seconds, retained third place ahead of 23XI Racing’s Reddick and Wallace.

    With 10 laps remaining, Bell continued to lead by seven-tenths of a second over Byron as Blaney, Reddick and Wallace retained their respective spots in the top five ahead of Allmendinger, Ty Gibbs, Logano, Almirola and Harvick. Bell would proceed to retain the lead by more than a second over the new runner-up competitor, Blaney, as Byron fell back to third in front of Reddick, Allmendinger and Wallace with five laps remaining.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Bell remained as the leader by more than a second over Blaney. With Blaney unable to narrow the deficit amid his late-race charge, Bell was able to cycle his No. 20 Rheem Toyota TRD Camry around Homestead smoothly for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch and claimed both the checkered flag and a berth into this year’s Championship 4 round.

    With the victory, Bell notched his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season, his first since winning the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Course in April, his first at Homestead and the sixth of his career. The victory was also the eighth of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing and the 10th of the year for the Toyota nameplate.

    Above all, Bell, who punched his ticket into this year’s Championship 4 round for a second consecutive season, will contend for his first Cup Series championship two weeks from now at Phoenix Raceway.

    Photo by Patrick Sue-Chan for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “I’ve got the best team behind me,” Bell said on NBC. “Honestly, I don’t know, man. That race was a whirlwind. I was ready to throw the towel in there in the second stage and I got really frustrated on the radio. [Crew chief] Adam [Stevens] kept after it. Adam, Tyler, William, the guys back at the shop are working over the adjustments. They gave me what I needed. Whenever we got some clean air, this thing was really good. I cannot say how proud I am to be here with our partners. I’ve been with Toyota since day one. Thank you everyone that supported me. This is better than a dream come true.”

    Behind Bell, Blaney muscled his way into a strong runner-up finish ahead of Playoff rivals Reddick and Byron while Allmendinger, the highest non-Playoff contender, settled in fifth place. With the results, Blaney and Byron are currently scored above the top-four cutline to make this year’s Championship 4 round entering the Round of 8 finale next weekend at Martinsville Speedway while Reddick stands as the first competitor currently scored out of the cutline by 10 points. Hamlin, Truex and Buescher are also scored below the cutline following the second Round of 8 event.

    “We were good on the long runs all day and that’s what we needed,” Blaney said. “I just couldn’t go for 10 laps or so and those guys got better. I just couldn’t maintain the lead or second, and by the time we kind of got going and people’s stuff were falling off, just too late. Overall, proud of the Menards, Duracell Ford Mustang team. Really, really strong piece. Just got a little bit there at the end, but proud of the effort.”

    “The balance was really tricky on our McDonald’s Toyota Camry TRD,” Reddick said. “I just think the biggest thing is we didn’t fire off too good on a couple of restarts. Thankfully, the pit crew did a good job overcoming the difficulties today. Like we weren’t the best on pit road, but the last pit top, we maintained and gave us a shot at that restart. It was still a terrible restart for us, maybe lost two of three spots still, but just found the top [lane] and others weren’t up there and was able to get to third. I was so much faster than [Blaney]. It’s just as soon as he moved up, I was just stuck. It’s just the nature of these cars.”

    “We were just really tight all day,” Byron said. “We did a really good job executing our race and kind of managing our long runs and being able to run the fence. We just built way too tight in the center and it’s as much wheel as I could put in the car and as much as I could to slow it down to go left. The guys did a great job of adjusting on the car all day. We had a really good execution day. We came out there with the lead thanks to my pit crew. We just need to bring a winning car next two weeks to get where we want to be, but we’re close.”

    Wallace ended up sixth while Ty Gibbs, Logano, Almirola and Austin Dillon finished in the top 10 with Kevin Harvick finishing 11th in his final race at Homestead. In addition, Playoff competitor Chris Buescher capped off his long afternoon in 21st place while Truex and Hamlin ended up 29th and 30th after both were unable to finish the event.

    There were 25 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 35 laps. In addition, 23 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Results.

    1. Christopher Bell, 26 laps led

    2. Ryan Blaney, 53 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    3. Tyler Reddick, one lap led

    4. William Byron, 25 laps led

    5. AJ Allmendinger

    6. Bubba Wallace, nine laps led

    7. Ty Gibbs

    8. Joey Logano

    9. Aric Almirola

    10. Austin Dillon

    11. Kevin Harvick

    12. Austin Cindric

    13. Ryan Preece

    14. Erik Jones

    15. Chase Elliott

    16. Daniel Suarez

    17. Chase Briscoe

    18. Kyle Busch

    19. Alex Bowman

    20. Corey LaJoie

    21. Chris Buescher

    22. Michael McDowell

    23. Justin Haley

    24. Ty Dillon, one lap down

    25. Todd Gilliland, one lap down

    26. Ryan Newman, two laps down

    27. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., four laps down

    28. Brad Keselowski, five laps down, 16 laps led

    29. Martin Truex Jr. – OUT, Engine, 10 laps led

    30. Denny Hamlin – OUT, Accident, 31 laps led

    31. Ross Chastain – OUT, Accident

    32. John Hunter Nemechek – OUT, Accident

    33. JJ Yeley – OUT, Accident

    34. Kyle Larson – OUT, Accident, 96 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    35. Josh Bilicki – OUT, Accident

    36. Harrison Burton – OUT, Overheating

    *Bold indicates Playoff contenders

    Playoff standings

    1. Kyle Larson – Advanced

    2. Christopher Bell – Advanced

    3. William Byron +30

    4. Ryan Blaney +10

    5. Tyler Reddick -10

    6. Martin Truex Jr. -17

    7. Denny Hamlin -17

    8. Chris Buescher -43

    The Round of 8 in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to conclude next weekend at Martinsville Speedway, which will determine the Championship 4 field. The event is scheduled to commence next Sunday, October 29, at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.

  • Larson clinches Championship 4 berth with dramatic Cup victory at Las Vegas

    Larson clinches Championship 4 berth with dramatic Cup victory at Las Vegas

    A year after having his championship hopes evaporated just past the midway section of the Playoffs, Kyle Larson stapled his name back into the Championship 4 round after capping off a dominant performance by fending off a late charge from Christopher Bell to win the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, October 15.

    The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, led seven times for a race-high 133 of 267 scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row and quickly made his presence at the front known, beginning on the third lap. After sweeping both stage periods while dodging a near-catastrophic moment by getting loose and nearly hitting the outside wall just past the halfway mark, Larson withstood two late caution periods to muscle away from Brad Keselowski and the field during the final restart with 45 laps remaining.

    Despite having Playoff rival and pole-sitter Christopher Bell gain ground on him in the closing laps, Larson managed to block and fend off Bell twice on the final lap entering the frontstretch to capture his fourth Cup Series victory of the 2023 season and punch his ticket to this year’s Championship 4 round at Phoenix Raceway as he will officially contend for the 2023 Cup championship.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, October 14, Playoff contender Christopher Bell notched his sixth Cup pole position of the 2023 season and the 10th of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 186.335 mph in 28.980 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Kyle Larson, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 186.271 mph in 28.990 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Chase Elliott and Daniel Suarez dropped to the rear of the field in backup cars after both wrecked their primary cars separately during Saturday’s practice session.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Bell muscled ahead from the outside lane as he retained the lead through the first two turns ahead of Larson. With the field jostling for early spots amid two lanes through the backstretch, Bell proceeded to lead the first lap in his No. 20 Rheem Toyota TRD Camry while William Byron and Martin Truex Jr. challenged Larson for the runner-up spot.

    Two laps later, Larson, who managed to fend off the early charges from teammate Byron and Truex, made his move beneath Bell in Turn 1 as he assumed the lead in his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, with Bell dropping to second place in front of Byron, Truex and Chris Buescher. Larson would proceed to lead by nearly four-tenths of a second over Bell through the first five laps while Truex and Byron continued to battle for third place in front of Buescher and Tyler Reddick.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Larson continued to lead by eight-tenths of a second over Bell followed by Truex, Buescher and Byron while Reddick, Kyle Busch, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain and Ryan Blaney were in the top 10. Behind, Alex Bowman occupied 11th place in front of Aric Almirola, Denny Hamlin, rookie Ty Gibbs and Kevin Harvick while Joey Logano, Michael McDowell, Austin Dillon, Carson Hocevar and Erik Jones were running in the top 20.

    Fifteen laps later, Larson retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Bell while Truex, Buescher and Byron continued to run in the top five. With Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, Reddick, Bowman and Hamlin in the top 10, Ross Chastain was in 11th ahead of Almirola, Harvick, Wallace and Logano while Ty Gibbs, McDowell, Hocevar, Erik Jones and Brad Keselowski battled within the top 20. Meanwhile, AJ Allmendinger, winner of last weekend’s Cup event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, was in 21st ahead of Ty Dillon, Justin Haley, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Austin Cindric while Daniel Suarez was in 27th behind Austin Dillon. In addition, Chase Elliott was mired in 30th in between Harrison Burton and Ryan Preece while Chase Briscoe was in 32nd.

    Within the Lap 30 mark, the first wave of green flag pit stops commenced as Austin Dillon pitted his No. 3 BetMGM Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Shortly after, Kyle Larson surrendered the lead to pit along with Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, McDowell, Erik Jones, Hocevar, Haley, Allmendinger, Suarez, Cindric, Harrison Burton, Buescher, Blaney, Byron, Hamlin, Chastain, Reddick, Almirola, Harvick, Logano and Wallace. Amid the pit stops, Chastain was penalized for speeding on pit road.

    In the process of the green flag pit stops Bell reassumed the lead as he was leading by Lap 35 ahead of teammate Truex, Bowman, Stenhouse and Todd Gilliland while Elliott pitted. Third-place Bowman would pit on Lap 38 before Bell and Truex followed suit to pit their respective Joe Gibbs Racing entries. Once they pitted, Larson cycled back into the lead by Lap 40.

    At the Lap 50 mark, Larson, who was navigating his way through lapped traffic, was leading by nearly two seconds over Bell followed by Truex, Blaney and Byron while Bowman, Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Buescher and Almirola were scored in the top 10. With seven of the remaining eight Playoff contenders running in the top 10 minus Bowman, Kyle Busch and Almirola, Reddick was the lone Playoff contender running outside of the top 10 as he was in 11th while Harvick, Logano, Keselowski and Ty Gibbs were running in the top 15.

    Fourteen laps later, the event’s first caution flew when Erik Jones blew a right-rear tire in Turn 1 as he limped his No. 43 Allegiant Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 back to pit road with the tire carcass coming out just past the backstretch. By then, Larson was still leading by more than two seconds over Bell while Truex, Blaney and Byron were running in the top five. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Larson returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategies, Bell, who opted for two fresh tires, exited pit road first ahead of Larson, Reddick, Keselowski, Truex and Blaney.

    With nine laps remaining in the first stage period, the race restarted under green. At the start, Bell and Larson dueled for the lead through the first two turns and they continued to duel dead even back through the frontstretch as the field behind fanned out while jostling for positions. During the following lap, Larson managed to rocket ahead of Bell to reassume the lead. Behind, Keselowski was in third ahead of Reddick while Kyle Busch, Truex and Blaney went three-wide while battling for fifth in front of Byron, Hamlin and Harvick. Amid the battles, Larson was leading by four-tenths of a second over Bell while third-place Keselowski trailed by nearly a second.

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 80, Larson notched his sixth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Bell settled in second followed by Keselowski, Reddick and Truex while Blaney, Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Harvick and Byron were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contender Buescher was mired in 16th while all but two of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap.

    Under the stage break, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Larson returned to pit road for service while the rest led by Truex and including JJ Yeley and Brennan Poole remained on the track. Yeley and Poole would pit shortly after while Truex continued to remain on the track.

    The second stage period started on Lap 86 as teammates Truex and Hamlin occupied the front row. At the start, Hamlin and Truex dueled for the lead as the field fanned out through the first two turns. Through the first two turns, Truex rocketed his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota TRD Camry away from Hamlin, who was getting attacked by Keselowski as Bell and Ty Gibbs followed suit through the frontstretch. With Hamlin and Keselowski continuing to duel for the runner-up spot during the proceeding laps behind Truex, Bell retained fourth ahead of Ty Gibbs and Buescher while Larson made a three-wide move to overtake the latter two. By then, all eight Playoff contenders were running in the top 10 on the track while Keselowski and Ty Gibbs were the top two non-Playoff contenders racing in the top-10 mark. Amid the on-track battles towards the front, AJ Allmendinger was penalized for a restart violation.

    Then on Lap 91, Hamlin made his move beneath teammate Truex through the frontstretch as he assumed the lead in his No. 11 Mavis Tries & Brakes Toyota TRD Camry. Another two laps later, Keselowski assumed the runner-up spot followed by a hard-charging Larson while Truex was locked in a heated battle with Buescher for fourth place. Buescher would prevail by Lap 94 as Truex was in the process of losing another spot to teammate Bell. By then, Hamlin was leading by half a second over Keselowski.

    At the Lap 100 mark, Hamlin was leading by three-tenths of a second over Keselowski followed by a hard-charging Larson, who trailed by half a second, while Buescher, Bell, Blaney, Byron, Ty Gibbs, Kyle Busch and Reddick were running in the top 10. Meanwhile, Truex had dropped to 13th behind Logano and Bowman while Harvick and Chastain were in the top 15 followed by Wallace, Suarez, Almirola, Preece and Hocevar.

    During the proceeding laps, a three-way battle for the lead ignited as Hamlin had both Keselowski and Larson closing in on him for the top spot through the turns and the straightaways. Despite being pressured by two former Cup Series champions, Hamlin maintained the top spot by and past the Lap 105 mark while Bell and Buescher were scored in the top five. Meanwhile, Truex was still mired in 13th ahead of Chastain and Harvick.

    Then on Lap 111, the caution flew when Hocevar, coming off his announcement of graduating to the NASCAR Cup Series to drive for Spire Motorsports in 2024, blew a right-front tire and scraped the outside wall entering Turn 1 before he slid the No. 42 Sunseeker Resorts Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 sideways and rammed into the wall again as Austin Cindric dodged him. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Hamlin peeled off the track to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Keselowski assumed the lead after exiting pit road first followed by Larson, Bell, Hamlin, Byron, Blaney and Buescher.

    During the ensuing restart on Lap 117, Keselowski rocketed away from Larson from the inside lane through the frontstretch before Larson fought back and battled dead even against Keselowski from the outside lane through the first two turns and the backstretch. During the following lap, Keselowski managed to slide up and clear Larson as he retained the lead in his No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang while Bell trailed in third followed by Byron and Hamlin.

    Just past the Lap 125 mark, Keselowski was leading by two-tenths of a second over Larson followed by Byron, Bell and Hamlin while Buescher, Blaney, Chastain, Kyle Busch and Bowman were racing in the top 10. By then, Truex was mired in 13th behind Reddick and Wallace as Harvick and Logano rounded out the top 15.

    At the halfway mark between Laps 133 and 134, Keselowski retained the lead by six-tenths of a second over Larson while Byron, Bell, Hamlin, Buescher, Blaney, Chastain, Kyle Busch and Bowman were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Truex and Reddick were back in 11th and 12th ahead of Wallace, Harvick and Logano while Almirola, Austin Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Cindric and Ty Gibbs were in the top 20 followed by Suarez, McDowell, Haley, Corey LaJoie and Erik Jones. In addition, Elliott was mired in 29th place while racing a lap down.

    Just past the Lap 140 mark, Larson, who was running in the runner-up spot, got loose entering the backstretch as he slid his car sideways and made light contact with the outside wall, but he managed to continue at full pace and remain on the track, though he lost spots from Bell, Byron and Hamlin. The caution, however, flew on Lap 145 when teammate Bowman got loose and wrecked his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 off of Turn 4 before coming to a stop towards the low groove in Turn 1. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Keselowski pitted for service. Following the pit stops and amid mixed strategies, Keselowski exited first amid a two-tire pit stop while Byron, Kyle Busch, Logano, Harvick, Larson, Bell and Hamlin followed suit.

    With the race restarting under green on Lap 149, Keselowski and Byron dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch in front of Kyle Busch and Logano. With Larson making a three-wide move on both Kyle Busch and Logano while trying to make his way back to the front, Keselowski and Byron continued to duel dead even for the lead until Keselowski muscled ahead on the inside lane and through Turns 3 and 4, which occurred just prior to Lap 152.

    A few laps later, Larson set his sights on Keselowski for the lead as Byron fell back to third while Chastain and Bell moved up into the top five. By Lap 155, Larson transitioned from the outside to the inside lane as he overtook Keselowski and reassumed the lead. Behind, Chastain overtook Byron for third while Hamlin occupied sixth in front of Logano, Harvick, Kyle Busch and Blaney. Chastain would proceed to overtake Keselowski for the runner-up spot another few laps later as he also started to gain ground on Larson for the lead.

    When the second stage period concluded on Lap 165, Larson captured his seventh Cup stage victory of the 2023 season and second of the day after pulling away with an advantage of more than a second. Chastain settled in second in front of Bell, Hamlin and Keselowski while Byron, Kyle Busch, Blaney, Reddick and Wallace were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Buescher and Truex were mired back in 15th and 20th, respectively, while 31 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap.

    During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Larson returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Bell returned to the top of the leaderboard after barely exiting pit road first ahead of Chastain and Larson while Keselowski, Hamlin, McDowell and Byron followed suit.

    With 96 laps remaining, the final stage period started as Bell and Chastain occupied the front row. At the start, Bell muscled ahead and retained the lead from the inside lane while Chastain and Keselowski battled for the runner-up spot in front of Larson, Keselowski and Byron. With Kyle Busch joining the battle, Bell maintained the lead ahead of a hard-charging Chastain while Keselowski maintained third in front of Larson and a side-by-side battle between Byron and Hamlin.

    With 90 laps remaining, Bell retained the lead by half a second over Chastain as Keselowski and Larson gained ground on Chastain for the runner-up spot. Byron maintained fifth ahead of Hamlin while Kyle Busch, Blaney, Reddick and Logano were in the top 10. By then, Truex was down in 18th while Buescher was in 20th.

    Fifteen laps later, Bell continued to lead by nearly half a second over Chastain followed by a side-by-side battle between Keselowski and Larson for third place while Hamlin occupied fifth ahead of Byron, Blaney, Kyle Busch, Reddick and Logano. By then, Truex and Buescher were still mired in 17th and 19th, respectively.

    Another 15 laps later, Bell retained the lead by more than a second over Keselowski while Larson and Blaney were running third and fourth, respectively. Meanwhile, Chastain, who got loose and missed the racing groove entering the backstretch a few laps earlier, dropped to sixth as he was in between Hamlin and Byron while Kyle Busch, Logano and Ty Gibbs were in the top 10. By then, Reddick dropped to 11th, Truex was in 14th and Buescher was in 16th.

    Another two laps later, the caution flew after Chase Briscoe ran up towards the outside wall in Turn 1 while battling AJ Allmendinger and barely clipped Stenhouse before he got sideways and spun his No. 14 Code 3 Associates Ford Mustang below the track in Turn 2. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Bell pitted for service.  Following the pit stops, Larson managed to edge both Keselowski and Bell off of pit road first as Chastain, Hamlin, Byron and Buescher followed suit.

    With the race restarting with 52 laps remaining, Larson launched ahead of Keselowski from the inside lane as the field fanned out to three and four lanes through the backstretch. With the field stilling fanning out through the frontstretch, Larson retained the lead ahead of Keselowski and Bell while Chastain was in fourth ahead of Logano, Byron and Hamlin. The caution, however, quickly returned with 50 laps remaining after Ty Gibbs slid up and scraped the outside wall entering the backstretch, where he limped his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota TRD Camry back to pit road, but lost his right front wheel in the process.

    During the restart with 45 laps remaining, Keselowski and Larson briefly dueled for the lead before Larson rocketed ahead from the inside lane. As the field fanned out through the backstretch, Larson maintained the lead ahead of Keselowski and Bell while Byron charged in fourth ahead of Chastain and Reddick.

    With 35 laps remaining, Larson extended his advantage to more than a second over Keselowski followed by Bell, Byron and Chastain while Kyle Busch, Reddick, Blaney, Logano and Hamlin were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Buescher and Truex were scored in 12th and 14th, respectively.

    Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Larson continued to lead by more than a second over Bell while Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Byron remained in the top five. By then, Truex and Buescher moved up to 11th and 12th while Chastain, Blaney, Reddick, Hamlin and Logano were scored in the top 10.

    With 10 laps remaining, Larson, who navigated his way through lapped traffic, retained the lead by more than a second over Bell as Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Chastain were in the top five. Larson would maintain the lead by six-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Bell with five laps remaining while Keselowski trailed by nearly four seconds. As the laps dwindled, Larson’s advantage over Bell dwindled to four-tenths of a second as Bell used the outside lane to gain more ground on Larson for the lead.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson remained as the leader by four-tenths of a second over Bell. Through Turns 1 and 2, Bell used the outside lane to cut the deficit down to within two- and three-tenths of a second. After remaining behind Larson through the backstretch, Bell used the outside lane entering Turns 3 and 4 to get to Larson’s rear bumper as Larson went up the track to block him. Bell then tried to make a move to Larson’s outside through the frontstretch, but Larson again blocked Bell as he managed to keep Bell behind him and claim the checkered flag for the win by 0.082 seconds.

    With the victory, Larson, who was eliminated from title contention following the Round of 12 one year ago, notched his fourth NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season, his 17th driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, his second at Las Vegas, his first since winning the Playoff opener at Darlington Raceway in September and the 23rd of his NASCAR premier series career. The victory was also the 10th of the season for Hendrick Motorsports and the 850th Cup Series career win for the Chevrolet nameplate.

    Above all, Larson became the first Playoff contender to secure a spot for this year’s Championship 4 round at Phoenix Raceway which will occur three weeks time in early November as he will contend for his second Cup Series championship.

    “I could see [Bell] coming in my mirror, for sure,” Larson said on NBC. “I was hoping those [lapped competitors] were gonna give me the bottom [lane]. [Todd Gilliland] peeled off to the bottom and I knew I couldn’t follow him. I just didn’t wanna go all the way to the top and leave the middle [lane] open, but thankfully, Christopher [Bell] has always raced us extremely clean. It could’ve got crazier than it did coming to the start/finish line. Thank you to him for racing with respect. What a job done by my team, too. Just a great race car. I almost gave it away there in [Turns] 1 and 2, getting sideways, getting in the wall. [I] Had to fight back from there with our balance. They got it much closer there with the lead. I was happy to pull away as much as we did, was hoping that was gonna be enough to maintain, which it was, but I thought they weren’t gonna be able to get as close as they did there at the end. Nerve-racking. This is really cool to get to go race for another championship here in a few weeks. Glad we don’t have to stress for these next two races.”

    While Larson celebrated the victory and an early ticket to the championship finale with his family on the frontstretch, Bell was left disappointed on pit road after missing an early opportunity to secure a championship finale spot. With his runner-up result, Bell is currently ranked in fifth place in the Playoff standings and is two points below the top-four cutline approaching the upcoming two Round of 8 events.

    “Man, I don’t know what else I could’ve done,” Bell said. “I don’t know. I feel like that was my moment, that was my moment to make the final four and didn’t quite capture it. Coming to the checkered there, I knew that he was gonna be blocking, so I’m like I’m gonna try and go high and he went high, but I don’t even know if I had a run to get by him there coming to the line. Just wasn’t enough, but a great day. A great day, for sure, to get those stage points and get a second-place finish out of it. I think I saw we’re minus two [from the cutline], so we’re not out of it by any means. It would’ve been nice to lock in.”

    Amid the late battle for the victory, hometown hero Kyle Busch came home in third place followed by Keselowski and Chastain while Playoff contenders Blaney, Byron, Reddick, Truex and Hamlin finished in the top 10. Meanwhile, Buescher was the lone Playoff contender to finish outside the top 10 as he ended up in 11th place.

    Following the post-race inspection process, however, Blaney was disqualified from his sixth-place finish due to the left-front shock from his No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang not meeting the overall specified length outlined in Section 14.11.3.5 from NASCAR’s Rule Book. As a result, he was relegated to last place in the 36-car field and stripped of his eight stage points he earned throughout the event, where he is now 56 points below the top-four cutline.

    *On Monday, NASCAR rescinded the penalty and disqualification levied to Blaney and the No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang team due to an issue with the damper template used for inspection during the race weekend debrief and following a detailed investigation. As a result, Blaney was rewarded his sixth-place result and stage points accumulated during the event as he is now only 17 points below the cutline.

    There were 20 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 36 laps. In addition, 26 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Results.

    1. Kyle Larson, 133 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

    2. Christopher Bell, 61 laps led

    3. Kyle Busch

    4. Brad Keselowski, 38 laps led

    5. Ross Chastain

    6. Ryan Blaney

    7. William Byron, one lap led

    8. Tyler Reddick

    9. Martin Truex Jr., nine laps led

    10. Denny Hamlin, 23 laps led

    11. Chris Buescher

    12. Joey Logano

    13. Bubba Wallace

    14. Aric Almirola

    15. Daniel Suarez

    16. Kevin Harvick

    17. Michael McDowell

    18. Austin Dillon

    19. Corey LaJoie

    20. Harrison Burton

    21. AJ Allmendinger

    22. Justin Haley

    23. Austin Cindric

    24. Ty Dillon

    25. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

    26. Ryan Preece

    27. Todd Gilliland, one lap down

    28. Erik Jones, one lap down

    29. JJ Yeley, one lap down, two laps led

    30. Brennan Poole, one lap down

    31. BJ McLeod, one lap down

    32. Chase Elliott, one lap down

    33. Chase Briscoe, four laps down

    34. Ty Gibbs, eight laps down

    35. Alex Bowman – OUT, Accident

    36. Carson Hocevar – OUT, Accident

    *Bold indicates Playoff contenders

    Playoff standings

    1. Kyle Larson – Advanced

    2. William Byron +9

    3. Martin Truex Jr. +2

    4. Denny Hamlin +2

    5. Christopher Bell -2

    6. Tyler Reddick -16

    7. Ryan Blaney -17

    8. Chris Buescher -23

    The second Round of 8 event in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to occur next Sunday, October 22, at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida. The event’s broadcast is slated to occur at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

  • Allmendinger dominates for third Cup career victory at Charlotte Roval; Playoff’s Round of 8 field set

    Allmendinger dominates for third Cup career victory at Charlotte Roval; Playoff’s Round of 8 field set

    Amid the on-track action and the battles between a bevy of Playoff competitors vying for spots to the Round of 8, AJ Allmendinger spoiled the party by flexing his road course muscles and capping off a dominant run by winning the sixth annual running of the Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on Sunday, October 8.

    The 41-year-old Allmendinger from Los Gatos, California, led twice for a race-high 46 of 109-scheduled laps in an event where he started sixth and endured various pit strategies and on-track battles against the field and Playoff contenders throughout the first two stage periods. After assuming the lead for the first time with 52 laps remaining over Playoff contender Kyle Busch, Allmendinger then surrendered the lead to pit along with most of the field under green with 39 laps remaining. But he was able to reassume the top spot with nearly 30 laps remaining amid a late caution period for an incident involving Playoff contender Denny Hamlin and when some competitors who had not yet pitted, did so.

    Starting with 31 laps remaining, Allmendinger then endured four extra caution periods and restarts, where he fended off late challenges from Playoff contenders Busch and William Byron along with rookie Ty Gibbs, to navigate his way to his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season, the third of his career and his first in more than two years.

    Allmendinger’s victory also occurred on a day when the second round of eliminations in the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs ensued. It left former Cup champions Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski, along with last year’s championship runner-up Ross Chastain, and Playoff newcomer Bubba Wallace, below the top-eight cutline and officially out of title contention for this season.

    With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, October 7, Playoff contender Tyler Reddick scored his third Cup pole position of the season and the sixth of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 102.839 mph in 81.214 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Christopher Bell, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 102.695 mph in 81.328 seconds.

    Prior to the event, Playoff contender Kyle Larson, and Ty Dillon, started at the rear of the field in backup cars after both separately wrecked into the wall and were unable to post a qualifying lap.

    When the green flag waved and the race started, Reddick, who opted to start on the outside lane, rocketed ahead from Bell and led the field through the first turn before the field navigated its way through the infield road course turns. With the field navigating its way through the road course turns and back onto the oval turns before entering the backstretch chicane, Reddick managed to retain the top spot from Bell as he made his way through the frontstretch chicane and led the first lap. By then, Reddick’s advantage over Bell was six-tenths of a second while Bubba Wallace, Daniel Suarez and AJ Allmendinger followed suit in the top five.

    Through the second to fourth lap, Reddick slowly stretched his advantage to nearly a second over Bell. As Reddick proceeded to lead the fifth lap by more than a second over Bell, Wallace retained third ahead of Suarez and Allmendinger while Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, rookie Ty Gibbs and Ross Chastain were running in the top 10. Behind, Denny Hamlin was in 11th ahead of William Byron, Michael McDowell, Martin Truex Jr. and Alex Bowman while Austin Dillon, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Preece and Chris Buescher occupied the top 20. Meanwhile, Kyle Larson, who dodged a spin by Erik Jones through the frontstretch chicane, was mired in 28th behind Chase Briscoe while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was on pit road after making contact with the wall and damaging a rear toe link to his No. 47 Harris Teeter/Totino’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

    Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Reddick continued to lead by eight-tenths of a second over Bell while Wallace, Suarez and Allmendinger remained in the top five. As Kyle Busch, Elliott, Ty Gibbs, Logano and Chastain continued to run in the top 10, Playoff contenders Hamlin, Byron, Truex, Blaney, Keselowski, Buescher and Larson were running 11th, 12th, 14th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 27th, respectively, while McDowell, Bowman and Austin Dillon were running in the top 16. Meanwhile, Preece was back in 20th ahead of teammate Aric Almirola, Cindric was running 22nd ahead of Corey LaJoie and Justin Haley, Kevin Harvick was mired in 26th ahead of Larson and Mike Rockenfeller was in 31st in between Briscoe and Austin Hill.

    Five laps later, Reddick’s lead extended back to more than a second over Bell while third-place Wallace trailed by more than four seconds. Behind, Suarez and Allmendinger continued to run in the top five while Elliott, Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, Logano and Chastain remained in the top 10.

    Another lap later, the first round of green flag pit stops commenced as Playoff contender Blaney pitted his No. 12 Discount Tire Ford Mustang followed by the No. 2 Menards Ford Mustang piloted by teammate Austin Cindric. Another two laps later, brothers Austin and Ty Dillon pitted along with Briscoe and Austin Hill while Playoff contender Brad Keselowski was assessed a pass-through penalty after NASCAR deemed he missed the frontstretch chicane. By the time Keselowski served his penalty at the Lap 20 mark and with Reddick continuing to lead, more drivers, including Larson, Justin Haley and Preece pitted under green.

    By Lap 21, more drivers, including Suarez, Allmendinger, Elliott, Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, Logano, Byron, McDowell, Buescher, Harvick and Zane Smith pitted under green while Hamlin, Bowman, Almirola and Josh Bilicki followed suit during Lap 22 as Reddick continued to lead ahead of Bell and teammate Wallace. Bell would then pit his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota TRD Camry under green on Lap 23 and just as pit road closed with the first stage period nearing its conclusion.

    When the first stage period concluded on Lap 25, Reddick, who came into the Charlotte Roval two points below the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings, captured his sixth Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Teammate Wallace settled in second ahead of Chastain, Truex and Bell, who executed his pit stop to only lose three spots while blending back on the track, while Suarez, Elliott, Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs and Allmendinger were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Hamlin, Byron, Blaney, Keselowski, Buescher and Larson were mired outside the top 10 on the track while all but one of 37 starters were scored on the lead lap. In addition, Mike Rockenfeller was serving a stop-and-go penalty for missing the backstretch chicane.

    Under the stage break, some led by Reddick, including those who remained on the track to gain stage points, pitted while the rest led by Bell remained on the track.

    The second stage period started on Lap 29 as Bell and Suarez occupied the front row. At the start, Bell, who made contact with Suarez, managed to rocket ahead from the outside lane and retain the lead through the first turn and the infield road course turns. As Elliott and Suarez bumped while battling for the runner-up spot ahead of the field through the road course turns and back on the oval turns, Bell muscled away with the lead as Kyle Busch and Allmendinger were in the top five. With more side-by-side battles ensuing through the backstretch chicane and back to the frontstretch, Bell retained the lead ahead of Elliott, Suarez, Kyle Busch and Allmendinger while Ty Gibbs, Hamlin, Logano, Byron and McDowell were in the top 10 at the Lap 30 mark.

    At the Lap 35 mark, Bell was leading by two-tenths of a second over Elliott followed by Suarez, Allmendinger and Kyle Busch while Ty Gibbs, Hamlin, Logano, Byron and McDowell were in the top 10. Behind, Bowman was in 11th ahead of Blaney, Buescher, Reddick and Larson while Cindric, Almirola, Austin Dillon, Chastain and Haley were mired in the top 20 ahead of Wallace, Josh Bilicki, Truex, Keselowski and Harrison Burton.

    Another lap later, Elliott muscled his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 beneath and past Bell through Turn 8 as he assumed the lead. With Elliott stretching his advantage to more than half a second through the frontstretch, Suarez, Allmendinger, Kyle Busch and Ty Gibbs started to close in on Bell for the runner-up spot while Hamlin trailed in seventh place. By then, Reddick carved his way up to the 12th while teammate Wallace was mired in 20th behind Chastain. In addition, Larson was in 15th behind Buescher and Blaney while Truex and Keselowski were back in 23rd and 24th. Meanwhile, Harvick was back in 36th after locking up his tires, missing the backstretch chicane and coming to a full stop to serve his penalty a few laps earlier.

    Just past the Lap 40 mark, Elliott was leading by more than three seconds over Bell while Allmendinger, Ty Gibbs, Kyle Busch, Suarez, Hamlin, Logano, Byron and McDowell were running in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Reddick, Buescher, Larson, Blaney, Chastain, Wallace, Truex and Keselowski were in 11th, 12th, 14th, 15th, 18th, 20th, 21st and 24th, respectively.

    Another lap later, a second wave of green flag pit stops commenced as Blaney pitted before Harrison Burton and Almirola pitted during the next lap. Playoff contender Kyle Busch would pit his No. 8 Lenovo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 along with Logano, Byron, Austin Dillon and Keselowski on Lap 43 before Allmendinger, Ty Gibbs, Suarez, Bowman, Cindric and Zane Smith peeled off the track to pit during the following lap. In the process, Elliott retained the lead through Lap 45 ahead of Bell, Hamlin, Reddick, Buescher and Larson.

    Then with three laps remaining in the second stage period and just after more names that included Playoff contender Buescher pitted, the caution flew after Josh Bilicki and Corey LaJoie made contact that resulted in LaJoie sending Bilicki into the wall in between Turns 3 and 4. Bilicki’s incident was enough for the second stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 50 to conclude under caution as Elliott, who was about to pit under green but elected to remain on the track during the incident, captured his second Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Playoff contenders Bell, Hamlin, Reddick, Larson, Chastain, Wallace and Truex followed suit from second to eighth while McDowell and Playoff contender Kyle Busch were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Byron, Blaney, Buescher and Keselowski were mired within the top 20 while all but two starters were scored on the lead lap. In addition, Hamlin, who came into the Charlotte Roval 50 points above the top-eight cutline, was able to accumulate enough points to clinch a spot in the Round of 8.

    During the stage break, some led by Elliott pitted while the rest led by Kyle Busch remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, McDowell’s pit crew went underneath the hood of the No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang amid a power steering issue.

    With 56 laps remaining, the final stage commenced under green as Kyle Busch and Ty Gibbs occupied the front row. At the start, Busch muscled ahead with the lead through Turn 1 while Allmendinger battled and overtook Gibbs for the runner-up spot. As the field navigated its way through the infield road course turns and back on the oval turns, Busch retained the lead while Byron, Logano and Buescher battled for fourth place in front of Blaney and Suarez. Amid more battles through the backstretch chicane, Busch retained the lead as he navigated back to the frontstretch chicane with runner-up Allmendinger trailing by three-tenths of a second.

    At the halfway mark in between Laps 54 and 55, Kyle Busch continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Allmendinger followed by Byron, Ty Gibbs and Logano while Buescher, Suarez, Blaney, Bowman and Keselowski were in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Reddick, Chastain, Larson, Wallace, Truex, Bell and Hamlin were mired in 19th, 24th, 25th, 27th, 28th, 30th and 32nd, respectively, while Cindric, Harvick, Austin Dillon, Preece and LaJoie were running in the top 15.

    Then with 52 laps remaining, Allmendinger made his move beneath Busch and moved his No. 16 Celsius Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead through Turn 8. With Busch now back in the runner-up spot and placed in a “must-win” situation to move into the Round of 8, Byron, Ty Gibbs and Buescher were in the top five while Logano, Suarez, Blaney, Bowman and Keselowski were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Larson, Wallace, Chastain, Truex, Bell and Hamlin were mired outside the top 20 on the track.

    With 45 laps remaining, Allmendinger extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Kyle Busch followed by Byron, Ty Gibbs and Buescher while Logano, Suarez, Blaney, Bowman and Keselowski were in the top 10 on the track. By then, Playoff contender Reddick was up to 15th and Larson was in 20th while Chastain, Wallace, Truex, Bell and Hamlin were mired in 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, and 29th, respectively. The current running order of the Playoff contenders currently places Keselowski, Chastain, Wallace and Kyle Busch below the top-eight cutline while Buescher, Bell, Reddick, Truex and Larson were currently scored above the cutline, with Larson just nine points ahead of Keselowski.

    Then two laps later, Elliott pitted his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 under green along with Harrison Burton. Playoff contender Keselowski would then pit his No. 6 Castrol Edge Ford Mustang during the following lap as he dropped to 17th by the time he blended back on the track while Allmendinger retained the lead ahead of Kyle Busch, Byron, Ty Gibbs and Buescher. Busch would then surrender the runner-up spot to pit under green with 40 laps remaining along with Briscoe and Erik Jones as Byron moved into the runner-up spot followed by Ty Gibbs. By then, Almirola was assessed a pass-through for missing the chicane while Hamlin spun after getting hit by Zane Smith through the frontstretch and just as McDowell fell off the pace after blowing a left front tire due to running over the curbs hard.

    With 39 laps remaining, a bevy of names led by Allmendinger peeled off the track to pit under green in response to McDowell’s issues while Blaney remained on the track to inherit the lead. With McDowell able to limp his No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang back to pit road, the race remained under green flag conditions as Blaney was scored the leader followed by Austin Dillon, Haley, Bell, Allmendinger and Kyle Busch. Bell, Austin Dillon and Chastain, who entered his pit stall in an awkward position with the right-rear tire sticking out after dodging Dillon on pit road, would pit under green with 37 laps remaining.

    Then with 34 laps remaining, the caution flew after Hamlin, who was running just outside the top 20, got loose and spun his No. 11 Mavis Tires & Brakes Toyota TRD Camry for a second time, this time through the frontstretch chicane as he was then hit by Mike Rockenfeller while Ty Dillon also went off the track as he was trying to avoid Hamlin. During the caution period, some led by Blaney and including Elliott pitted while the rest led by Allmendinger remained on the track.

    With the race restarting under green with 31 laps remaining, Allmendinger and Ty Gibbs dueled for the lead entering Turn 1 and through the infield road course turns before Gibbs muscled his No. 54 Interstate Batteries Toyota TRD Camry into the lead entering Turn 3. Then as the field made its way just past Turn 4, trouble struck behind as Austin Dillon and LaJoie wrecked, but the event remained under green flag conditions. Back at the front and as the field returned to the oval turns, Allmendinger made his move beneath Gibbs and reassumed the lead in Turn 8 as Byron and Kyle Busch closed in from behind. Amid the tight competition through the backstretch chicane and back to the frontstretch chicane, Allmendinger retained the lead from Ty Gibbs.

    Then a lap later, the caution flew after Erik Jones, who was caught in a three-wide battle with Stenhouse and Elliott entering Turn 2, was clipped by Stenhouse and sent for a spin before he hit the wall, came back down the track and was hit by McDowell while Playoff contender Truex barely dodged the incident. The incident was enough to terminate Jones’ day in the garage while McDowell managed to proceed. By then, Hamlin retired in 37th, last place, after failing to beat the Damaged Vehicle Policy clock in time to continue.

    During the following restart with 27 laps remaining, Allmendinger managed to rocket away from Ty Gibbs and retain the lead entering Turn 1 as the field fanned out entering the infield road course turns. With the field navigating through the turns and the oval circuit before entering the backstretch chicane, Allmendinger retained the lead by half a second over Ty Gibbs followed by Kyle Busch, Byron and Logano while Wallace, Bell and Larson engaged in a heated battle within the top 15 and to race their way into the Round of 8. Shortly after, Playoff contender Reddick engaged in a fierce battle with Logano for fifth place while Playoff contender Chastain was mired in 19th ahead of Elliott.

    Amid another caution period with 24 laps remaining after Andy Lally spun just past Turn 1 and tried to nurse his car the opposite way before entering pit road and coming to a stop, some led by Playoff contender Keselowski pitted while the rest led by Allmendinger remained on the track.

    As the race restarted with 22 laps remaining, Allmendinger managed to muscle away from Ty Gibbs entering Turn 1 to retain the lead. Behind, Kyle Busch and Gibbs made contact while battling for the runner-up spot as the field made its way through the infield road course turns and back on the oval turns. Then through the backstretch chicane, trouble struck for Playoff contender Wallace after Suarez briefly slid sideways while on the brakes and turned Cindric, who then turned Wallace’s No. 23 Leidos Toyota TRD Camry in the process as the latter two spun, but the event remained under green as Allmendinger retained the lead ahead of Ty Gibbs, Kyle Busch, Byron and Reddick. Amid their incidents, Wallace, who stopped on the frontstretch chicane after missing the backstretch chicane, and Cindric both pitted under green.

    Back on the track and with 20 laps remaining, Allmendinger was leading by more than a second over Ty Gibbs followed by Kyle Busch, Byron and Reddick while Logano, Buescher, Bowman, Preece and Larson were scored in the top 10. By then, Playoff contenders Chastain, Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Wallace were currently scored below the cutline while Larson and Truex occupied the final two transfer spots by 26 and 24 points, respectively.

    Then with 17 laps remaining, more trouble ensued after Playoff contender Keselowski spun through the frontstretch chicane while battling Playoff contender Chastain in the top 20, with Chastain missing the frontstretch chicane to avoid Keselowski, coming to a full stop for missing the chicane and eventually pitting his No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for service. With the race remaining under green, the caution would return the following lap after Bell, who was battling Suarez for 11th place, sent Suarez’s No. 99 Aguas Frescas Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 spinning backward and wrecking into the Turn 8 outside wall. During the caution period, some including Keselowski pitted while the rest led by Allmendinger, including the front-runners, remained on the track.

    Down to the final 13 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Allmendinger muscled ahead from the outside lane to retain the lead before Kyle Busch made his way into the runner-up spot over Ty Gibbs entering Turn 1. As the field made its way through the infield road course turns, the caution quickly returned after fire billowed out of the No. 47 entry piloted by Stenhouse in Turn 2, with the driver able to escape uninjured.

    With the race restarting with 10 laps remaining, Allmendinger rocketed ahead with the lead while Kyle Busch, who spun the tires on the restart, was locked in a battle against Byron for the runner-up spot, with Byron claiming the spot through the infield road course turns. As Allmendinger muscled away with the lead while the field navigated its way through the infield road course turns and on the oval turns, Busch was trailing the lead by more than a second with Allmendinger and Byron running first and second while Ty Gibbs and Logano were in the top five. By then, Playoff contenders Bell, Buescher, Reddick, Larson and Truex were scored above the top-eight cutline in the Playoff standings while Chastain, Wallace, Busch and Keselowski were scored on the outside.

    Down to the final five laps of the event, Allmendinger continued to lead by seven-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Byron while third-place Kyle Busch trailed by more than a second. With Ty Gibbs and Logano occupying the top five, Playoff contenders Reddick and Buescher were in sixth and seventh while Bowman, Elliott and Preece were in the top 10. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Larson, Blaney, Chastain, Bell, Wallace, Truex and Keselowski were in 11th, 12th, 13th, 15th, 19th, 20th and 21st, respectively.

    When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Allmendinger remained as the leader by four-tenths of a second over Byron while third-place Kyle Busch trailed by more than two seconds. With Byron unable to gain more ground through the infield road course turns, the remaining oval turns and the backstretch chicane, Allmendinger was able to place a reasonable gap between himself and Byron and navigate his way around the final set of turns before returning to the frontstretch and claiming the checkered flag by six-tenths of a second over Byron.

    With the victory, Allmendinger notched his third NASCAR Cup Series career victory, all on road course venues, and his first since winning the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in August 2021. He also recorded the second Cup career win for Kaulig Racing, the second for crew chief Matt Swiderski and the 16th of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate. Having won the Charlotte Roval four consecutive times from 2019 to 2022, Allmendinger became the fifth competitor overall to win a Cup event at the Roval alongside Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell.

    The victory for Allmendinger also comes as his status to race for Kaulig Racing either in the Cup or Xfinity Series in 2024 remains to be determined.

    Photo by John Knittel for SpeedwayMedia.com.

    “You don’t know when you’re going to [win] again,” Allmendinger, who fought tears of joy on the frontstretch, said on NBC. “I love all the men and women at Kaulig Racing so much. [My family and friends] see how much anguish and how much I put it on my shoulders when we’re struggling. It just means the world. I hate crying right now, but it’s a freaking Cup race, man, and you don’t know when it’s ever gonna happen again! Let’s go! Come on! This is why you do it. This is the only reason you do it. You fight all the blood, sweat, tears. Everybody at Kaulig Racing, it’s just been such a, I say, down year, but up-and-down year. It’s our second year in the Cup Series…Matt [Kaulig] and Chris [Rice], I freakin’ love you guys so much.”

    Meanwhile and amid Allmendinger’s victory, Kyle Busch, who ended up in third place behind Byron, was eliminated from the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs along with 10th-place finisher Ross Chastain, 16th-place finisher Bubba Wallace and 18th-place finisher Brad Keselowski.

    “That’s what we set out to do,” Busch said. “That’s what we felt like our road course program had in it, anyways, was for sure a top three, definitely a win. The guys gave me a great piece today. The Lenovo Camaro was pretty fast. Just lacked a little bit on the long run. Just didn’t quite have enough to have the feel of the tire that I was really looking for to be able to turn into the corners and to be able to drive out of the corners and keep pace with the front two at the end. Overall, this ride’s on me. The first two week’s of this round was, obviously, not very good and we didn’t score any points, so that’s where it’s at. It sucks to be out this early, but let us do Texas all over again and I feel like there and we’re ready.”

    “This weekend was incredible, just from the effort from the team, for myself, just all clicking and it felt really good to be competitive and run up front, pass cars on road courses, to not be fast, so a lot to look at,” Wallace said. “What I analyze is what could have I done to not be in that situation. Could I have been faster, passed another car, how to be better? To not put yourself when you’re racing around with squirrels. It is what it is. Just didn’t have enough and it wasn’t in the cards. Guess that’s what 30 is. I’m not mad. I’m happy for the team. I’m pumped for our season. It’s not over with it yet. I’m really excited for next week and Homestead, Martinsville. We still got four races to go out and do it. Proud of the team, so I appreciate them.”

    “We knew it coming in that it was gonna be tough,” Chastain said. “We put together a heck of a day for us on road courses this year. Lately, we’ve just been slower and slower. The curves are just, I can’t get over them. There’s a lot of reason I can’t break and we’ve reverted on some of that through Watkins Glen and to here, and it’s really paid off. So excited in the gains we’ve made because we came out of the box super strong last spring. It’s not over, right? We’ve signed ourselves for a long time together. I can’t wait to get to work in the morning for Vegas and every race after.”

    “You always want to be better,” Keselowski said. “The way the Playoffs work, it’s really not one race. The cutoff’s kind of make or break. It’s two or three races there. It ended up 20-some points back and you could probably look through each one of those races and say I could have got five or six here or more so. All in all, it was big progress from where we’ve been. Not the day we wanted to have and it certainly stinks to not advance, but a lot of progress from where we were last year and I’m looking forward to making another step going into next year so we can keep pushing. A rasonable season when we still got the opportunity to run fifth in points and win races over the next four weeks. We’ll make the most of that.”

    Amid the disappointments for Wallace, Busch, Chastain and Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr. was the sole survivor for a second consecutive round as he finished 20th and transferred into the Round of 8 by 12 points with Kyle Larson, who ended up 13th, also transferring by 13 points. As a result, both along with William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Chris Buescher, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney will square off against one another in the Round of 8 next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and battle for four championship finale spots.

    “I feel like we’ve just been slipping through these Playoffs by the skin of our teeth,” Truex said. “Today’s just another not very good day. First half of the race felt OK, but man, I get back in traffic and my tires were gone in five laps, so I’m not sure what we had going on there the second half of the race. Thankful we’re through. We live to fight another day and good racetracks are finally coming up for us instead of Talladega and the Roval, so I don’t know. We’ll see what we can do. I know we’re capable of it. We just got to find it again. We’ve lost something. Hopefully, we can find it this week and go do what we did earlier in the year.”

    “Feels good,” Larson said. “That was really stressful there at the end because we were really tight on the owner’s points and that’s what pays the money. I wanted to get in on that, but just huge thank you to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports and all four teams who pitched in to help all night yesterday and into the early morning today. It means a lot to me. Happy to advance and look forward to the next round, for sure. There are some great tracks for us. Let’s go win Vegas and go win these next four races. That would be amazing.”

    Rookie Ty Gibbs notched his fourth career top-five result in NASCAR’s premier series by finishing fourth on the track ahead of Logano while Reddick, Buescher, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott and Chastain completed the top 10.

    There were seven lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 18 laps. In addition, 33 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.

    Results.

    1. AJ Allmendinger, 46 laps led

    2. William Byron

    3. Kyle Busch, six laps led

    4. Ty Gibbs

    5. Joey Logano

    6. Tyler Reddick, 27 laps led, Stage 1 winner

    7. Chris Buescher

    8. Alex Bowman

    9. Chase Elliott, 15 laps led, Stage 2 winner

    10. Ross Chastain

    11. Ryan Preece

    12. Ryan Blaney, six laps led

    13. Kyle Larson

    14. Austin Dillon

    15. Christopher Bell, nine laps led

    16. Bubba Wallace

    17. Corey LaJoie

    18. Brad Keselowski

    19. Kevin Harvick

    20. Martin Truex Jr.

    21. Aric Almirola

    22. Justin Haley

    23. Todd Gilliland

    24. Harrison Burton

    25. Austin Cindric

    26. Josh Bilicki

    27. Austin Hill

    28. Chase Briscoe

    29. Mike Rockenfeller

    30. Zane Smith

    31. Ty Dillon

    32. Michael McDowell

    33. Daniel Suarez

    34. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Electrical

    35. Andy Lally – OUT, Accident

    36. Erik Jones – OUT, Accident

    37. Denny Hamlin – OUT, Dvp

    *Bold indicates Playoff contenders

    Playoff standings

    1. William Byron – Advanced

    2. Ryan Blaney – Advanced

    3. Denny Hamlin – Advanced

    4. Christopher Bell – Advanced

    5. Chris Buescher – Advanced

    6. Tyler Reddick – Advanced

    7. Kyle Larson – Advanced

    8. Martin Truex Jr. – Advanced

    9. Ross Chastain – Eliminated

    10. Bubba Wallace – Eliminated

    11. Brad Keselowski – Eliminated

    12. Kyle Busch – Eliminated

    The Round of 8 in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set to commence next Sunday, October 15, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event’s broadcast is slated to occur at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.