William
Bryon earned the Busch Pole Award Thursday evening at Charlotte Motor Speedway
for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600, becoming the youngest
pole winner in the event’s history.
The
21-year-old Charlotte native earned the pole in his Hendrick Motorsports No. 24
Chevrolet with a 183.424 mph
lap. It was his second Cup Series pole and the second this season after
starting up front for the season-opening Daytona 500.
“This is a dream
come true,” Byron said after qualifying. “Obviously I grew up in Charlotte and
came to this race every year. So, it’s a dream come true to qualify on the pole
with Hendrick Motorsports just across the street and all the hard work and
everybody at Chevrolet giving us fast race cars. This is pretty cool. I can’t
think of a better way to start the weekend.
“Winning the pole is a good
first step for this weekend. After all those nights of running the Summer
Shootout and Winter Heat around here (as a child), I spent a lot of time
wondering what it would be like to run the big track. It’s really cool (to win
the pole on it). I’ve run one (Coca-Cola 600) here and it didn’t go so great,
so the one thought I’ve had in my head this week was to make it better this
year, because honestly it was miserable last year. I’ve taken that and used it
as added motivation for this year. I don’t really like having the ‘youngest’
term attached to me. I’ve always been the young guy. I really just look at
myself as a race car driver.”
Aric Almirola
will start in second after a lap of 183.069 mph in his No. 10 Stewart-Haas
Racing Ford.
“I got
everything I could out of it,” he said. ” If somebody else gets in
there maybe they might be able to do something different, but I felt like I got
everything I could out of it. Surprisingly, it was a handful to drive so
I’m proud of that lap.”
The defending race
winner, Kyle Busch, qualified third in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at 182.933 mph. Austin Dillon will start
fourth with Kevin Harvick in fifth.
Daniel Suarez,
Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Daniel Hemric round out the
top 10 starting positions.
Jimmie Johnson, with
four Coca-Cola 600 wins (2003,
2004, 2005, 2014), will start in
15th.
Tune into the 60th running of the Coca-Cola 600 Sunday at 6 p.m. ET on FOX with radio coverage on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Follow @angiecampbell_ for the latest NASCAR news and
feature stories.
Byron, the 21-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina, won the pole for the 61st annual Daytona 500 on Sunday. But as Chad Knaus told Fox’s Mike Yocum, “He is a man. Not a kid.”
It was business as usual for the Liberty University college student.
“It is a good first start for us, but we got a lot more to do and that starts with the Duels on Thursday.”
Byron got his start in racing by a man named Dennis Lambert. Lambert was no slouch and challenged William but he also simplified it for him as well.
“He really helped me start my career,” Byron said. “Taught me a lot about driving. Learning from him, he was a challenge to me. He was really good in the cars and I could learn a lot from him. He made it simple and some people make it really complicated but he just made it simple for me and I think that has helped me along the way as well.”
He then moved up to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Series in 2015 where he ran the entire year with Justin Marks and Liberty University. This is the first step for many drivers that are currently in the Cup Series as they start their NASCAR career, and for Byron, it was beneficial beyond belief.
“It kinda taught me how it is to race in a big series for the first time,” said Byron. “Having some televised events and bigger tracks like Bristol, Iowa, Richmond. It kinda taught me the ropes of those tracks so I don’t forget.”
Byron racked up four wins, five top fives and he ran every single lap except for one at Winston-Salem, finishing off the year with his name above everyones on the top of the point standings.
After a K&N Pro Series East championship, it was time to take a step up as Kyle Busch Motorsports offered Byron a full ride in the No. 9 Truck with Liberty University at the helm for the 2016 season. Once again, nothing was stopping Byron as he tallied up his first win at Kansas followed by wins at Texas, Iowa, Kentucky and Pocono. Byron was neck and neck with Johnny Sauter all the way until the final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. And even though he did everything he could do (win the race, and score the most amount of points), it was just not enough as Sauter finished third and won the title by three points. That didn’t discourage Byron. In fact, the defeat did the exact opposite. It encouraged him to want it more.
With a bunch of determination, Byron took the next step toward his destination as JR Motorsports offered him the No. 9 Xfinity Series car with, once again, Liberty University, as his main sponsor. Obviously driving for the 14-time most popular driver in the highest NASCAR series, would be intimidating beyond belief for the average driver but for Byron, only just a tad.
“I mean, only a little at first,” he said. “I think you learn to block out the outside noise. What really matters is what is inside that car, what is inside that team, so if the team is really not letting it get to them I don’t let it get to me. I would say yeah, there is some added pressure but you got to make sure you live up to that by the way you do things and the way you approach things so I think you learn that over time. So, it’s about what is inside that team.”
If you didn’t believe Byron was intimidated driving for Dale Earnhardt Jr., his performance on the track didn’t tell anybody otherwise. Byron received the checkered flag first in Iowa, and seven days later captured another victory at the World Center of Racing, Daytona International Speedway. He followed that up with a win and a kiss at the yard of bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. When he needed to win, he succeeded by doing just that at the second to last race of the season at Phoenix and qualifying for the final 4 for the Championship at Homestead.
Nervousness? Hardly any at all. This is nothing new for Byron. Byron finished third in the race, the highest of all the drivers in the final four and won the 2017 Xfinity Series Championship.
So, what was next for Byron? Would he spend another year in the Xfinity Series or move up to Cup? He didn’t know.
There is one thing that will always advance drivers in any sport and that is winning. For Byron, that was no different, as he received the opportunity to move up to the Cup Series.
“Most opportunities came above other people by just winning,” Byton said. “You just need to win races so that is what afforded me to get this chance. That’s really what afforded me the opportunity in the Cup Series was winning and the championship and that’s kinda how it has gotten to me to this point so you really have to win to stay around.”
In what was a rough first season in the series for Byron (by his standards), he had zero wins, but it did seem like he was getting onto a streak toward the end of the year.
Now it is on to the 2019 season for the young Hendrick driver and while he returns to the same car for the season, he has a new superstar in his crew chief and that is Chad Knaus. Knuas has spent the last 17 seasons as the crew chief for Jimmie Johnson, the seven-time champ. It has since been a seamless transition between the two.
When asked if Johnson talked with Byron about working with Knaus and if he has given any advice to the young 21-year-old, Byron said, “We have talked a lot. Chad and I have talked.”
Johnson confirmed this during his media availability at the Daytona 500 Media Day, saying, “William and Chad have talked. I and William have talked. I think the situation that they are in, Chad is going to be able to bring so much to the table for William to make him grow to become the driver that he wants to be.”
What does the future hold for Byron? Time will tell. Many
of his competitors agree though, that Byron is definitely one to watch.
“You look at a guy that has probably the best equipment out there in William Byron.” Casey Mears said during Media Day. “I know he sat on the pole here for Daytona. He still has a lot to prove, you know? Watching last season, I don’t think Hendrick Motorsports was really where they needed to be last year as well. I’m really curious as to how he progresses now that he has a year under his belt and hopefully the team being a little down the road.”
This year’s expectations, though?
“Yeah obviously, playoffs, wins, those are great,” said Byron, “but we got to do the work first to get there. We are going to get through the first four and five races first and then once we get through the first four and five races, hopefully we are where we want to be and we can work from there to figure out how we can get better and go from there.”
William Byron is no normal 21-year-old. He is a star in the making.
Saying that the Hendrick Motorsports camp has a lock on Daytona 500 qualifying is like saying water is wet.
With William Byron scoring his first-career pole for the 2019 edition of the Great American Race, he joins the ranks of other Hendrick notables like Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, and even Ken Schrader in being the eighth HMS driver (and third in the No. 24) to win a 500 pole.
Yet with 13 poles and 12 outside-pole starts, Gordon, Darrell Waltrip, and Geoff Bodine are the only HMS drivers to win the 500 from the front row (Bodine started second in 1986 and Waltrip started second in 1989 while Gordon won from the pole in 1999).
Schrader was a three-time (’88, ’89, ’90) 500 pole winner, as well as a two-time winner of the Clash at Daytona (’89, ’90). But with a runner-up finish in the ’89 500, Schrader couldn’t seal the deal in the No. 25 Chevrolet, with a sixth-place run in ’88 and a 40th-place run in ’90 sandwiching his ’89 disappointment.
No more HMS drivers started on the front row until Gordon’s 500 win in ’99, then it was Jimmie Johnson on the front row in 2002, winning his first of two 500 poles and four front-row starts overall. His runner-up qualifying efforts in 2005 and 2015 were rewarded with a fifth-place finishes in both instances, but his ’02 and ’08 poles were met with 15th-place and 27th-place finishes, after spinning in both races. Despite all that, the seven-time series champion is a two-time 500 winner.
Despite being a three-time 500 winner and two-time 500 pole sitter, Gordon hasn’t had much 500 luck from the front row. Qualifying second in 2006, the No. 24 crew found themselves in a few scrapes before finishing 26th. Again qualifying second in 2011 and 2013, Gordon’s efforts were met with finishes of 28th and 20th, respectively. His pole run in 2015 was followed up with a dominant showing in the 500, where he led the most laps (87) before being turned around as the field was heading for the finish. He was credited with a 33rd-place finish.
Joining HMS in 2009, Mark Martin’s comeback season started off with a second-place qualifying run in the 500. However, five wins and a runner-up points finish masked a forgettable 16th-place finish in the 500, and not even a pole the next season in the 500 could bare any success: He finished 12th after leading 11 laps.
Earnhardt’s 2011 effort saw him put his No. 88 on the pole to put HMS on the 500 front row for the second-straight year after he qualified second in the 2010 event. But although he finished second in that event, ’11 saw him lead a meager nine laps before crashing and finishing 24th. He returned to the 500 front-row in 2017, but a crash while leading after halfway put the two-time 500 winner in 37th in the final running order.
Chase Elliott has two 500 poles to his credit (’16, ’17) but lacks the finishes to back up his qualifying efforts. His 500 debut in ’16 put him in the lead for three laps after starting first, but an early-race spin put him in 37th after extensive damage was made to the No. 24. In 2017 he led 39 laps but was shuffled out of the running order late in the race, finishing 14th in the final order.
The most recent 500 had HMS driver Alex Bowman on the pole, but a late-race involvement in The Big One left him in 17th even though he led 13 laps early on.
With all of this being said, the argument can be made that HMS has a lock on 500 qualifying, as mentioned before. But with three 500 wins from the front row in 33 years, the argument can also be made that the odds are not in the organization’s favor that they’ll put the No. 24 or the No. 88 in Victory Lane even though come Sunday Byron and Bowman will be leading the field to the green flag.
Regardless, being on the front row for the 500 hasn’t proven that successful for an organization that has eight 500 wins despite the fact. The odds may not be in favor for two of the drivers, but with established drivers like Johnson and Elliott picking up the slack, things are evened out so there may be an HMS Chevy in Victory Lane regardless.
Kyle Busch won at ISM Raceway in the Can-Am 500 as the Championship 4 is set for the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series. It was his eighth victory of the season and the 51st of his Cup career.
“I’d like to think it gives us a lot (of momentum), but I don’t know – talk is cheap,” said Busch in the newly designed Gatorade Victory Lane, a part of the $178 million renovation project at the 1-mile raceway. “We’ve got to be able to go out there and perform and just do what we need to do. Being able to do what we did here today was certainly beneficial. I didn’t think we were the best car, but we survived and we did what we needed to do today. It’s just about getting to next week and once we were locked in, it was ‘all bets are off and it’s time to go.’”
Adam Stevens, crew chief for the No. 18 M&Ms Toyota, and team owner Joe Gibbs addressed the media as they head into the final race of the 2018 season.
“Well, I think it’s important to come into the last race firing on all cylinders,” Stevens said about today’s victory. “And it’s hard to do that when you’re just riding around trying to score points. It’s not like we were throwing caution to the wind by any means. The job that we set out to do is to win the championship, and to do that you’ve got to beat them all.”
Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano will join Busch in the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Logano crashed early in the race and did not join the others in the press conference.
“We just got a little bit of luck, a little bit of ‘right place, right time’ kinda thing,” Truex shared when discussing the various wrecks that happened in front of him. “One last hurrah next week and we’re gonna go give ’em all we got.”
“I think we have a chance every time we show up,” Harvick shared assessing his chances to win his second career Cup championship. “Our guys are doing a great job. Obviously, to accomplish everything we did this weekend was quite the feat without your crew chief and car chief, but Tony Gibson and Nick did a great job filling in. Everybody kept their head about them and we were competitive all weekend.”
William Byron also locked up the Rookie of the Year standings with his ninth-place effort.
“I take away my growth as a person and our growth as a team,” Byron told the media. “I think of road course races were really good. I feel like I’m in a good position for next year.”
Harvick-Chase Battle Creates Early Drama in Stage 1
The first two stages were split by 75 laps each. The remaining 162 laps would be scheduled for the final stage. As the green flag dropped, Harvick would show the way early, but throughout most of the run, Elliott was within a second of him. After the race last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, most of the bottom four drivers were in a must-win situation. But since Wednesday’s announcement of Harvick’s penalty, there was hope for some drivers to possibly sneak in on points.
About 20 laps into the race, Elliott started inching his way closer to the rear bumper of Harvick, but as they started to approach lapped traffic, Harvick looked to claw his way through the field better and was able to put some distance between them. Elliott was completely silent on the radio, presumably happy with the handling of his Napa Chevrolet.
With three laps to go, tragedy struck for Harvick as he had a flat tire and had to come to pit road. Elliott inherited the lead and won Stage 1. Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch also finished in the top-10 and gained valuable bonus points. Elliott won the battle off pit road. Paul Menard stayed on pit road as the team lifted the hood and appeared to begin examining the engine. Harvick ended up going one lap down, and since he pit after pit road was closed (two laps to go in the stage), he was not eligible for the free pass under yellow, or the wave-around. At this point, Harvick and Truex would be knocked out of the Championship 4; Truex and Kurt Busch were tied in points, but Busch wins the tie-breaker with a better finish because he was second at this time, despite Truex finishing third at Martinsville.
Kurt Busch Shows Strength in Stage 2
On the restart, Kurt Busch fought hard on the outside to take over the lead from Chase Elliott. Elliott then had to fight off Ryan Blaney for a couple of laps but eventually settled into the second position.
With about 55 laps to go in the stage, Harvick made his way into the “Lucky Dog” position. One lap later, Joey Logano got a flat left-rear tire and crashed going into Turn 1. He is already locked in with his win at Martinsville, but this helped Harvick get himself back onto the lead lap. However, the carnage was just beginning.
Clint Bowyer crashes at the entrance to Turn 3, then drives away. Photo by Rachel Schuoler for Speedway Media.
With roughly 30 laps to go, Clint Bowyer crashed to bring out the yellow, ending his championship hopes. On pit road, lots of strategies took place, including a penalty. Roughly eight of the lead lap cars elected not to pit, but most of the other leaders came to pit road. Kurt Busch was caught passing the pace car and served a one-lap penalty.
It was addressed in the driver’s meeting, and we’ve seen similar penalties throughout the year. When entering pit road, the leader usually accelerates to create a gap between their car and the cars behind, a slight advantage that can be huge in certain circumstances. However, the leader is not allowed to pass the pace car before entering pit road. In this case, the nose of the No. 41 Haas Automation Ford was just ahead of the pace car before the first yellow line signaling the start of pit road. Even though he was in the lead at the time of the yellow, and won the battle off pit road, he would be served a penalty that would put their team one lap down.
Kyle Busch was one of the first cars out with fresh tires. He easily took over the top spot a couple of laps into the restart, winning Stage 2. Martin Truex Jr. finished third, and Kevin Harvick battled his way back up to the fourth position, making the “Big 3” the big discussion once again. Some of the leaders stayed out, preventing a “free pass” car and keeping Kurt Busch one lap down. Other drivers on older tires came to pit road for either two or four tires.
Championship Contenders Go Wild in the Final Stage
The field races through the new Turns 3 & 4 after one lap taking the green flag for a restart at ISM Raceway. Photo by Rachel Schuoler for Speedway Media.
With 160 laps to go, Kyle Busch would keep the lead ahead of Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney. At this time, most of the championship contenders were running in the top-11, except for Logano and Bowyer, who was out of the race. Kurt Busch was still stuck one lap down in the “Lucky Dog” position.
Green flag pit stops began as the race approached 85 laps to go. During some of the pit stops, including while Harvick was on pit road, Tanner Berryhill spun at the entrance of pit road. He did a great job of correcting the car to continue on, but not before NASCAR had to throw a yellow flag. The rest of the field came to pit road, but Elliott sped on pit road, forcing his No. 9 car to the rear of the field. Kurt Busch was the “Lucky Dog”, but most of the field elected for the wave-around.
On the restart, the Playoffs started to come into play for every point possible. We saw the field go three, even four wide in the dogleg. Blaney slowed suddenly and came to pit road. Harvick continued to claw his way up along with teammate Kurt Busch. As the two were getting around the lapped car of David Ragan, he appeared to slip entering Turn 3. Harvick misjudged his speed and got into the rear of Ragan and spun him out to bring out the sixth caution flag. A couple of drivers were toward the end of the field, but Kyle Busch visited pit road so his crew could examine some minor damage as he was outside of Harvick during that contact.
The field took the green again for a few laps, and just when the race seemed to mellow for a brief moment, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. took a hard hit to the outside wall in Turn 1. The rear end of the car was completely destroyed and even a brief fire ensued while he was still spinning. NASCAR displayed the red flag for 10 minutes with so much fluid coming from the No. 17. At this time, Kurt Busch was one point ahead of Harvick for the fourth and final Championship spot. However, that would quickly change.
As the field took the green, Erik Jones started to the inside of Kurt Busch but Jones got loose in the middle of Turns 1 & 2, forcing Busch up the track slightly. No harm was done, but Denny Hamlin made an aggressive move to get by both drivers. He couldn’t clear Busch in time and pinched him in the wall. However, with the championship on the line, Busch didn’t back out and stayed in the throttle. As he bounced off the wall, he continued to collide with Hamlin, eventually spinning him out and collecting Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott along the backstretch. That eventually ended the day for Busch as the damage clock expired, and his brother Kyle Busch officially locked himself into the Championship 4 on points. Elliott rejoined the track and was able to maintain minimum speed, but ran three laps down in the 24th position.
The sun sets behind the grandstands as Kyle Busch pulls away to his 51st career NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series win. Photo by Rachel Schuoler for Speedway Media.
The Cup drivers went racing again with about 30 laps to go. However, with all the nose damage on Bowman’s No. 88 Chevrolet, he went up in a ball of fire and smoke at the end of the frontstretch, causing him to crash in Turn 2 alongside pit entrance. NASCAR had to throw another red flag to clean up the incident. At this point, Harvick was back in the good on points. Aric Almirola was the only other driver left that could steal a spot in the Championship 4 if he won at ISM Raceway. Almirola was running fourth at the time when the field went back under yellow. Some of the leaders elected for a pit stop, including Kyle Larson, who took four tires and would restart in the eighth position.
This restart would be the first time for the Cup Series facing speedy dry in Turns 1 and 2. On Friday night, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race had a restart with speedy dry in the first set of turns that prevented Grant Enfinger from getting a strong restart against Noah Gragson and Brett Moffitt. However, this wouldn’t faze Kyle Busch as he pulled away from a hard-charging Almirola but he got a second chance as Berryhill crashed to bring out another caution flag on the track.
With about 15 laps to go, the field took the green flag but Almirola appeared to just not have the right setup to run with Kyle Busch on the outside. Brad Keselowski tried to push him through to the front, but that caused Almirola to go wide through Turns 1 and 2. Keselowski was able to get by both him and Harvick to put a late race charge toward the lead, but there just wasn’t enough time to catch Busch.
“It certainly feels really good,” Busch said in the media center after celebrating his win with the fans. “It feels good to go off into next week with a win under our belt and hopefully do it again.”
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race Unofficial Race Results for the 31St Annual Can-Am 500 – Sunday, November 11, 2018 ISM Raceway – Avondale, AZ – 1 Mile Paved
We are down to a game of musical chairs. Four spots, with eight drivers who very much want one of them. Let me just say that musical chairs sucks. When you are a reserved fat kid, the more athletic aggressive lads are going to go after those seats hard. Also, you will never be a hero dropping a young lady on her ass. Fortunately for the gents at Martinsville on Sunday, not a young lady to be found. No fat kids, either, come to think of it.
A fat aggressive butt might be useful, but not as much as a fast aggressive Busch with a good cushion in points coming in. Kyle Busch came in with a 40 point advantage over the outsiders and was third in the opening stage to bump his margin up by one. Hey, every point counts, as seven of eight contenders added to their totals in that initial run, with Chase Elliott being the lone exception. As for Bill’s boy, he fell from fourth to seventh in points locked and secured in the bank at that point, but they had a lot more racing left on the day.
As long as the car stays together, that is. During the fueling intermission, Clint Bowyer had moved to within a couple of points of Elliott’s replacement in fourth, Joey Logano, when he made hard contact with William Byron in the pits. Surprisingly, his car showed little damage. Instead of a Ford, he must have been driving something made from Tonka. Martin Truex Jr. tested it further during the run, as the pair made some contact in the tight corners.
Bowyer and five others among our contenders managed stage points in the middle frame. Logano dominated to gain the max amount of points, with Kyle Busch again third. Denny Hamlin, who won that first round, was second this time out. Some guys do not need to be part of no stinkin’ playoffs to make themselves relevant. Neither Kevin Harvick or Aric Almirola collected any bonuses, but the former was still more than 30 to the good. Almirola, on the other hand, seemed about to make like the Titanic and sink out of view. You could almost hear the band playing.
Truex had some issues going through spec and started this one at the back of the field. He had never won at a short track. He took the lead from Logano with 140 of the scheduled 500 laps to go as weather threatened to move in. That was exciting. It was for about 15 laps when Logano charged back in front.
We had not seen much of Brad Keselowski. Neither had Logano until his teammate passed him with just over 40 miles to go. Only eight drivers mattered coming in, but nobody told the 2012 Cup champion.
Bowyer was one who mattered coming in. However, a spin with about 20 miles to go when track position mattered a lot did him no favors. The caution, on the other hand, was welcomed by a few others. Logano and Kyle Busch hit the green up front, while Keselowski and Hamlin were right behind them. It was the contenders against the pretenders for a big ole grandfather clock awaiting the winner in Victory Lane.
Keselowski could not care less about playing nice with the playoff posse. He roughed up Busch to take over second. He roughed up his teammate but Logano held him off. That is when Truex, who was in the third row for the re-start, re-emerged to tango with Logano, to make a bid for that elusive short-track victory as the pair went fender to fender over the final three miles.
They were rubbing. They were banging. They were sliding. It was Logano coming across the line to punch his ticket to Homestead. It marked his second of the season and the 20th victory of his Cup career.
With Truex out of shape, he had to settle for third as Hamlin got by him on the inside. The result means Logano has one of the four seats reserved for Homestead. Kyle Busch is 46 points to the good, with Harvick and Truex sitting 25 on the sunny side. Kurt Busch finds himself 25 away, while Elliott, Bowyer, and Almirola needing to win at Texas or Phoenix to steal a chair or two from the Big Three.
Musical chairs suck…unless you are watching the pratfalls from the sidelines. One thing to watch for in Homestead is Logano finding the wall instead of the championship. Truex is already installing the sights in his car as we speak.
If only I could time travel. Going back a few days, I could have been able to pin-point exactly what one needed to do to win at Talladega on Sunday.
1. Drive a Ford.
2. Work for Tony Stewart and Gene Haas.
3. Save fuel.
4. Do not lead until after the final turn.
It would not work next year, with the new rules packages coming in. However, last Sunday, it would have been spot on.
As it turned out, only 14 drivers mattered. If they were not behind the wheel of a blue oval, they did not stand a chance. Of the 193 laps they eventually ran, only nine were led by someone in another make of car, five of those by William Byron in a Chevy.
If you were working for Stewart-Haas, you were among the Top Four all day long. Those four led the opening two segments, actually running far beyond anyone else especially over the opening 55 laps.
A lot of cars ran out of fuel coming to the green flag as they embarked on over-time. Kevin Harvick was among them, as that SHR entry wound up in 28th. Kurt Busch ran out of petrol while leading coming out of Turn Four in sight of the finish line. He wound up 14th.
Between them, Harvick and the elder Busch led 154 laps. Not a place to be if you wanted to save on fuel. Now, sitting third and fourth, especially on that final run to glory, paid dividends. Aric Almirola was fourth for most of the day, moved to third when it counted, and crossed the line ahead of team-mate Clint Bowyer for the victory. Almirola’s win locked him into the next round of the playoffs, along with Harvick and Dover winner Chase Elliott. Kyle Busch is a sneeze away from being there himself, while his brother and Joey Logano are not a lock, but both are still 30 to the good. As for the hopes for six others, it all hinges on what happens next Sunday at Kansas.
It was one of the most impressive team races in NASCAR history. All four Stewart-Haas entries were disciplined. They opened up spots for their team-mates on re-starts, stayed tight together up front, and stayed that way right to the end. No one could touch them. They tried, but as veterans Jeff Burton and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. pointed out from the broadcast booth what the rest had to do to challenge as the laps counted down, the boys on the track seemed to toss away those opportunities on every turn.
Next Sunday, Byron has to win to advance. Kyle Larson is 26 points out. Ryan Blaney is 22 away. Brad Keselowski finds himself 18 on the outside, behind Martin Truex, Jr. and 21 in Bowyer’s rear view. Not an impossible gap, but not an easy one to see disappear.
Hope is not buoyed for the rest by the knowledge that the most recent winners at Kansas were named either Harvick or Truex the past four visits there, or the guy before that was Kyle Busch. Logano won it twice prior to that, sandwiching Jimmie Johnson’s third win at the venue. The seven time champion has just four more chances to win one final time with Chad Knaus on his pit box before the pair end their race day alliance at the end of the season. Together they have won at least once every season since 2002.
If a contender does not do it this upcoming weekend, I think a Johnson and Knaus celebration would be a fan favorite. I would love to tell you how it ends but, alas, that time traveler thing has not worked out for me. If it had, I would have gotten extremely rich betting against the polls a couple of years ago.
The Charlotte Roval promised to be chaotic, a fantasy design straight out of the old video games that was going to tear cars up and dash hopes. Well, that narrative did not pan out, at least in the early going on Sunday. As for the ending, well, that was another story.
It was different, but it was racing. Going in, we knew Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones needed to do very, very well to keep their championship hopes alive. They did not. We knew Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer needed to do better than the likes of Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon, Alex Bowman, and Ryan Blaney to make themselves happy and upset those they were chasing. As we neared the midway of the contest, things remained close enough that we still did not know how things were going to play out
Aric Almirola looked safe, coming in 23 points to the good, but when William Byron blew a tire late in the middle frame and bobbled he caused the then 11th placed Almirola to flinch. That saw him pound the fence on the way by. They came in for repairs and then got tagged with a tire violation. That was all it took for him to find himself on the outside trying to get back to the table with the cool kids.
However, when it came to actual points in the bank, he was still nine up after the two stages. Among the five battling for the final three berths into the next round of the Playoffs, only five points now separated second stage winner Blaney, Dillon, Bowyer, Johnson, and Bowman, in that order. Their fate at the finish was going to decide things between them unless someone else had their luck run out on them.
Dillon’s fortunes dipped a tad when he tried to avoid a slow Chris Buescher. In doing so, he went high into the marbles and battered the passenger side of his beast along the wall. That required some repair, even more than what it received. A short time later the tire blew, he hit the barrier yet again and Dillon was done, leaving a vacancy at the inn.
Meanwhile, Almirola was doing his best to provide another. He went for another spin and went bowling for dollars with the infield advertising signs. At the same time, Buescher did him one better and actually hooked up a sign for Echo Park Automotive and had it waving behind him for part of a lap before the pit crew detached it. Best advertisement moment of the entire weekend. Echo Park Automotive, a used-car dealer based in Charlotte, a subsidiary of Sonic Automotive. Echo Park, for all your automotive needs.
With seven to go, more than a few automobiles had some needs emerge. On a re-start, Brad Keselowski charged into turn one. Literally. He hit. Kyle Busch got caught up in it but, like Keselowski, he already had his pass to the next round of the dance. Kyle Larson, a contender all day, saw his auto all bent and busted. Almirola got caught in a rapidly stopping traffic jam. Those two had looked good to advance, but now it depended on how many points they might drop, who might be able to take advantage, with little time left. Meanwhile, Bowman and Bowyer were still fighting for one spot, or would there be more room at the hostelry opening up for them both?
As it turned out, yes there was. Blaney advanced with a win, as third place became first place in the final chicane. Johnson went for the win, taking himself and Martin Truex Jr. out of the running when they collided.
Larson, sitting now in a pile of junk, was out of it, we thought. His car was bouncing off the wall on the right side after blowing a tire, but he kept the bucket of bolts running forward, but not quickly. He needed to pass somebody to advance. Sitting just shy of the line, after being spun out, was the idle solitary car of Jeffrey Earnhardt. It sat 100 yards short of the finish. It did not move until Larson passed him. It took an eternity, but Larson went by Earnhardt, got the point, and that left us with a three-way tie in the standings. Only two would advance. Larson was given the nod, followed by Almirola, leaving Johnson, despite finishing eighth, the guy left on the outside.
Johnson was in, but in trying for the win, he got knocked out by the smallest of margins. As for Larson, he needs to thank the guy who spun Earnhardt out just shy of the line, that left him available to pass, the guy who made Larson’s continued hopes possible.
Ty Dillon and Daniel Hemric finished 22nd and 23rd respectively, but not before taking Earnhardt out in the final chicane. Definitely Daniel, and possibly Ty as well, deserve much thanks from Larson for the deed. He owes them big time.
Domination and elimination was the story from Michigan on Sunday afternoon. Kevin Harvick dominated and eliminated everyone else from view. He dominated the opening stage. He overcame another pit road miscue that cost him five spots between stages, but he eliminated the danger to come back to claim that, too. As for the money run, he cashed in big time to eliminate everyone else from the storyline. Well, everyone but one. I’ll get to him in a moment.
Denny Hamlin started on the pole, but he was eliminated from our consciousness despite finishing eighth. Kyle Busch was beside him at the start, but he did not matter for the most part despite finishing third. Harvick at least was gracious enough to allow both of his main rivals some cameo time up front. Martin Truex Jr. seemed eliminated only to rise again and then get stomped right back down. William Byron spun him out in the opening stage. Truex came back, led a bit but ran out of fuel near the end of the second. He came in while the pits were closed for a penalty. A tire was left unattended, and he got tagged with another. Truex finished 14th.
In the middle frame, Chase Elliott was eliminated from contention when he had to come in early due to a loose tire. He finished ninth. Kyle Larson also had a tire issue and he also had to pit early. That helped eliminate him from contention, wrapping up the day in 17th. For Erik Jones, it was one damn thing after another. A spin early in the opening stage, only to get spun by Ryan Blaney in the second, and he came home in 13th.
Brad Keselowski finished second, but few noticed. Austin Dillon did get noticed, having his first quality result since winning the Daytona 500. He picked up a flat tire on the final lap, yet still brought the car across the line in fourth. At least somebody other than someone named Harvick had a notable day.
Harvick won his seventh of the season, the 44th of his career to tie Bill Elliott on the all-time list, yet even he got eliminated from consideration as the most talked about Harvick out there. When it came to post-race activities, it was six-year-old Keelan Harvick who dominated.
Dad might have tons of charisma, but the son won in that category walking away. Literally. With the winning car parked on the finish line, Keelan was brought out to walk across the track to fetch the checkered flag. Then Dad put the lad on the passenger side of the car and, with the boy waving the checkers out the window, they drove together to Victory Lane. When the suds were done being splashed, Keelan was taken out of the car and handed a bottle of water to celebrate. He did, splashing dad’s public relations guy Josh Jones from stem to stern, much to the delight of Kevin’s crew chief Rodney Childers and all those watching, including young Keelan himself. Dad won the race, the son continued to win our hearts.
It was a race to watch, again thanks to NBC. The commentary, the chemistry, the insight, and the pure entertainment value kept us watching the action. It was a single groove track, with the outside lane dominating the inside except for those rare moments when a bit of side drafting before diving down in the corners allowed for a pass. It was a single car event, with a few cameos to at least give the false hope the others might compete against the most dominant car on the day. It ended with a father and a son sharing some life-long memories and sharing those moments with us.
On a day when outside my window it poured rain all day, Kevin and Keelan Harvick and NBC provided some much-appreciated sunshine. It was a broadcast that made my Sunday all that more joyful for having just been a part of it.
Now, off to Bristol for a Saturday night of bumping and banging under the lights. There is no question as to what my plans will be.
William Byron is an under the radar rookie that has grabbed some attention within the last few weeks. His development and growth since he joined Hendrick Motorsports in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series have been starting to show with the last two results.
Rumors around the garage and grandstands on weekends were that the young driver from Charlotte probably moved up too fast into NASCAR’s top series. Also, the communication with Crew Chief Darrion Grubb perhaps wasn’t as good as it should be.
With all that being said, it’s too late now. Byron is a Cup driver and will be for many years to come. Now he is slowly showing critics that he has the potential that was expected from many early on in the year.
With an average finish of 19.4, things are slowly shifting for him and his team. The speed in the Chevrolets is also improving as we have seen from numerous teams in the last few weeks. Running in the top-10 has been something that Byron has been able to do in the last two races. That’s a major step forward from earlier in the season.
An important factor that has boosted Byron’s confidence is leading laps. At Pocono, two weeks ago, he elected to stay out of the pits under a caution which put him up front. The result was leading 10 impressive laps.
All the attention at Watkins Glen this weekend was focused on teammate Chase Elliott after he held off Martin Truex Jr. for the win, but Byron quietly had a great run.
Running in the top-15 most of the time and making his way up to the top-10 toward the end of the race made people take note of the young driver’s talent. That he did so on a road course stunned many people in a positive way about the driver.
“I feel like we are just getting faster and it’s just being easier. I don’t know if we hit everything just right today, but it was easier to run where we were. It’s fun, it’s getting there. I’m excited,” Byron said.
The sensation of speed and confidence is showing and you can tell that he has developed a comfort with the Cup car. With four races left to the start of the Playoffs, the No. 24 team could be a team that can surprise people.
Don’t count the young driver out of reaching victory lane later on in the season as his development continues to evolve.
If we determine who is an actual contender, versus being just a pretender race in and race out, based on an average 20th place result, our field would be reduced to 22. Add William Byron and Jamie McMurray to the bottom of our list, and that is all you need to be concerned about. 357 points in 21 races is the line between the haves and the have-nots, from the front to the back of the pack. Except for this race.
Watkins Glen forces you to expand that to the one guy who is averaging 21st each week, 16 points per race. He is the guy who is known for being a left and right expert. He is A.J. Allmendinger. The Dinger has one career win. It was at the Glen four years ago. He has a couple of Top Fives there, as well. Six Top Tens in nine attempts. This is where a nobody can become a somebody, and A.J. has made himself known before. While Kyle Busch or Martin Truex Jr. could just as likely win it, an Allmendinger win would truly mess up the plans of some others.
He wins on Sunday, and he jumps from 23rd on our charts to eighth, and a lock to be in the Chase. He wins, and Alex Bowman goes from nearly 60 points in, to more than 50 out, just by doing what he has been doing each week. Jimmie Johnson becomes the bubble boy and needing to step it on up just in case another of those outside the Top Sixteen in the standings gets some ideas about shaking up some bubbly of their own later this month.
It all depends on Allmendinger on Sunday. If he can shift from second to third, instead of down to second, he could be a contender. Let us just pretend that Sonoma did not happen.
1. KYLE BUSCH – 6 WINS (891 Pts)
He wins every five years at the Glen (2008, 2013), so will he continue the trend?
2. KEVIN HARVICK – 6 WINS (833 Pts)
Forget the penalty points hit after Pocono. He was never going to catch Rowdy in that department.
3. MARTIN TRUEX JR. – 4 WINS (762 Pts)
Won it last year, so if you were wondering if the Big 3 might contend, you have your answer.
4. CLINT BOWYER – 2 WINS (677 Pts)
Fourth is the best the man from Emporia, Kansas has done in New York.
5. JOEY LOGANO – 1 WIN (690 Pts)
Top Tens in four of the last five runs there, including a win in 2015.
6. ERIK JONES – 1 WIN (533 Pts)
If Stanley comes aboard next season, will that give him the tools needed to win more?
7. AUSTIN DILLON – 1 WIN (402 Pts)
Got his win back in February, so he is fine…at least, until the Chase begins.
8. KURT BUSCH – 677 POINTS
His teammate is Kevin Harvick. Last week, his wife’s teammate was the Duke of Sussex.
9. BRAD KESELOWSKI – 644 POINTS
Running Xfinity again this weekend. The bad news for him is, so is Christopher Bell.
10. KYLE LARSON – 626 POINTS
On Monday and Tuesday, joins Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne for the Osky Challenges in Iowa.
11. DENNY HAMLIN – 618 POINTS
Like all but seven others, he has no wins, but Sunday is one he has won before.
12. RYAN BLANEY – 612 POINTS
His uncle Dale is a six-time champion of the All Star Circuit of Champions.
13. ARIC ALMIROLA – 587 POINTS
Last week, he collided with Harvick in the pits, then upset Matt DiBenedetto battling for 25th.
14. CHASE ELLIOTT – 569 POINTS
The new face of Chevrolet. As of late, he might be the only face.
15. JIMMIE JOHNSON – 547 POINTS
Chevy does have a presence in the Chase, but most of that presence can be found down here.
16. ALEX BOWMAN – 496 POINTS
10th, 14th, 15th, and 16th are not going to sell a lot of cars Monday after the race Sunday.
17. RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – 440 POINTS
Bowman can take the weekend off and still be in the Chase…unless a certain someone wins.
18. PAUL MENARD – 440 POINTS
Make that, two certain someones.
19. RYAN NEWMAN – 408 POINTS
Okay, okay. Unless someone down here wins, Bowman is fine.
20. DANIEL SUAREZ – 400 POINTS
His gloves, and those of 35 others, might appear a bit familiar to fans of Dale, Jr.
