“We proudly welcome Michael Jordan into the NASCAR family, and look forward to watching Michael, Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace compete in 2021. Michael is an iconic sports figure and celebrated champion whose fiercely competitive nature has placed him among the greatest athletes of all time. His presence at NASCAR’s top level will further strengthen the competition, excitement and momentum growing around our sport. We wish Michael and his team tremendous success.”
Basketball legend Michael Jordan has agreed to purchase a NASCAR Cup Series Charter and Bubba Wallace will be the driver for “His Airness” and partner Denny Hamlin when the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season begins.
Jordan, widely considered to be the greatest basketball player of all time and current owner of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, will be the majority owner of a NASCAR Cup Series team. Wallace, the series’ lone Black driver in the midst of a career-best season, has found a home after announcing earlier this month that he would not return to Richard Petty Motorsports.
RELATED: Silly Season’s key figures
Also announced Monday was news that Hamlin would also be a minority owner of the single-car team. Hamlin has long been connected to Jordan through the latter’s Jordan Brand, and the two are close friends.
“Growing up in North Carolina, my parents would take my brothers, sisters and me to races, and I’ve been a NASCAR fan my whole life,” Jordan said in a news release. “The opportunity to own my own racing team in partnership with my friend, Denny Hamlin, and to have Bubba Wallace driving for us, is very exciting for me. Historically, NASCAR has struggled with diversity and there have been few Black owners. The timing seemed perfect as NASCAR is evolving and embracing social change more and more.
“In addition to the recent commitment and donations I have made to combat systemic racism, I see this as a chance to educate a new audience and open more opportunities for Black people in racing.”
The Jordan-Hamlin ownership group indicated that the organization’s name, manufacturer affiliation, car number, sponsors and other details would be announced later. The group indicated that it struck an agreement to acquire the team charter from Germain Racing.
Hamlin will remain a driver of the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, where his Cup Series career began in 2005. He has six wins this year and is one of the favorites to win the 2020 championship.
Hamlin said he met Jordan at a Charlotte Bobcats (now Hornets) game 11 years ago. Their friendship blossomed as he became the first NASCAR driver with an endorsement by Jordan Brand, and Monday night’s announcement was a next-level extension of their partnership.
Though other details of the new team’s formation had not been announced, Hamlin said “deciding on a driver was easy — it had to be Bubba Wallace.”
Wallace has made 105 career starts at NASCAR’s top level, all of them with RPM. He has five top-10 finishes this year, including a fifth-place run in the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway, which is also site of his career-best finish – runner-up in the 2018 Daytona 500.
Wallace announced Sept. 10 that he would leave Richard Petty Motorsports, the team that gave him his start with a four-race audition in 2017 before hiring him full-time the following season. He’ll leave at the end of this season with an enduring memento — the famed curlicued signature of team owner Richard Petty tattooed on his right leg.
The news is the latest development in a season of personal growth for Wallace, who has championed causes that fight racial injustice. Wallace has found his voice in the quest for social change and has welcomed others in the NASCAR industry to join him in solidarity.
“Bubba has shown tremendous improvement since joining the Cup Series and we believe he’s ready to take his career to a higher level,” Hamlin said on social media. “He deserves the opportunity to compete for race wins and our team will make sure he has the resources to do just that. Off the track, Bubba has been a loud voice for change in our sport and our country. MJ and I support him fully in those efforts and stand beside him.”
Said Wallace: “This is a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I believe is a great fit for me at this point in my career. Both Michael and Denny are great competitors and are focused on building the best team they possibly can to go out and compete for race wins. I’m grateful and humbled that Michael and Denny believe in me and I’m super pumped to begin this adventure with them.”
Jordan has attended several NASCAR races over the years, most recently the 2019 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway when Hamlin was in the Championship 4 and competing for his first championship.
“I’m a big race fan,” Jordan told NBC’s Dale Earnhardt Jr., who did the interview. “Started off when I was a kid and I grew up watching (Dale Earnhardt), Richard Petty … Cale Yarborough was an original 11 that I remember. Now I’m good friends with Denny Hamlin and we go way back. … I’m a big NASCAR fan, so I came out to support him.”
NASCAR President Steve Phelps confirmed during a pre-playoffs roundtable with reporters on Sept. 1 that it’s possible for a current driver of a four-car team to own all or part of another team – but that NASCAR would have to ensure fair competition. Additionally, Phelps added the NASCAR Charter system and development of the Next Gen car – which will debut in 2022 – has created a surge of ownership interest.
“On the expense side, I think that what we’ve done, working with our teams and our OEMs to pull costs out of the system. From that perspective, I think it’s improving,” Phelps said. He also suggested that the number of new owners trying to get into this sport “has never been higher” and that he’s seen “a ton of enthusiasm” for future team ownership under the current business model.
Ross Chastain will drive the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series starting in 2021, the team announced Monday.
Chastain, who currently has a full-time ride in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with Kaulig Racing, will take over for Matt Kenseth, who has held the seat since May after Kyle Larson was dismissed for using a racial slur during an iRacing event.
Chastain currently is preparing for the Xfinity Series Playoffs starting Saturday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The 27-year-old driver is ranked eighth entering the playoffs and has 23 top-10 finishes in 26 races this season. He has two career Xfinity wins in 184 starts over the past seven years.
RELATED: Silly Season’s key figures | Xfinity Series standings
The first of those Xfinity wins came in 2018 with Ganassi, who indicated in an interview after Kenseth’s hiring that Chastain was “still a part of this team, and I hope Ross has a future with this team.” Monday, the team owner elevated him to full-time in the Cup Series.
“Ross has been a part of this organization for a few years now, and I am happy to announce him as our driver for the No. 42 team,” Ganassi said in a release provided by the team. “In three races with our organization in 2018 and watching ever since, he showed me and everyone else that he is a tenacious driver who wants to win. We believe that Ross will give our team the opportunity to be competitive each week and our sponsors someone to build a program around. Additionally, his racing background has him well-suited to make the move to the Cup Series.”
Chastain became emotional at Bristol Motor Speedway after his most recent Xfinity Series finish on Friday, when he recorded his fifth second-place result in what’s so far been a winless season. When asked post-race about a potential opportunity with Ganassi’s No. 42 team, Chastain said he’d jump at the chance.
“Are you kidding me? Of course,” Chastain said. “Everybody in this entire garage would. Yeah, who wouldn’t?”
He echoed those sentiments Monday.
“I can’t thank Chip enough for this opportunity,” Chastain said. “The faith he and the organization showed me back in 2018 was a real turning point in my career, and I am extremely happy for the chance to join the team again especially with all the great guys they have on the 42 and to be able to team with a champion like Kurt Busch. Racing in the Cup Series with a serious contender has always been my goal, and I’m looking forward to joining what is a very strong team. I know I have my work cut out for me, but I’m ready to get to work and help bring more success to the organization.”
Kenseth returned to the Cup Series after the COVID-19 shutdown. The 2003 series champion, Kenseth had not driven in the Cup Series since running a partial schedule with Roush Fenway Racing in 2018.
Kenseth’s best finish this season was a runner-up effort at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July, marking his only top five in his return. The 48-year-old veteran sits 25th in points after missing the first four races of the season, and the CGR No. 42 team changed crew chiefs — Phil Surgen in for Chad Johnston — ahead of the Cup Series’ doubleheader weekend at Michigan last month.
Chastain also has three wins in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, coming in 91 starts over 10 years. He has made 79 career Cup Series starts with one top-10 finish, 10th in the 2019 Daytona 500 for owner Jay Robinson.
Chastain has been among the most prolific participants in all three NASCAR national series in recent years, frequently making double-duty appearances during race weekends. He has made 43 national-series starts this year, down from 77 last season and 74 in 2018 as he has tried to concentrate more on his Xfinity efforts with the Kaulig organization.
Chastain is a 12-generation watermelon farmer from Alva, Florida. He has embraced the “Melon Man” nickname and has punctuated his NASCAR wins by smashing watermelons on the track or in Victory Lane.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NASCAR and Riverhead Raceway announced Monday that the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour 200 scheduled for Oct. 17 has been cancelled. This breaks a 35-year streak of NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour action at the historic quarter-mile oval, a place where NASCAR Hall of Fame drivers like Richie Evans and Mike Stefanik added to their legendary racing resumes.
“We‘re heartbroken for the track, our competitors and most importantly our fans who are struggling during this trying time,” said NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Director Jimmy Wilson. “We look forward to when we can return to Riverhead and continue adding to its rich legacy of NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour racing.”
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will continue its season at 6 p.m. ET Saturday at Connecticut‘s Stafford Motor Speedway. It will conclude a nine-race championship schedule on Oct. 11 at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park in Connecticut.
Fans can watch both races live on TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold and get the latest news on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at NASCAR.com/roots.
Kevin Harvick doesn’t just lead the NASCAR Cup Series field with the most wins. He does so rather drastically.
The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford boasts nine victories in 2020. That’s three more than the next-best winner in 2020, Denny Hamlin. There are only three competitors overall who have at least three total victories.
One more win and Harvick will become the 11th driver in NASCAR’s modern era to accomplish a 10-win season. He’ll be the first since Jimmie Johnson met the milestone in 2007.
RELATED: Drivers with 10-win seasons | All Kevin Harvick’s career wins
“Well, I love that it’s in the conversation of being the greatest season ever,” Harvick said Saturday after his Round of 16 playoff win at Bristol Motor Speedway. “Because you look at the sport’s gurus that don’t know a lot about racing, they put these graphs up and talk about where your peak seasons are, where you’re good, where you’re bad. Where you’re good is where you have the best results, and fortunately for me, they’re coming right now.”
Harvick is in the midst of his 20th season in NASCAR’s top series. His previous season-best win mark was eight in 2018, when he finished third in the final standings. Even in his championship run – 2014 – Harvick had five wins.
There still are seven races remaining in the 2020 season, and Harvick already has topped both marks and sits comfortably atop the playoff rankings with 67 bonus points.
“I don’t know if we’ll make it to 10 (wins),” Harvick said. “But we’re going to keep trying to do the best we can every week, and it’s just been an unbelievable year.”
RELATED: Career highlights for Kevin Harvick | RACING REFERENCE: Kevin Harvick’s career stats
An unorthodox one, too.
NASCAR had a two-month pause, eight-race postponement after just the first four events due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cup Series eliminated practice and qualifying sessions, opting to do one-day shows to limit exposure. The schedule itself featured midweek races and weekend doubleheaders, which were both new.
This season has tested teams in a way they have never been tested before.
“We’ve all learned a lot about ourselves this year, including me, and we’ve all learned to do things differently,” said Rodney Childers, the No. 4 crew chief. “We’ve learned to trust each other. We’ve learned to work hard no matter what the circumstances are – whether you’re first shift, whether you’re second shift. I haven’t had one team meeting since February. I haven’t got my guys together. I haven’t had to tell anybody what to do. I haven’t had to tell somebody they need to work harder, they need to pay more attention to details.
“I have the best group that I’ve ever worked around. … We expect to be the best.”
RELATED: Bristol race results | Kevin Harvick holds off Kyle Busch | Who’s in, who’s out
The No. 4 crew’s first win actually came in NASCAR’s return on May 17 at Darlington Raceway. Harvick hopped into his car after an unprecedented amount of time out of it, led a race-high 159 of the 293 laps and took the checkered flag to solidify his postseason berth. From there, he went on to win at six different tracks – Atlanta Motor Speedway, Pocono Raceway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway (a crown-jewel event), Michigan International Speedway (swept the doubleheader), Dover International Speedway and eventually Bristol (an elimination race). He also had another win at Darlington in the Southern 500 (another crown-jewel event), the playoff opener.
Now Harvick heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the first Round of 12 race – South Point 400 (7 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). He finished eighth there earlier this season, before the on-track break. In 22 career starts, he has two wins at the Nevada track; both of which came in the past five years (2015 and 2018).
“We’ve got nine; he didn’t know if we we’re going to get 10,” Childers said. “If you don’t get 10, you’re not going to win a championship. It’s pretty simple at this point: You’ve got to win races to hold that big trophy at the end of the year.”
The same four drivers who entered Bristol Motor Speedway on the outside of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs’ safety zone left without making season-saving moves above the cutline.
RELATED: Official race results | Playoff standings
Clint Bowyer was the benefactor as the last driver to qualify for the postseason’s Round of 12 on the basis of points. That left four drivers eliminated — rookie Cole Custer, William Byron, Ryan Blaney and Matt DiBenedetto — from championship contention with seven races left in the season.
Bowyer advanced after notching a sixth-place result in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race, marking a season-best string of three straight top-10 finishes to open the playoffs.
“I mean, I just feel comfortable we’re getting back to our consistency,” Bowyer said. “I guess for a long time in my career I was kind of Steady Eddy, and that’s what it takes in these playoffs. To go the rounds, you can’t make mistakes. I said that going into these playoffs. For our team, we’ve got to live up to our capabilities, and if we can do that and race to our capabilities and not make the mistakes we were making through the summer months, we can contend and move forward rounds in this playoff system, and that’s what we’re doing.”
Others vying to make up points deficits were less fortunate. Byron’s demise was the most spectacular as his Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet became crossed up with Christopher Bell and Joey Gase just before the end of Stage 2. Byron retired after 232 of the 500 laps with a 38th-place night.
MORE: Byron exits early with damage
The other three drivers eliminated hurt their cause by finishing outside the top 10 — both at the checkered flag and when points were paid out at each stage.
Blaney fared the best of the ousted drivers with an unlucky 13th-place outcome. The Talladega Superspeedway winner from earlier this year had issued a warning he’d be aggressive if given the chance Saturday night, but the speed he flashed in the early segments of the season eluded him at Bristol.
“I’m upset about it,” Blaney said. “I don’t want to be knocked out with seven races to go and not be able to run for a championship. I’m not very excited about that, but there’s a lot of things we could have cleaned up as a group together, myself included, and we just didn’t perform. We didn’t perform in the first round like we needed to to transfer and that’s something you’ll have. We just needed to step up and we just had too many issues, but we still have seven races left. We’ll try to win one or two of them and try to get fifth in points. We’ve still got that, so there’s still a goal that you’re trying to go to.
“Yeah, it sucks that you’re not able to run for it, but I’m just disappointed — not really disappointed. It’s kind of hard to put into words. I wish we all had a better three races as a team. I know this team can have great races and it’s a shame we missed that a little bit.”
DiBenedetto rallied from an unscheduled pit stop early but ended the day in 19th — which wound up being his average finish for the three races in the postseason’s opening round.
“If we didn’t have bad luck, we wouldn’t have any luck at all,” DiBenedetto said. “I don’t know. It’s just frustrating. I hate it.”
Custer, who made the playoffs on the strength of a first-time win at Kentucky Speedway, finished with a crinkle of damage to the nose of his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford in 23rd place.
“We’ve accomplished a lot of our goals,” Custer said. “I mean, to go from where we started and be able to be competitive now. Obviously, tonight we were off a little bit, but for the most part we could run pretty competitively and I think that was one of our goals by the end of the year and then also to make the playoffs and to have a win by now, and to win Rookie of the Year. There are a lot of things that we can hold our head high on, but at the same time as a competitor I’m not happy about getting knocked out in the first round and really struggling tonight, but we’ll keep working at it and that’s part of it. We’ll just keep trying things and keep grinding away at it.”
Kyle Busch was in prime Bristol Motor Speedway form Saturday night, leading 159 of 500 laps in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race. But an aggravating second-place finish had him in prime post-race zinger form as his season-long winless streak in the NASCAR Cup Series continued.
RELATED: Official race results | Kevin Harvick prevails
Busch was the runner-up for the fourth time this season after dicing through lapped traffic and swapping the lead in a late-race duel with eventual winner Kevin Harvick. Busch hung the tail of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota out as he chased Harvick through the final corner but came home .310 seconds short at the checkered flag.
“Just didn’t have enough at the end,” Busch told NBC Sports after bidding for his series-leading ninth Bristol win. “The guys did a great job and gave me a really great piece tonight to contend and at least be up there and be close. Unfortunately, just didn’t have enough. Lapped cars were definitely a problem. It’s part of racing. You have to try to get around them where you can, and there was just no room for me to do what I needed to do with a couple of those opportunities to get past them.”
Busch dropped to the rear of the field during pace laps after his No. 18 car failed pre-race inspection twice, but he quickly regained the lost ground, rising to second place after the 125-lap first stage. He remained a fixture in the top five, and his main challenge emerged from Harvick as the race entered the late going.
Lap-down traffic posed an issue for both drivers, but the two were held up in particular by the No. 22 Ford of Joey Logano, who eventually finished two laps back in 11th. His post-race criticisms for his longtime foil that weren’t aired for a live television audience were slightly more harsh.
“He’s nobody’s friend for a reason, so there you have it,” Busch said.
The lead changed hands twice between Harvick and Busch in the last 100 laps. When asked if he would have been more aggressive while battling Harvick in the late going, Busch said traffic played too big a role — managing to sneak in a dig at two drivers who slowed him at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in last year’s postseason opener.
“It actually never crossed my mind. You always try to win races clean,” Busch said of his duel with Harvick. “You always try to race hard and race clean and get the job done right. Yeah, I mean, if that lapped car wasn’t there, I would have blown it in on the outside or the inside and maybe we would have banged each other’s doors or whatever and had a greater finish to the checkered, but some of them dips — kids don’t know what the hell they’re doing or where they’re at and can’t stay out of the way. Nothing like a (Joey) Gase and a (Garrett) Smithley.”
Despite his losing skid hitting 29 consecutive races, Busch advanced out of the playoffs’ first round on the basis of his place in the points standings. He enters the Round of 12 tied for 10th in the re-seeded standings, and his outlook for the Las Vegas round opener wasn’t full of optimism when pressed.
“We’ll be eliminated in the next round,” Busch said, “so don’t care.”
In a battle of two of stock-car racing’s titans, Kevin Harvick swapped the lead with Kyle Busch and held off the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion over an intense string of closing laps to win Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Harvick picked up his ninth victory of the season, his second of the Round of 16 in the 2020 NASCAR Playoffs and his third at Bristol. The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford finished .310 seconds ahead of Busch, who remained frustrated in a winless season.
RELATED: Official race results
Harvick won for the 58th time in his Cup career, ninth most all time. Busch has been stuck on 56 wins since his title-winning triumph in the last year’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Bristol sold tickets to a limited number fans who were socially distanced throughout the grandstand. But there were enough voices there to make a significant din, and Harvick noticed.
“Man, I just want to say thank you to all the fans,” Harvick said after taking the checkered flag. “I was so jacked up when we started this race because of you guys and Bristol Motor Speedway.”
It took all of Harvick’s consummate skill to hold off Busch during the final 82-lap green-flag run. Busch is the leader among active drivers with eight wins at Bristol.
“To beat Kyle Busch at Bristol, I kind of got myself in a little bit of a ringer there,” said Harvick, who already had secured a berth in the Round of 12 with his win at Darlington Raceway in the playoff opener. “I hit a lapped car and got a hole in the right-front nose, but just kept fighting. We don’t have anything else to lose.
“We were here to try to win a race. I know how much (crew chief) Rodney (Childers) really enjoys coming here and, hell, how can you not enjoy coming here with all this enthusiasm? Everybody is tired of being at home.”
The Bristol Night Race was the cutoff event for the Round of 16, and the four drivers who began the event below the cutline — William Byron, Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Cole Custer, Ryan Blaney and Matt DiBenedetto — remained there and were eliminated from the playoffs.
Busch and Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones started in the rear of the field after multiple pre-race inspection failures, but Busch charged through the field to finish second in the first stage and won the second.
In the final run, Busch passed Harvick for the lead in traffic on Lap 459. Ten laps later, Harvick returned the favor when Busch was slowed behind the lapped car of Joey Logano. Harvick led the rest of the way, though Busch tried every racing line available to try to catch the race winner.
“I just didn’t have enough there at the end,” said Busch who advanced to the Round of 12 on points, joining Richmond Raceway winner Brad Keselowski, Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Logano, Kurt Busch, Aric Almirola, Clint Bowyer, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott and Austin Dillon. “The lapped cars were definitely a problem.
“There was just no room for me to do what I need to do to get around him. Came up short — what can I say?”
Two drivers who didn’t make the playoffs — Jones and Tyler Reddick — ran third and fourth followed by Almirola, Bowyer and Elliott. Non-playoff drivers Chris Buescher, Ryan Preece and Michael McDowell completed the top 10 in order.
Byron’s race and playoff run ended suddenly and unexpectedly on Lap 232. The No. 51 Ford of Joey Gase slowed on the backstretch, starting a chain-reaction wreck in which Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet slammed into the rear of Christopher Bell’s No. 95 Toyota.
Unable to continue, Byron exited the race, his playoff run finished.
“I think the No. 51 car checked up in the middle of the straightaway,” a frustrated Byron said after exiting his car. “As fast as we were running the top, I was right behind the No. 95, and I had literally nowhere to go. You can’t stop in the middle of the straightaway when everybody is so committed to the top like that.
“Just ridiculous that that’s what takes us out. I thought, honestly, we had a shot to run top five or seven. The car was really, really good. We just needed a couple good pit stops. We were running probably ninth or 10th there. Just super disappointing — I’ve got to go back and watch that, because that was kind of ridiculous.”
Blaney and DiBenedetto, who needed to win the race to advance to the Round of 12, finished 13th and 19th, respectively. Custer was eliminated after a 23rd-place run.
NOTE: The No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford of Kevin Harvick passed NASCAR’s post-race inspection. There were no issues.
Four drivers were eliminated from the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs after Saturday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway, as the postseason field was trimmed from 16 drivers to 12.
Read on for a full update on the standings and results.
Eliminated drivers
• William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
• Cole Custer, No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford
• Matt DiBenedetto, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford
• Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford
Advancing to the Round of 12
* Note: This will be updated with the official points and standings.
1. Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford: 3,067 points
2. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota: 3,048 points
3. Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Team Penske Ford: 3,035 points
4. Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford: 3,022 points
5. Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet: 3,021 points
6. Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota: 3,016 points
7. Alex Bowman, No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet: 3,009 points
8. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet: 3,005 points
9. Aric Almirola, No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford: 3,005 points
10. Kyle Busch, No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota: 3,004 points
11. Clint Bowyer, No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford: 3,004 points
12. Kurt Busch, No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet: 3,001 points
MORE: Official race results
The ups
• Kyle Busch did not win — yet again — but the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver did finish runner-up to remain above the playoff cutline without a 2020 victory. Busch even led 159 laps and took Stage 2, second-best to race winner Kevin Harvick.
• Austin Dillon, who won one race in the regular season to swipe a playoff berth, advanced after a 12th-place finish.
The downs
• Damage to the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet ended William Byron’s day and playoff hopes early, prior to the end of Stage 2. Byron entered the Bass Pro Shops Night Race three points back of the postseason cutline. Read more on what happened here.
• Brad Keselowski’s No. 2 Team Penske Ford lost power steering in the final stage and ultimately got black-flagged by NASCAR due to not meeting minimum speed. He came to pit road, only to return to the track 86 laps down and finish 34th. Keselowski was already locked into the Round of 12 thanks to his win at Richmond Raceway last week.
Which channels have NASCAR programming this week? We answer that and give the weekly NASCAR television listings here in the NASCAR TV schedule.
Note: All times are ET.
MORE: How to find NBCSN | Get the NBC Sports App | How to find FS1 | Get FOX Sports App
RELATED: How to follow races on NASCAR.com | NASCAR Live Stream
Monday, Sept. 21
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1/FOX Sports App
Tuesday, Sept. 22
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1/FOX Sports App
On MRN
7 p.m., NASCAR Live
Wednesday, Sept. 23
6 p.m. NASCAR Race Hub, FS1/FOX Sports App
7 p.m., NASCAR Race Classic: 1998 Daytona 500 (re-air), FS1/FOX Sports App
Thursday, Sept. 24
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1/FOX Sports App
Friday, Sept. 25
7 p.m., Classic NASCAR: 1997 Daytona 500 (re-air), FS1/FOX Sports App
7:30 p.m., Refuse to Lose: Jeff Gordon and the 1997 Daytona 500 (re-air), FS1/FOX Sports App
8 p.m., Dale Jr. Download, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
8:30 p.m., NASCAR RaceDay: NGROTS, FS1/FOX Sports App
9 p.m., NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series World of Westgate 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, FS1/FOX Sports App
On MRN
8:30 p.m., NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series World of Westgate 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Saturday, September 26
8 a.m., NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series World of Westgate 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (re-air), FS2/FOX Sports App
10 a.m., NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series World of Westgate 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (re-air), FS1/FOX Sports App
Noon, NASCAR Race Classic: 1994 Coke 600 (re-air), FS1/FOX Sports App
1 p.m., Dale Jr. Download (re-air), NBCSN/NBC Sports App
7 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series Countdown to Green: Las Vegas, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
7:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series Alsco 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN3)
10 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series Post Race: Las Vegas, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
On PRN
7 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series Alsco 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Sunday, September 27
5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Las Vegas, FS1/FOX Sports App
6 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series Countdown to Green: Las Vegas, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
7 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN)
10:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series Post Race: Las Vegas, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
11 p.m., IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship (re-air), NBCSN/NBC Sports App
On PRN
6 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway