Gray Gaulding pulls off another career runner-up superspeedway finish

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Terrin Waack

Gray Gaulding survived and thrived in Friday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

No, the 22-year-old didn’t win the Wawa 250 Powered by Coca-Cola. Justin Haley claimed that honor. But Gaulding did score his second career top-five finish in 43 series starts. He was actually the runner-up, missing the checkered flag by .253 seconds. He even led two laps in just his second series start of the season.

“Kids dream about having a chance to win Daytona,” Gaulding said. “I’ve been dreaming about this since I was 5 years old, writing about it in my kindergarten class.”

RELATED: Race results | Race recap

Gaulding has raced on Daytona’s historic 2.5-mile oval four times. His resume breaks down into 38th, 34th, eighth and second – in order from 2018 to present.

Filling in as a part-time driver in 2020, Gaulding steered the No. 07 SS Green Light Racing Chevrolet all the way from a 28th starting position to a 13th-place run in Stage 1 by Lap 30 and a fourth-place run in Stage 2 by Lap 40. The final stage was fully green – a 40-lap stretch – and Gaulding was able to remain in the top five.

Apart from the stage breaks, there were six cautionary periods, including a red-flag stretch during the second stage. Three of the cautions involved at least three cars, with one actually featuring a grand 13 total on Lap 41 of 100.

“I knew once I missed that one big wreck I’d have a chance to win – or at least a chance at the end for a top 10, top five,” Gaulding said. “I put myself in a position to get there late, and that’s what I did.

“I busted through the middle on the back straightaway. I said, ‘This is my chance. I’m not lifting. Whoever turns in front of me, I’m sorry, but I don’t get many opportunities to win.’ And I feel like I really did everything I could to win, just came up short.”

This wasn’t Gaulding’s first standout performance on a superspeedway. He has proven before he know what he is doing when the speeds increase.

In 2019, when Gaulding drove the No. 08 SS Green Light Racing Chevrolet full time to 13th in the final standings, he pulled out a second-place showing at Talladega Superspeedway. That time, he was just .127 seconds behind the race winner.

This Daytona race was just Gaulding’s second of the season. He also competed in, no surprise, the Talladega event, where he finished eighth in the same entry.

“I really want to be back here full time next year, or just something competitive that I can show up and have days like today,” Gaulding said. “I know I can do it on other tracks, but this is kind of my only equalizer as far as equipment on a normal basis.”

Posted on August 28, 2020August 28, 2020 by Holly Cain

Teamwork was the buzz word of the night for the Wawa 250 Powered by Coca-Cola NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway, but ultimately it came down to team members aggressively deciding the win amongst themselves instead of a team versus team surge for the checkered flag.

Ross Chastain tagged the left rear of his Kaulig Racing teammate – and the race leader – AJ Allmendinger’s Chevrolet on the final lap in the final turns sending both cars into the wall while their other teammate Justin Haley surged through the field to the checkered flag. It was the 21-year old Indiana-native’s second career Xfinity Series win matching his work at the sport’s other big track, Talladega Superspeedway earlier this season.

Haley, the driver of the No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet edged Gray Gaulding – who was making his second start of the season – by a mere .253-seconds for the victory. Chase Briscoe, Riley Herbst and Harrison Burton rounded out the top five. Chastain recovered to finish sixth, followed by Michael Annett, Austin Cindric, Josh Williams and Jesse Little.

“Obviously, just a little delayed reaction, obviously not intentional,” Haley said watching the replay of his teammates’ tussle.

“Just a little lucky there, I got shucked out and I was a little frustrated but that’s why you never give up,” he added. “These things are so unpredictable.”

Before the contact with Allmendinger and Chastain, it looked like the race was ultimately going to come down to a good ole’ Chevrolet versus Ford duel. The Kaulig Chevrolet threesome led 68 of the race’s 100 laps with Allmendinger’s 58 laps out front the most on the evening. Ford drivers Cindric and Briscoe were positioned in the lead pack ready to make a final push forward, but Cindric was caught up in the Allmendinger/Chastain incident on the final lap.

After the race, Chastain – who along with Haley are Kaulig Racing’s two full-time drivers – offered his thoughts on the contact with his teammate but he was resolute in his decision to go for the win.

“It doesn’t matter how many races each of us run,” Chastain said referring to Allmendinger’s part-time schedule. “We’re supposed to go for the win. Team rules are the last 10 laps and we all stay committed. I hate that Justin go shucked out there with five to go.

“But coming to the checkered [flag], what am I supposed to do? Finish second? Not this guy.”

Allmendinger ended up 15th and the veteran was obviously disappointed in the outcome and the manner of the outcome. However, he noted the importance of the victory for the team.

“It’s the way it is,” Allmendinger said. “I don’t know. I try to take care of my teammates, but it is what it is and it was going for the win. Ross is going for the championship and going for the win there. I saw him get low and thought maybe he would take care of me a little bit considering I was there. But he’s going for the win. It is what it is and just disappointing because we were going to have another one-two-three Kaulig finish at Daytona.

“It’s racing. And congratulations to Justin Haley for getting a Kaulig Racing Chevrolet into Victory Lane. That’s the most important thing.”

Kaulig Racing swept the night with Haley winning Stage 1 and Allmendinger leading the three-car Kaulig Racing train in Stage 2.

Two drivers still closely battling for the 12th and final playoff position – Brandon Brown and Jeremy Clements turned in a dramatic evening. Brown scored stage points by finishing fourth in Stage 1 and that ultimately proved to be vital for his championship chances considering both cars suffered some damage in a multi-car accident midway through the race.

Clements finished 20th and Brown was 26th. The stage points were enough to keep Brown in that 12th place transfer position, with a 32-point advantage over Clements as the series moves to historic and historically tough Darlington Raceway next week.

Cindric’s eighth-place finish was good enough to keep him atop the championship standings by 58 points over Chase Briscoe.

Up next, the NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Darlington Raceway for Saturday’s Sports Clips Haircuts VFW 200 (12:30 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). There are four races left in the regular season.

Note: The No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet of Justin Haley passed NASCAR’s post-race inspection. There were no other issues.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on August 28, 2020August 28, 2020 by Staff Report

NASCAR has issued the Xfinity Series No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team a pre-race inspection fraction Saturday at Daytona International Speedway.

The No. 18 JGR Toyota, driven by reigning Riley Herbst, was found with an improperly mounted ballast.

RELATED: Daytona schedule

The at-track penalty for this infraction is the following: Car chief John Egbert Jr. has been ejected. Herbst, who was support to start 10th, will have to start from the rear of the field and serve a pass-through penalty after the field has taken the green flag. NASCAR will announce any further penalties this upcoming week.

Three cars failed pre-race inspection twice: The No. 39 Chevrolet of Ryan Sieg, the No. 47 Chevrolet of Timothy Viens and the No. 92 Chevrolet of Josh Williams all failed twice and will lose pit selection for the Xfinity Series’ next event — Sept. 5 at Darlington Raceway.

Post-race update: The No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team will lose 10 driver and 10 owner points as a penalty, NASCAR announced after Riley Herbst finished fourth in the Wawa 250 Powered by Coca-Cola.

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Staff Report

One of the biggest unresolved personnel moves ahead of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season remains: Who will replace seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson in Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 48 Chevrolet?

The question for Johnson in a Friday teleconference with reporters was whether he had any say in the matter. Johnson’s answer: Some.

“I’ve been involved a little bit,” Johnson said. “It’s a big decision for the company and for our sponsor, Ally, so the weight really lies in their hands and the direction they want to take things. So I’ve had a little interaction, but nothing too in-depth, but I fully believe in Hendrick Motorsports and the decision they make, who they decide to put in the car and of course, Ally goes along with that as well.”

The question has lingered ever since Johnson formally announced last November that his full-time racing career would end after the 2020 campaign. Back then, team owner Rick Hendrick demurred, joking that Jeff Gordon would come out of retirement as Johnson’s successor.

Johnson’s immediate goal is to qualify for the NASCAR Playoffs and a shot at a record eighth series championship in Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7:30 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Daytona International Speedway.

Posted on August 28, 2020August 28, 2020 by PJ Walsh

The Action Network specializes in providing sports betting insights/analytics and is a content partner with NASCAR. Check out more NASCAR betting analysis here.

Superspeedway racing is already unpredictable. Now throw in the added significance of Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) being the final race before the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs and we have all the makings of a wild night in Daytona.

This should lead to exciting racing under the lights, but what does it mean for NASCAR bettors?

The combination of pack racing and drivers risking it all to earn a playoff berth should lead to plenty of dicey moments and potentially wrecks taking out large portions of the field.

This, in turn, leads to unpredictability which often results in longshots finishing higher than they normally do each week.

As bettors, we can take advantage by pinpointing which of these sleepers are poised for overperformance and grabbing them at juicy numbers for top-10 finishes.

With this in mind, here is the driver I’m betting to finish in the top 10 at Daytona.

NASCAR at Daytona Odds, Betting Picks

Odds as of Friday at 7:30 a.m. ET

Corey LaJoie (+550) for a Top-10 Finish

In the two Cup Series races run at Daytona since NASCAR got rid of restrictor plates, here are the number of drivers who have better average finishes than LaJoie … [crickets].

That’s right, LaJoie is tied with Ryan Newman and Justin Haley (who won the summer race last year by staying out during a rain caution while the rest of the field pitted) with a series-best 7.0 average finish in those two events.

If we expand the sample size to five superspeedway races without restrictor plates by including three events at Talladega, LaJoie still has the fourth-best average finish in the series.

The No. 32 Go Fas Ford doesn’t necessarily run up front all race, but LaJoie is very adept at biding his time, avoiding the “Big One” and inevitably finding himself toward the front of the field as the laps wind down.

There are no guarantees in NASCAR and betting, especially at superspeedways, but +550 is a fine price to take a crack at LaJoie scoring another top 10 at Daytona.

[Bet now at FanDuel and get a $500 risk-free bet.]

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Holly Cain

Only three races remain to set the 2020 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series 10-driver Playoff field, and as the standings sit now, there are three drivers contending for just two spots on points. Of course, a new winner in Sunday’s CarShield 200 Presented by CK Power at Worldwide Technology Raceway at Gateway (12 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) could change things dramatically.

And drama has been a consistent theme this season — with first-time winners, potential new championship challengers and a hearty mix of veteran winners as well.

This week marks the grand finale of the popular Triple Truck Challenge — a three-race midseason incentive for full-time competitors. Sheldon Creed won a $50,000 bonus for taking the victory on the Daytona International Speedway Road Course on Aug. 16 and Zane Smith got a $50,000 check for winning last week at Dover — the first two events for the challenge.

Should either Creed or Smith win Sunday’s race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, they would score an extra $50,000 — a total of $150,000 for winning two of the three races. A new winner this weekend earns an extra $50,000.

That money will be important, but so will the winner’s trophy that could represent an automatic ticket into the 2020 Playoffs.

Young drivers Tyler Ankrum, 19, Todd Gilliland, 20, and 18-year-old Derek Kraus are currently vying for the last two playoff positions. Ankrum, driver of the No. 26 GMS Racing Chevrolet, is in ninth place with a nine-point edge on 11th place Derek Kraus. Gilliland, who drives the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford, trails Ankrum by five points and is four points ahead of Kraus, driver of the No. 19 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Toyota.

Gilliland and Kraus bring an impressive statistical resume to the track — good not only for their playoff hopes, but also notable in general. Gilliland has finished runner-up in two of his three Gateway starts (2018 and 2019). Kraus will be making his first Truck start there this weekend, but he’s celebrated in Victory Lane already, with a 2018 win in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race there and a runner-up in it last year.

Ankrum’s only NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoor Truck Series start there was a 30th-place finish last year driving for a different team.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” Kraus said. “I’ve had really good runs there in the past. So, I’m very comfortable there. I know everyone at MHR is working really hard. So I’m really excited to get to the track.”

This highly motivated trio can expect the field to keep them all honest, however. Last week’s Dover winner Zane Smith, 21, who has won two of the last three races, has only one start at Gateway, finishing fifth. Championship points leader Austin Hill, 26, has posted a series best 11 top-10 finishes in the 2020 season’s 13 races, but he’s never finished in the top 10 at Gateway. His best is 11th place in both 2018 and 2019. Christian Eckes, 19, who is solidly in the playoff field on points, led the most laps (57) in last year’s Gateway race but finished 14th.

They all face a legitimately tough challenge from veterans such as Johnny Sauter and Stewart Friesen, who are typically odds-on playoff contenders. This year, however, both sit well behind the close points battle and most likely will need a victory to earn their shot at the season trophy.

Sauter, the 2016 series champion and driver of the No. 13 ThorSport Racing Ford, is ranked 13th, 71 points behind 10th-place Gilliland. Sauter has top-five finishes in all seven of his starts at the Gateway track, however, scoring a runner-up finish in 2009 and third-place finishes in his last two starts there in 2017 and 2018. He served a one-race suspension last year and did not compete at Gateway.

Friesen, 37, a first-time Championship 4 qualifier last year with 16 top-10 and 12 top-five finishes in 2019, has only a single top five this season and is ranked 15th — 97 points behind 10th place Gilliland. He finished third at Gateway last year, however, leading 20 laps.

Posted on August 28, 2020 by RJ Kraft

The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series regular season comes to a close Saturday night with the Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7:30 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Daytona International Speedway.

Thirteen playoff spots have officially been locked up, and Clint Bowyer needs three points (in the event of a new winner) to lock himself into the field. Matt DiBenedetto, William Byron and Jimmie Johnson are separated by nine points with two of the three likely to make the postseason if a previous 2020 winner makes his way to Victory Lane at the 2.5-mile superspeedway. Past Daytona winners, such as Erik Jones, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Newman and Matt Kenseth, are in win-or-go-home mode.

Anything can happen at “The World Center of Racing,” and with the back of the playoff picture far from settled, NASCAR.com’s Chase Wilhelm and RJ Kraft look at which driver outside the bubble is most likely to race his way into the playoffs when the checkered flag is waved at the high banks of Daytona.

Wilhelm: For Erik Jones, a win at Daytona on Saturday night would mean worlds more than just a postseason slot.

Jones will be a free agent at season’s end after it was announced Aug. 6 he would not return to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2021. The 24-year-old’s will to prove something under the lights at the 2.5-mile superspeedway is two-fold. One, he wants to show potential car owners he has what it takes to win and make the NASCAR Playoffs under a high-pressure situation. Two, it could serve as a little self-gratification to show Toyota and JGR what they’re going to miss out on now.

Aside from his drive to make something happen in his final 11 races in the No. 20 car, Jones’ first career NASCAR Cup Series victory also came in the second race at Daytona back in July 2018. Along with that success, Jones also nabbed the checkered flag in the Busch Clash at Daytona to begin the 2020 season, while also finishing fifth at Talladega Superspeedway in June.

If you’re looking for a driver outside the bubble to sneak up on everyone and win, Jones is your guy.

Kraft: Jones certainly has done it here before — both at Daytona and grabbing a win late in the regular season (at Darlington last year). Ricky Stenhouse Jr. feels like the obvious choice given his 2017 win in the summer here (“America, 1776, we are the champs“), but his propensity to be all or nothing at this track has me looking elsewhere.

I’m taking Chris Buescher. Why Buescher, you ask? The driver of the No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford — Stenhouse’s former car — finished third in the 2020 Daytona 500 and is one of four drivers — Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick are the others — to finish in the top 10 in both superspeedway races so far in 2020. His 4.5 average finish at superspeedways this year is third-best among full-time drivers. Daytona has seen some strong runs out of him in recent years with three top fives and four top 10s in his last six starts. To dive into the loop data, he had the sixth-best average running position at Daytona in February.

Taking Buescher also aligns me with the Fords who have mastered the strength in numbers approach needed to succeed in this type of racing. The Roush Fenway superspeedway program showed its strength with Stenhouse in 2017 and recent superspeedway runs by Buescher and Newman — who was running top three in the closing laps of the 2020 Daytona 500 before a last-lap wreck have continued that solid performance.

Posted on August 27, 2020 by Terrin Waack

The No. 24 and 48 Hendrick Motorsports teams are tied together in multiple ways.

There’s Jimmie Johnson, who has driven the historic No. 48 Chevrolet to seven NASCAR Cup Series championships in 19 years. His crew chief during those title runs was Chad Knaus, and Knaus now sits atop the No. 24 pit box and works with William Byron. The young driver actually idolized the elder champion growing up.

And now the two competitors straddle the NASCAR Playoffs cutline with one regular-season race remaining.

DAYTONA: Schedule | Lineup | Paint schemes | Clinching scenarios

“I was really a 48 fan through and through,” Byron said Thursday on a Zoom teleconference. “I’ve got a lot of 48 stuff at my parents’ house and a lot of different die-cast cars.

“I really don’t look at it as me versus him. I know that’s what the bubble is right now, but it really is an opportunity for both of us to get in. Trying to look at it as that. That’s ultimately the goal — to get us both in.”

Byron sits in the final provisional NASCAR Playoffs spot — four points above the cutline. Johnson is the first driver on the outside looking in — four points below the cutline.

Another player in the mix is Matt DiBenedetto. The No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford pilot is safe by nine points. He’s the closest potential boot since Clint Bowyer is next but has a larger 57-point buffer (and could potentially lock himself into the playoffs by the end of Stage 1 on Saturday night).

There are technically three spots remaining in the 16-driver field, so Byron and Johnson can both still qualify. That’s really what the two Hendrick Motorsports teams want, and they’re willing to work together to make it happen.

“We’ve got a shot at it, right?” Knaus said. “And that’s what we need to try to do. I’m hoping Jimmie makes it. I hope to hell the man goes out there and wins the championship, honestly. That would just be spectacular to see him be able to do that and knowing that I was a part of that would be really awesome, right? But we’ll just have to see how the cards fall.”

Johnson is retiring from full-time competition at the end of the 2020 season. He hasn’t won a race since June 2017.

PHOTOS: See every Jimmie Johnson Cup Series win

Last season marked the first time Johnson did not advance into the playoffs since the format’s inception in 2004. On the other hand, Byron made the postseason for the first time in his career. They finished 18th and 11th in the final standings, respectively.

“We don’t feel — I don’t feel and Jimmie does not feel — like everything about his career is just riding on this moment,” said Cliff Daniels, the No. 48 crew chief. “His career is already established. It’s already defined. His success already speaks for itself.”

This year, Johnson has four top fives and nine top-10 showings. He’s averaging a 15.3 finish. Byron has just one top five and eight top 10s. He’s averaging a 16.7 finish. The difference — and the real reason Byron has a postseason advantage — is Byron has two stage wins and 110 stage points. Johnson has one stage win and 92 stage points.

It’s a tight battle. No doubt there. But at a track like Daytona International Speedway, collaboration is key. So, being teammates in this less-than-deal situation may actually help the Hendrick Motorsports garages.

“We are going to work with them all night Saturday night and put ourselves both in a good spot,” Daniels said. “I would love to be side by side, door to door with them, with points in the bag, coming to the finish line for the final checkered flag.”

Posted on August 27, 2020 by Team Release

STATESVILLE, N.C. (Aug. 27, 2020) — GMS Racing officials announced today that NASCAR champion and two-time Southern 500 winner, Greg Biffle, will pilot the No. 24 Chevrolet for the upcoming NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race at Darlington Speedway.

Biffle has accumulated an impressive resume throughout his NASCAR career with two championships and 56 wins across all three national series. The 50-year-old has six years of experience in the Gander Trucks and has collected one championship, 17 wins, 43 top fives, 55 top 10s and 12 pole awards in the series.

“I’m excited to get back behind the wheel of a Gander Truck,” said Biffle. “GMS Racing produces competitive trucks week in and week out. So needless to say when I got the chance to drive one of their Chevrolets, at one of my favorite tracks, I couldn’t turn it down. I’m thankful for this opportunity and I can’t wait to get to Darlington with this GMS Racing team.”

Biffle will take to the track in The South Carolina Education Lottery 200 at 2 p.m. ET on Sept. 6 at Darlington Raceway (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Biffle’s sponsorship and paint scheme will be announced at a later date.

Posted on August 27, 2020August 28, 2020 by Staff Report

Noah Gragson will return to JR Motorsports and the No. 9 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for the 2021 season.

RELATED: Key players in Silly Season

The news was conveyed via a video on Twitter starring Gragson and team co-owner Kelley Earnhardt Miller.

.@NoahGragson… pic.twitter.com/qjWypj7xoA

— JR Motorsports (@JRMotorsports) August 27, 2020

https://twitter.com/NoahGragson/status/1299056191377747968

Gragson stirred social media into a frenzy with an Instagram Live last night and tweet involving a pen emoji that hinted at big news for the 22-year-old.

https://twitter.com/NoahGragson/status/1298839338604789761

The 2020 season marks Gragson second with JRM. He has already won two races this season to qualify for the playoffs and ranks third in the standings.

“I’m so glad we were able to get this deal done,” Gragson said in a Friday news release from JR Motorsports. “This year has been great as we have a couple wins and are sitting third in the championship standings with a few races left before the playoffs. The No. 9 team along with everyone at the shop prepares fast cars every week and I can’t wait to drive their cars again next year. I’m so thankful for Kelley, Dale and everyone else at JRM. They treat everyone like family and they have become an extended family of mine.”