RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — A perfect October in the closing stages of the 2025 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season was something Austin Beers knew would be imperative to fend off Justin Bonsignore for his first series championship.
Riverhead Raceway’s Eddie Partridge 256 presented a major hurdle toward Beers’ goal. Bonsignore holds the all-time Modified Tour wins record at Riverhead with 12, while Beers only possessed three top fives at the quarter-mile bullring prior to Saturday evening.
Beers stood tall in the face of immense pressure, denying Bonsignore a 13th series victory at Riverhead while securing his first checkered flag at the Long Island bullring. Being able to outlast Bonsignore at one of his best tracks and consolidate his points lead was a much-needed relief for Beers following a disappointing showing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway two weeks ago.
“We struggled really bad at New Hampshire, and I lost a lot of confidence in myself,” Beers said. “This team just had a bad ass race car. We kind of struggled in practice there, but they did a hell of a job working on it. We were able to get the car to rotate in the center really good there throughout that last long run and were able to pick off Justin [Bonsignore].”
Beers’ 2025 season reflects that of many past Modified Tour champions. Not only has Beers completed every possible lap, but he also does not have any finishes outside the top 10.
Despite the consistency displayed by Beers all year, Bonsignore has remained within striking distance. The four-time Modified Tour champion entered the Eddie Partridge 256 just seven points back from Beers in the standings with momentum on his side following a second place run at New Hampshire.
Bonsignore possesses a combined 27 victories between the final three tracks on the schedule in Riverhead, Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park and Martinsville Speedway. There would be no margin of error for Beers, who got a head start over Bonsignore on Saturday by lining up second on the grid following the redraw.
Although he battled an ill-handling car all evening, Bonsignore took advantage of several cautions to cycle his way toward the front but found himself vulnerable to Beers in the closing stages. With Bonsignore keeping his car glued to the bottom, Beers utilized his fresher tires to overtake Bonsignore.
🫣 Is this the changing of the guards?
Austin Beers overtakes Justin Bonsignore for the lead at @RiverheadRacewy! 😱
Not even a late caution was enough for Bonsignore, who ultimately surrendered second to Ron Silk. Bonsignore knew creativity with strategy would be required to usurp Beers, but he now heads into the final two races knowing he has a slightly larger points deficit to overcome.
“You always want to win, especially at home,” Bonsignore said. “Congrats to Austin; they executed really well and probably had the best car throughout the entire race. It’s so hard to know what the right strategy is going to be, and we short-cutted because we weren’t too good and got the track position, but it just didn’t play out at the end.”
Beers’ victory at Riverhead gives him an advantage over Bonsignore in another regard: multiple wins on the season. He joins Silk, Patrick Emerling and Craig Lutz as the Modified Tour competitors with more than one trip to Victory Lane so far, with Bonsignore’s only triumph occurring earlier this year at Riverhead.
Victories are only one part of the championship formula for Beers. With Bonsignore following him closely in nearly every measurable statistic, Beers knows his team has to stay vigilant while trying to stay ahead of the seasoned Modified veteran at Thompson and Martinsville.
If Beers manages to keep Bonsignore behind him in the standings, he will surpass Ryan Preece as the youngest Modified Tour champion. Now that one major hurdle is cleared, Beers is ready to face Bonsignore head-on for a grueling title fight that could come down to the last lap.
“This is big,” Beers said. “[Riverhead] is a track where we’ve kind of struggled, but we’ve had good runs here and bad runs here. This gives us confidence going into Thompson and pad the points lead a little bit there. We’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing. We’ve been consistent all year, and this win is going to help us.”
Completing the top five in the Eddie Partridge 256 were Lutz and Kyle Bonsignore. Eric Goodale, Stephen Kopcik, Trevor Catalano, Matthew Brode and Tommy Catalano rounded out the top-10 finishers.
Two races remain on the 2025 Modified Tour schedule. The penultimate race of the season takes place at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park next Sunday for the World Series 150, which will be broadcasted live on FloRacing.
CONCORD, N.C. — With a third-place finish and a blessing in disguise, Sammy Smith advanced to the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs by one point over Taylor Gray following Saturday’s race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.
A deteriorating right-front tire brought Smith to pit road with just three laps remaining in regulation. As Smith was receiving service on pit road, the yellow flag waved for a Sage Karam crash on the frontstretch. That caution allowed Smith to rejoin the field and stay out when others pitted, taking the green flag eighth in overtime and charging to a third-place finish when the caution flag waved again for debris on the final lap.
After a brief delay to sort the standings, Smith was confirmed to have beaten Gray by a singular point, propelling all four JR Motorsports cars into the semifinal round of the postseason and ousting the driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
“Probably gonna go home and cry myself to sleep,” Gray said with a slight laugh. “It is what it is.”
Ultimately, Smith joins Connor Zilisch, Justin Allgaier, Brandon Jones, Sam Mayer, Jesse Love, Carson Kvapil and Sheldon Creed in the Round of 8. Eliminated from title contention with Gray were Nick Sanchez (minus-9), Austin Hill (minus-21) and Harrison Burton (minus-41).
The right-front tire on the No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet was blistering as Smith ran ninth, but the call from crew chief Phillip Bell to pit wasn’t totally out of left field. Running six points beneath the cutline, Smith said Bell had planned for an all-or-nothing call if the situation necessitated it. On Saturday, it all came to fruition to push the No. 8 Chevy through.
“It was a long shot coming into the day,” Smith said of entering 14 points below the cutline. “We got lucky with that Hail Mary move Phillip called. Amazing call by him to do that. And just relieved because I felt like we are a Championship 4 caliber team, and unfortunately, what happened at Bristol took us out of it. So, yeah, we’re just gonna regroup and just try to do everything we can to go make the final four.”
Ethan Smith | For NASCAR Digital Media
Officials reviewed the last-lap footage for roughly 15 minutes to confirm the results, with the field frozen at the time of caution after a Turn 7 crash between Brennan Poole and Alex Labbe left fluid at the exit of the hairpin. The wait was excruciating, but for Smith, worth every second amid a whirlwind of ups and downs.
“It was from 10 to go thinking we’re not really going to make it in because we didn’t really have the speed to drive up,” Smith said, “and it didn’t look like (Gray) was going to lose enough positions. And, yeah, Phil made a great call to pit, and then obviously I had to make a lot of aggressive moves there. And luckily, we were able to make it in. So, yeah, just relieved and ready to move on to the next round.”
On the other hand, the wait was a gut-punch to Gray that was met with heartbreak after falling short with a 13th-place finish. The difference? Just two positions.
“It sucks, right?” Gray said. “I mean, we weren’t good enough today. We just we weren’t a playoff-caliber car and so we got knocked out.”
Gray’s crew chief, Jason Ratcliff, granted his rookie driver grace despite falling short of the Round of 8.
“The pressure of the playoffs, everyone says, well, it’s not much. It’s a lot,” Ratcliff said, “especially for a guy in his first season in the series and going to a lot of tracks he’s never seen like this one. We knew this one would be tough. …
“I don’t know what he could have done any different, as far as being a rookie in the sport, in the playoffs in a tight points battle like that, at a difficult track like this. I thought he did really a fabulous job. He showed a lot of poise, and, yeah, it’s disappointing he didn’t make it to the next round, but it’ll it’ll be beneficial for him going forward.”
Hill failed to advance to the Round of 8 by 21 points, the same amount of playoff points Hill earned through the regular season until he was suspended for an incident at Indianapolis Motor Speedway that wiped those 21 playoff points off his slate. Hindered by a sickened engine in the latter stages of Saturday’s race, the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing driver didn’t attribute his postseason ousting to that regular-season penalty.
“I don’t really look at the points thing that happened with us losing the points,” Hill said. “Yeah, obviously that played a factor tonight, but I just viewed it as we didn’t have any points going in the to the playoffs. That was something that I didn’t agree with, but it happened, right? So I put that behind me. And Bristol just was not good. We ran outside the top 15 all day. That got us really behind. Had a really good Kansas, but just wasn’t good enough.”
The Round of 8 will begin at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, Oct. 11 (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Track: Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval Location: Concord, North Carolina Track length: 2.28 miles When: Sunday, 3 p.m. ET Where to tune in: USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App Race purse: $9,797,935 Race distance: 109 laps | 248.52 miles Stages: 25 | 50 | 109 Defending winner: Kyle Larson, October 2024 Paint Scheme Preview: See fresh designs for Roval
Starting lineup: Tyler Reddick rockets to Busch Light Pole
Roval’s Round of 12 finale puts rivals to the test in title chase
CONCORD, N.C. — The Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval’s unique, 2.28-mile layout has always lent itself to playoff drama as the final race of the Round of 12.
The theatrics will reach a fever pitch Sunday through the combination of the track’s oval banking, its infield road course and the electric postseason implications on the line before setting the Round of 8 contenders.
Locked into the penultimate segment of the playoffs are Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott by virtue of their respective wins at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway. Beneath the cutline before Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 are Ross Chastain (minus-13), Bubba Wallace (minus-26), Tyler Reddick (minus-29) and Austin Cindric (minus-48). At least three of those drivers will be chasing victory as their one assured path out of the Round of 12. But to do so, they will need to beat Shane van Gisbergen, who has won each of the last four road-course races in the NASCAR Cup Series.
“Obviously there’ll be a lot of guys with yellow spoilers trying to get great results and trying to advance themselves on,” van Gisbergen said Saturday. “So be mindful of them, but yeah, just have to do my own thing and respect their race, but trying to get the best result I can for us, too, and being up front is the best place to be out of trouble.”
Elliott’s fate was settled last week in a thrilling finish in overtime at Kansas that propelled him to the win and into the Round of 8. But one week of assured guarantees doesn’t equate to the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports team backing off the gas pedal.
“I don’t know that the situation really changes that,” Elliott said. “We still try to show up each week and be really prepared. And I thought we had a good week of prep this week and went about our business like we would have done if we hadn’t won last week. I think that’s an important thing to keep that cadence and keep your process the same because it’s not like the season’s over; we’ve still got another month.
“I think our team is in a good place. We just keep going about our business and keep our heads down and we certainly know we have room to improve, even with last week. So we’ll look to try and do some of that this week, and then certainly try and find some more next week in Vegas.”
Beneath the cutline is where the drama lies. Reddick rushed to the pole position in qualifying, a critical boon in what he and the No. 45 23XI Racing team view as a must-win race.
“Just got to lean on my experience here (and) the work that we put in over the year to find some more speed on the road courses,” Reddick said ahead of his pole run. “This has been one of our stronger tracks over the years as well. So we’ve just got to lean on the work that we’ve been putting in over the year, and the work that I’ve put in as well and see where it takes us.”
Chastain has a chance to point his way into the Round of 8 instead of solely relying on a win. But extreme lap-time fall-off in practice with an inaugural Roval appearance for these Goodyear tires will factor into how the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing team attacks Sunday’s finale: Do they chase the points or pursue the victory?
“Starting 10th, we’ll have a decision to make at the end of Stage 1,” Chastain said. “With the tire fall-off we just saw, it’s going to be evolving quickly. So it’s up to Trackhouse and (crew chief) Phil Surgen.
“I’m asking for a lot of changes. I don’t think we can do (them). You can’t do that kind of stuff in today’s world. When you’re slowing down that much (and) the pace is slowing, we would change things. I don’t know what they would even change if they could, but I know we’re not allowed, so we’ll make do with what we can.”
At the bottom of the playoff standings sits Cindric, who made no bones about the position his No. 2 Team Penske group enters in.
“We have to win to advance to the next round of the playoffs,” Cindric said. “And (we’re) coming off a good race here last year. Knowing that the tire was different and the same tire as what we’ve run all the other road courses at, I feel like we’ve taken a step back at those events. So kind of trying to apply what we have from our notebook. And honestly, regardless of what happens tomorrow, just super proud of everyone’s effort this week. A lot’s gone into it — not that we don’t put the maximum, but I’ve watched a lot of people go outside of their comfort zones to make sure this week is going to be as good a chance as possible to have a shot at the win.”
What do crew chiefs have in focus to win Sunday’s race?
The Goodyear tire compound used for this weekend’s event at the Charlotte Roval is the same as has been used at all road courses in 2025. But the lap-time fall off seen through Saturday’s practice session was more drastic than teams expected.
Last year’s pole-earning lap time was 82.704 seconds for Shane van Gisbergen. Reddick’s quick time Saturday was 85.939 seconds, a full 3.2 seconds slower on the same course configuration.
“We expected it to be slow. We were slower than expected and the fall-off’s quite a bit more,” Rudy Fugle, crew chief of William Byron’s No. 24 car, told NASCAR.com Saturday. “It’s super hard to predict what it’ll do (Sunday). It’s been higher fall-off by quite a bit in all practices with this tire, and then it flattens out. So we’ll see. But yeah, it’s definitely a handful out there. Not much grip.”
Starting 13th, Byron and the No. 24 crew are in a solid position to advance into the Round of 8, sitting sixth at 40 points above the cutline. But the potential for a new winner from beneath the cutline would suddenly put the focus around Byron, Chase Briscoe (plus-21) and Joey Logano (plus-13). Road courses typically provide teams with two main options: Pit before the stage end to forfeit stage points and prioritize track position, or stay on track and collect stage points and claw back through traffic on the ensuing restart.
“I think it’s a little bit reckless to not chase a little bit of points,” Fugle said. “We’re really racing the 22 (Logano) and the 19 (Briscoe) for that eighth-place position. So that’s what we’re gonna be watching the most because obviously Reddick’s good enough to win and knock somebody out, and there’s other cars, too. So we’ll watch that and look for points.”
On the flip side of the cutline sits the No. 23 Toyota from 23XI Racing. Driver Bubba Wallace was less than half a lap away from locking himself into the Round of 8 with a victory at Kansas before contact with boss Denny Hamlin left him in the wall and fifth in the running order. Wallace enters the Roval 10th in points, 26 points out. Crew chief Charles Denike has hopes of winning in mind to get the No. 23 team into the semifinal round of the postseason for the first time.
“For us, we’re in a need-to-win situation, and that’s how we’ll tackle the race tomorrow,” Denike told NASCAR.com before Saturday practice. “Today, first off, is make sure that our car is driving well and our balance is where we need to (be), and our success tomorrow starts with qualifying really well. Bubba is very capable here, so we’ll set our sights on qualifying really well so that we can race for the win.”
A solid 12th-place qualifying effort marks Wallace’s third straight starting spot inside the top 15 at the Charlotte Roval. If Wallace is able to charge into the top five, that opens up more opportunities for Denike on pit road.
“Unique to this track is that if you’re running in the top few — top three or so — and it runs green, you can actually flip (the stage) and still get eighth, ninth or 10th-place stage points or so,” Denike explained. “It’s a little different just with the field spread and the time loss on pit road than a normal road course.”
But to win, they must beat an extremely competitive field — one that includes SVG.
“We just view him as the elite competitor that he is, but nothing’s guaranteed for anybody,” Denike said. “We build really fast cars, and Bubba does a really good job on these things. So if we’re not able to be leading, we at least will be doing everything we can to stay in touch with whoever that leader is, whether it’s the 88 or somebody else, because you never know what might happen. And to be able to win, first and foremost, you’ve got to keep yourself in contention all the way to the end.”
If you need to win to advance … good luck. In seven years of Roval racing, only once has someone in a must-win situation won to advance to the next round: Christopher Bell in 2022.
He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …
TY GIBBS. Few drivers have been able to give SVG a run for his money this year. One of those few, though, was Gibbs at Mexico City back in June. That track also produced the most tire fall-off seen this season on a road course. Conditions may play into the No. 54 Toyota driver this weekend at the Roval, where Gibbs finished fourth in 2023. | See Gibbs’ projected finishing position
Fantasy update
NASCAR Fantasy Live expert Dustin Albino provides insight for your Sunday lineup.
Significant tire fall-off in a playoff elimination race sounds familiar, right? Over a 15-lap run in practice, speeds dropped nearly five seconds, unless your name is SVG. Knowing many playoff drivers are likely chasing stage points while the bulk of the field flips the stages throws a wrench into building a lineup. But the road-course aces seem to find a way, which is what I’m banking on. The lone changes are adding William Byron, who ranked as among the best cars in the field, and Chase Briscoe, who was the third-fastest playoff driver in qualifying. Gone are Chase Elliott and Joey Logano, despite this being the No. 22 car’s best road course as of late.
Lineup: Shane van Gisbergen, Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, AJ Allmendinger, William Byron.
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
•NASCAR at the Roval: Key info, qualifying reports and more from tripleheader weekend | Read more • Racing Insights: Van Gisbergen projected to win again at the Roval | Read more
• Bubble Watch: Will anyone hit a Roval walk-off? | Read more • At-track photos: Trackside sights, scenes from Charlotte Motor Speedway | View gallery
• Memorable moments: History of walk-off winners in the playoffs | Read more • Turning Point to Charlotte: Final exams are here to test title contenders | Read more • Neil Paine: Who needs to win — and who can beat SVG to do it? | Read more
• Playoff Pulse: Who’s hot, who’s not ahead of the Roval | Read more
• Power Rankings: Sizing up where playoff drivers stand | This week’s ranks
CONCORD, N.C. — It was another routine victory for NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie phenom Connor Zilisch, who hit double digits with his 10th win of the season.
Behind Zilisch, it was a chaotic scramble for the remaining five berths in the Round of 8 of the series playoffs.
It was a banner day for JR Motorsports, which needed an unlikely stroke of good fortune to get all four of its drivers into the Round of 8 — and got it.
It was a study in heartbreak for hard-luck Taylor Gray, who lost his bid to advance to the next playoff round by one point.
For the record, after leading practice and winning his eighth pole position of the season, Zilisch led 61 of 68 laps and collected the victory when NASCAR called the sixth caution for oil on the track after Zilisch had taken the white flag.
The win was the 10th of the season for the 19-year-old driver of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, his first on the 2.28-mile circuit and the 11th of his career.
“It’s so much fun getting to race in my hometown,” Zilisch said. “The JR Motorsports cars were so fast this weekend … It feels really good to get 10. Double digits is pretty awesome for my first year in the series.
“Now we’ve got to go win the championship.”
By the time Zilisch took the checkered flag under yellow, Harrison Burton, Nick Sanchez and Austin Hill had, for practical purposes, lost their respective chances to advance in the playoffs thanks to self-inflicted wounds.
But the battle for the final berth in the Round of 8 hung in the balance until the moment of caution on Lap 68. That Smith was even in the running for the final berth was the product of a series of remarkable circumstances that began when he brought his No. 8 JRM Chevrolet to pit road with a cut tire on Lap 63.
Almost immediately thereafter, Sage Karam wrecked on the frontstretch to cause the fifth caution, erasing Zilisch’s 10.987-second lead and giving Smith the chance to exit pit road with fresh tires.
Zilisch stayed out under caution, but a sizable number of drivers pitted behind him — enough to put Smith in seventh, one spot behind Gray, for the overtime restart at Lap 67.
Smith made immediate progress from the drop of the green flag and climbed to third at the finish, but Gray, tangled up in traffic, dropped to 13th in overtime, just enough to hand Smith the chance to advance by one point after a lengthy review by the sanctioning body.
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“I’m proud of everyone at JRM and everyone on my team,” Smith said. “(Crew chief) Phillip Bell made a great call to pit, obviously. It was a Hail Mary move, and it worked.
“I’m just excited to go try to race for a championship and put ourselves in position to make the final four.”
Gray was in position to advance but for the caution called for Karam’s accident.
“Just obviously bummed out,” Gray said. “We don’t get to go racing for a championship at the end of the year. Just weren’t good enough. We weren’t good enough today.
“We didn’t have a good Bristol, and we shouldn’t have to even be in this spot. We are, though, and we are going to take our loss and move on to the next four and try to win us a couple of races.”
The drama of the playoffs all but obscured a career-best runner-up finish by Austin Green, who stayed out with Zilisch for the overtime restart. Non-playoff drivers Kaz Grala, Connor Mosack, Jeb Burton and William Sawalich secured positions four through seven.
Defending series champion Justin Allgaier was eighth, with Sanchez finishing ninth.
Two pit-road penalties had already dimmed Sanchez’s hopes of advancing. Burton lost six laps in the garage with fuel pressure issues. Hill was competitive for the final Round of 8 berth until Lap 50, when he reported engine issues (a dropped cylinder) that relegated him to 28th at the finish, 21 points short of a trip to the next round.
Carson Kvapil joined Zilisch, Allgaier and Smith as JR Motorsports entries in the Round of 8 — but not by much. Kvapil survived the chaos of the final restart to finish 15th and advance by three points over Gray.
Sheldon Creed (11th), Jesse Love (12th) and Sam Mayer (19th) all made the Round of 8 on points. Zilisch, Allgaier and Brandon Jones had all already clinched their spots, the former two by points and Jones by virtue of a Kansas win last weekend.
The Xfinity Series Round of 8 begins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway next Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
NOTE: Inspection was completed in the Xfinity Series garage with no issues, confirming Zilisch as the winner. No cars are going back to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina for further inspection.
Justin Allgaier made his 500th NASCAR Xfinity Series start Saturday in the Blue Cross NC 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.
Allgaier ranks fifth on the circuit’s all-time starts list, 47 starts behind series record-holder Kenny Wallace. Among current Xfinity Series drivers, only Jeremy Clements (526 starts) ranks higher.
Allgaier started second in the 38-car field, sharing the front row with JR Motorsports teammate Connor Zilisch, the race’s eventual winner. Allgaier drove home with an eighth-place finish.
Allgaier also made his Xfinity Series debut at Charlotte Motor Speedway, setting sail on the 1.5-mile oval in a Team Penske Dodge on Oct. 10, 2008. He began full-time competition in the series the following year, and, save for two Cup Series seasons from 2014-15, he’s been an Xfinity Series regular ever since.
“Really cool to be 500 here at Charlotte, where my career started years ago,” Allgaier said post-race. “Just so blessed to still be doing this, right? I’ve got plenty of gray hair and there’s been plenty of ups and plenty downs in that 500 but I don’t know what the final number is, right? I don’t know where it ends, but it’s pretty awesome to get to 500. I mean, if I look back in this sport, and I look at how many guys have hit that 500 number, whether it be in any of the three series, it’s a pretty amazing group of drivers, and so just to even have an opportunity to be there is really special.”
Allgaier has 28 victories in the series, a total that ranks first among active drivers and ninth on the circuit’s all-time list. The 39-year-old driver secured the Xfinity Series championship for the first time last season, and his 299 top-10 finishes – including Saturday’s outcome – are a series record.
Allgaier is making his 10th appearance in the Xfinity Series Playoffs with the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet team, reaching the postseason each year since the format debuted. Saturday’s race was the final event in the playoffs’ Round of 12, but Allgaier had already clinched a spot in the next round on the basis of points.
CONCORD, N.C. — Walking into the media center for his Saturday pre-race press conference at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Bubba Wallace greeted reporters with a joke to lighten the mood before answering questions related to last weekend’s finish with 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin.
“It’s like sitting in class and the kids you always get in trouble with just staring at you,” Wallace said.
Laughter quickly turned to sighs as Wallace reflected on the time between the Kansas finish, where he was put into the wall by the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing driver, and entering the track.
“It was definitely a somber week, for sure, and I hate that it got to that point,” Wallace said.
What wasn’t on anyone’s radar was an impromptu discussion Wallace said he had with Hamlin just prior to his availability.
“Denny and I just talked 30 minutes ago and it was a good heart-to-heart conversation, came from a place of peace,” Wallace said. “Went better than I thought it would. And he shared his side of things and I shared mine, and we had common ground. It was kind of funny because I kind of sent him on a detour when I said you can go first and then he started talking and five seconds in and I said, ‘just so you know, I’m not mad about getting fenced going for the win,’ and his eyes are like ‘oh well, I need a second to reposition where I’m going to go.’
“That’s not going to be the last time that I’m battling for a win and it doesn’t go our way in that sort of fashion, whether that’s Denny or anybody in the field. But I’ll be a little gracious here and say 95% of the people on this side of the catchfence look at that move as …. oooof …. right? That’s it. I don’t fault Denny Hamlin for racing for a win, racing for his team, his sponsors. I get the question a lot, ‘what’s it like racing Denny on the racetrack?’ No offense to them, but I can give two [expletive] because he’s a competitor, and he has labeled it that way.”
Hamlin spoke to the media after Saturday’s qualifying session and provided his perspective on the conversation with Wallace.
“I think it’s important that I listen,” Hamlin said. “The biggest thing is just listening and just like being a race car driver, I think what’s made me successful is continuing to evolve and trying to get better. I feel as though it was important for me to kind of listen to his perspective and also give mine. We had that respect for each other and I think that that obviously went very well, and feel like we’re in a good place.”
Wallace noted that one of the bigger points of frustration was nobody in the Toyota camp winning at Kansas after having five drivers start up front on the final overtime restart.
The momentum lost by Hamlin in the final corner as he washed up the track, putting Wallace’s No. 23 in the wall, opened the door for Chase Elliott to sideswipe Hamlin on the inside off Turn 4 and steal the victory to punch his ticket to the Round of 8.
After returning to North Carolina to decompress from Kansas, tension mounted between the two drivers as nothing had been hashed out before Hamlin went on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast on Monday with the headline “I won’t apologize.”
“It was just the way it was kind of handled behind the scenes. Just kept going, kept adding fuel to the fire,” Wallace said. “I expressed my displeasure now with Denny [Saturday], and he totally respected it. Because I’m a guy that if we have confrontation and it’s not settled, like it’s lingering, and then now, like I’m in this spot to where I’m 26 points out. I expressed to him what you would need from your drivers to be 110% focused on what to do, how to execute, go out there and beat SVG, and I had a dark cloud over my mind all weekend long.
“The conversation allowed him to see things from a different perspective. Denny usually doesn’t do that, but it allowed him to have that opportunity. As much as I wanted to come in here and M-F, the guy, the competitor, Denny, the conversation went better than expected.”
Hamlin made note that scheduling conflicts didn’t allow for him and Wallace to be in the same place at the same time and knew at-track Saturday would be the best time to have a ‘face-to-face’ conversation.
Hamlin also believed after the two acknowledged each other on pit road at Kansas that any friction left over had subsided.
“I didn’t know he was upset,” Hamlin admitted. “I should have at least checked with him to make sure. Truthfully, I don’t think he faults me in trying to get a win. I think he understood the significance of the win to me, personally, the significance of me winning right now in the short term. I think that we have an understanding and it just took a 15-minute talk to kind of hear each other’s perspectives, and truthfully, I understand his perspective after listening.”
What remains for Sunday’s Round of 12 elimination race (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) will need to be nothing short of Wallace’s best road-course performance if he wants to advance and keep his Cup Series championship hopes alive.
Both Wallace and Hamlin are looking ahead, but the end result of last weekend could spell the end of one’s playoff run while the other continues on.
“I’m sure it’s a difficult thing to juggle. Like it’s really good if I get 60 wins and it’s really good, but man, also really good if the car that I own gets locked in the next round and a lot of money on the line,” Wallace said about Hamlin’s thought process at Kansas. “There’s a lot of layers to all of that. I would assume you don’t think about that in the moment you’re going for a win and you do what you got to do. I appreciate Denny’s comments. Never want him to back down in any scenario, but I didn’t get a chance to see the rest of the corner and so, yeah, that sucks.”
CONCORD, N.C.– Tyler Reddick picked an ideal time to regain his form and beat Shane van Gisbergen — the road-course wonder from Down Under — in Saturday qualifying at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.
With a lap at 95.510 mph, Reddick edged three-time Australian Supercars champion van Gisbergen for the pole position in Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Reddick, who also claimed the top starting spot at the 17-turn layout in 2023, beat van Gisbergen (95.474 mph), winner of the last four NASCAR Cup Series races on road courses, by 0.032 seconds to earn his second Busch Light Pole Award of the season, his second at the 2.28-mile circuit and the 11th of his career.
In a qualifying session that featured unexpected severe fall-off of tires selected for all six road courses this season, Reddick put himself in position to overcome the 29-point deficit he faces entering the Round of 12 cutoff race in the playoffs.
Reddick believes the tire factor may be the most important aspect in determining strategy for Sunday’s race.
“I think everybody that had a plan, an idea on the strategy for this race just had it completely ripped in half,” said Reddick, who posted three road course victories shortly after the transition to the Gen 7 car in 2022.
“All the teams are now looking at what the fall-off was like today and refiguring what the strategy’s going to look like. I would imagine that tires are going to be important to have late if there’s a caution, based on what we saw today.”
The top 10 drivers in time trials constituted a diverse mix of playoff and non-playoff drivers. With Reddick on the pole, fellow title chasers Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe and Ross Chastain qualified fourth, seventh, eighth and 10th, respectively.
Behind van Gisbergen, Ty Gibbs (95.265 mph) was third fastest, followed by Chris Buescher (fifth), Michael McDowell (sixth) and AJ Allmendinger (ninth), as non-Playoff drivers accounted for five of the top 10 starters.
Cup Series Playoff drivers Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, William Byron, Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott claimed positions 11 through 15 on the grid, respectively. Team Penske’s Joey Logano, the defending series champion, and Austin Cindric will start 17th and 19th.
Logano holds the eighth position in the Cup standings, 13 points above the current elimination line for the Round of 8. Cindric is 48 points below the line, almost certainly needing a victory to advance.
Blaney and Elliott already have earned berths in the Round of 8 with their respective victories in the first two Round of 12 events at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway. Four playoff drivers will see their title hopes end in tomorrow’s elimination race.
Van Gisbergen, who also started second in his most recent win at Watkins Glen, is seeking his fifth consecutive road course victory. The record for the Cup Series is six straight, set by Jeff Gordon (1997-2000).
AJ Allmendinger paces the field in practice
After a practice session split between two groups, it was AJ Allmendinger, the 2023 Roval winner, who turned the fastest lap, hitting a top speed of 94.748 mph. Fellow Group 1 drivers Ty Gibbs, Daniel Suárez, Kyle Busch and Zane Smith rounded out the top five. Carson Hocevar, Larson, Justin Haley, Bell and Noah Gragson completed the top 10.
Larson and Bell were the only two playoff drivers who cracked the top 15 overall. Ross Chastain (16th) and William Byron (20th) were the next closest championship hopefuls as the rest of the playoff drivers ranked 23rd or worse after practice.
Tire fall-off played a major factor and served as an eye-opener for nearly every team in their search for grip. Gibbs was the fastest over a five-lap average, four-time road-course winner van Gisbergen was the fastest over a 10-lap average and Regular Season Champion Byron was fastest over a 15-lap average.
Both practice sessions ran caution-free; however, 23XI Racing driver Riley Herbst suffered a hard hit in the first session. He carried too much speed exiting Turn 5, which sent the No. 35 Toyota around and briefly climbed up the tire barrier before landing on all four wheels and continuing under green flag conditions with minimal damage.
