Posted on by Staff Report

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

Monday, Sept. 30
6 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1/FOX Sports App

Tuesday, Oct. 1
5 p.m., Dale Jr. Download, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1/FOX Sports App
6 p.m., Glory Road: Stock Car Evolution, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6:30 p.m., Glory Road: Endurance Racing, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (re-air)
9 p.m., Dale Jr. Download, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (re-air)

On MRN
7 p.m., NASCAR Live

Wednesday, Oct. 2
Midnight, Dale Jr. Download, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (re-air)
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1/FOX Sports App

On MRN
noon, NASCAR Coast to Coast

Thursday, Oct. 3
5:30 p.m., NASCAR America: Motorsports Hour, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1/FOX Sports App
7 p.m., NASCAR Race Classic: 1994 Coke 600, FS1/FOX Sports App (re-air)

Friday, Oct. 4
12:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series first practice, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN App)
1:30 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series first practice, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN2)
2:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series final practice, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN App)
3:30 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series final practice, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN2)
4:30 p.m., Drivers & Dreams: Grassroots Racing in America, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (re-air)
5:30 p.m., NASCAR K&N Pro Series West in Meridian, Idaho, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6:30 p.m., NASCAR Whelen Series, NBCSN/NBC Sports App

On MRN
1:30 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series first practice
3:30 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series final practice

Saturday, Oct. 5
12:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN App)
1 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
1:30 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN App)
2:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series Countdown to Green, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
3 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series Use Your Melon Drive Sober 200, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN3)
5 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series Post Race, NBCSN/NBC Sports App

On MRN
1:30 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Busch Pole Qualifying
2:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series Use Your Melon Drive Sober 200
6:30 p.m., Valleystar Credit Union 300

Sunday, Oct. 6
12:30 p.m., NASCAR RaceDay: Dover, FS1, FOX Sports App
1:30 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
2 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Countdown to Green, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
2:30 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Drydene 400, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN3)
6 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Post Race, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6:30 p.m., NASCAR Victory Lap, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
7 p.m., Proving Grounds: The Fast and the Ridiculous, NBCSN/NBC Sports App

On MRN
1:30 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Drydene 400

Posted on by Staff Report

Chase Elliott won Stage 2 in the Bank of America Roval 400 on Sunday afternoon at Charlotte Motor Speedway, his fifth stage win of the season.

Elliott, in the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, was leading when the caution came out with 10 laps to go. He and crew chief Alan Gustafson made a gutsy call to pit and give up the lead, but Elliott feverishly worked his way through the field following the ensuing restart to re-take the lead and nab the stage win.

That caution emerged when Alex Bowman, who had been battling Bubba Wallace for multiple laps, expressed his frustration with the No. 43 driver and punted his Chevrolet counterpart.

RELATED: Stage 2 results

Elliott battled hard with Team Penske driver Brad Keselowski over the closing laps, with the 2012 champion settling for second. Clint Bowyer, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top five. Martin Truex Jr. (P7) and William Byron (P10) were other playoff drivers to finish in the top 10.

Defending Cup champion Joey Logano hit the wall exiting pit road early in the stage. He wound up placing 22nd in the stage.

Place Driver Team Pts
1 Chase Elliott Hendrick Motorsports 10
2 Brad Keselowski Team Penske 9
3 Clint Bowyer Stewart-Haas Racing 8
4 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports 7
5 Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Racing 6
6 Michael McDowell Front Row Motorsports 5
7 Martin Truex Jr. Joe Gibbs Racing 4
8 Daniel Suarez Stewart-Haas Racing 3
9 Paul Menard Wood Brothers Racing 2
10 William Byron Hendrick Motorsports 1

STAGE 1

Kyle Larson won Stage 1 under caution in the Bank of America Roval 400 on Sunday afternoon at Charlotte Motor Speedway, his fifth stage win of the season.

Larson, in the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, didn’t lead any laps under green flag conditions but at the stage end was scored ahead of pole-winner and Stage 1 dominator William Byron, who led 22 laps in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to place second.

RELATED: Stage 1 results

The caution came out with six laps remaining in the stage when Ryan Preece spun in the backstretch chicane. On the ensuing restart, Jimmie Johnson, Alex Bowman, Denny Hamlin, Erik Jones were all involved in a mess in Turn 1 to bring out another caution. Larson had just enough time to pass Byron before the yellow came out, thus handing him the stage win as the stage never restarted.

Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano and defending race winner Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five.

Bowman, who earned a front-row starting position but had to start in the back of the pack due to a crash in final practice, got turned around on the first lap. In need of a Hail Mary-type day to make the cut, the Hendrick Motorsports driver had recovered to crack the top 15 before being relegated back to 30th at stage finish.

Erik Jones (p39) was forced to take the No. 20 behind the wall because of a punctured radiator as well, marking the end of his day and playoff pursuit.

Daniel Suarez was the only non-playoff driver to finish in the top 10, with playoff drivers Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr,, Ryan Newman, Bowman, Hamlin and Jones all finishing 11th or worse.

Place Driver Team Pts
1 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing 10
2 William Byron Hendrick Motorsports 9
3 Clint Bowyer Stewart-Haas Racing 8
4 Joey Logano Team Penske 7
5 Ryan Blaney Team Penske 6
6 Brad Keselowski Team Penske 5
7 Aric Almirola Stewart-Haas Racing 4
8 Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Racing 3
9 Chase Elliott Hendrick Motorsports 2
10 Daniel Suarez Stewart-Haas Racing 1
Posted on by Nick Giffen

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

Today’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at the Charlotte Roval is the third of three Cup Series road-course events. Exactly one race at the Roval has ever taken place, giving us a small sample size to work with when looking at track history.

So how do we gauge driver performance when track history is nearly nonexistent? The easiest thing we can do is look across a range of tracks, and across multiple road-course races.

Four of the seven road-course winners during the era of stage racing in the Cup Series came from the front two rows. The other three winners all started inside the top 12.

That means it’s probably going to be very hard to win if a driver doesn’t start toward the front. Last year’s winner — Ryan Blaney — benefited from plenty of randomness at the front of the field. There were two sets of crashes in which the front two cars took each other out, so it’s certainly possible for randomness to come into play. When it does, though, other top cars are likely to benefit.

The recipe for success is to find drivers capable of winning by shopping around for value. Let’s apply that process to today’s race.

Kevin Harvick +1350

Harvick is a very good road racer, with multiple career wins at road-course races, including one in 2017 at Sonoma. Ten of his past 11 incident-free road-course races have resulted in top-10 finishes, including six of his last seven road-course races overall.

Harvick was quick in final practice, posting the fifth-fastest five-lap average out of 18 drivers that made a run. He also claims the sixth starting position for today’s race. That combination of starting position and practice speed should keep him near the front for most of the race.

With such limited data not only in track history, but also in practice, it behooves us to take a driver of Harvick’s overall record at a price that’s quite affordable, especially when he’s shown significant speed in the limited on-track data we do have.

The +1200 number for Harvick MGM is offering is quite generous — he has odds of +900 or shorter across most other books, which is right on the cusp of value.

Joey Logano +1400

Knowing that more than 50% of road-course races in the stage era have been won by drivers starting inside the top three, this number being offered at PointsBet on Logano is quite generous.

Logano starts third for today’s race, and with Alex Bowman moving to the rear, Joey will have to overcome only polesitter William Byron and possibly Byron’s teammate, Jimmie Johnson, who should move to the front row after Bowman heads to the rear.

Logano’s road-course record in 2019 is certainly less than inspiring, but he does have some positives going for him. In the high-downforce era of the Gen-6 car, Logano has had three top-seven finishes at Watkins Glen, including one win. He also had a fifth-place finish at Sonoma.

Logano is comfortably inside the playoff picture, so he’s all about the win while other contenders could be playing it safe. That increases his upside relative to other drivers, making the +1400 odds a fine price for a top-three starter with solid road-course history.

If you’re in Vegas, you can get Logano at +1200 at MGM. I like betting him down to +1000.

Posted on by RJ Kraft

CONCORD, N.C. – What happened during Saturday’s Drive for the Cure 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval will be filed away in the memory banks of Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe for future reference.

The two Xfinity Series Playoff drivers had combined to lead 40 of the 67 laps and were battling for second place with 10 to go when they made contact in the chicane in Turn 17. Then, coming into Turn 2, the pair were still battling when apparent contact from Bell sent Briscoe spinning.

RELATED: Official race results

“The 98 (Briscoe) was really fast and I was going to let him go as soon as he got beside me and then whenever we got into the chicane, he didn’t leave me any option besides running me off the race track,” Bell said. “At that point, I was just going to race him back as hard as I could.”

The spin dropped Briscoe back to 20th place, while Bell had to start at the rear as a penalty for what NASCAR ruled was missing the chicane. Briscoe rallied for a top 10 – his 11th top 10 in 12 races. Bell, who already is locked him into the Round of 8 with a win at Richmond last weekend, finished 12th.

“I felt like getting down into the final two corners I obviously outbraked him,” Briscoe said. “I honestly thought he was going to give it to me after I ran him down that far. At that point, as soon as I pulled out, I was committed. There was no way I wasn’t going to do what I did the next corner and it’s so narrow. It funnels anyway. And then I gave him plenty of room down through here and even tried to give him a lot of room so we could race it. I felt like I got tagged in the left rear and turned around.”

The way the contact in Turn 2 went down left Briscoe a bit flummoxed.

“I felt like I got turned down here and that’s what I don’t understand,” Briscoe said. “We’re both racing for the win. I had no reason to move him off the race track or anything.”

Bell, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver who will move up to the Cup ranks with Leavine Family Racing in 2020, indicated he doesn’t expect any carry-over to future races.

RELATED: Bell to move to Cup with Leavine Family Racing

“We haven’t ever had any issues before,” Bell said. “He’s a hard racer, I’m a hard racer. If he has a problem with it, he can come ask me my opinion. That’s that.”

The contact took Briscoe out of contention for the win in a race that he scored the Stage 1 win in. He also won the inaugural Xfinity race at the Roval last year and sat on the pole for Saturday’s race.

“I felt like we had the car to beat all day long,” Briscoe said. “We were able to constantly come back through the field. There at the end, I felt like I still could have ran down AJ (Allmendinger, the race winner). I felt like we were really good on the long run and that’s where he struggled.”

The finish puts Briscoe 35 points to the good and in sixth place in the standings heading to the Round of 12 finale at Dover International Speedway in Saturday’s Use Your Melon Drive Sober 200 (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The 24-year old finished fifth at the Monster Mile in the spring.

“As long as we get a couple stage points and run inside the top 10 we should be OK,” Briscoe said. “Today, we definitely wanted to get the win but the big picture was trying to get points and we were able to do that.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

CONCORD, N.C. – AJ Allmendinger stole the thunder from a series of intense battles among NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff drivers to win Saturday’s Drive for the Cure 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course.

Allmendinger muscled his way past series leader Christopher Bell as the cars climbed from the infield section onto the banking on Lap 48 of 67 and held the top spot through three subsequent restarts in the action-filled second race of the Xfinity Round of 12.

The road-course ace scored his third victory in 16 starts in his series, finishing 2.386 seconds ahead of Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick during a three-lap run to the finish.

MORE: Official race results | Roval wreck photos

“Whooo! Damn, I’m tired — thank you everybody!” Allmendinger said during a post-race interview beneath. “I can’t thank (owner) Matt Kaulig enough, first of all. He put his belief in me, wanting me to come here and help build this team.

“I have to thank Tyler Reddick – he’s phenomenal. He told me when I got here I needed to get better on the road courses, because he out-qualified me in every race lately and even beat me in a couple.

“I knew with him behind me (for the last two restarts), I could be defensive on the right side and give myself an angle, and Tyler wouldn’t shove down in there. I appreciate that. I tried to change the restarts up enough each time, but you can only do so much. I knew once we got into clear air, this thing was good. In traffic, it was a struggle.”

For the final two restarts, Allmendinger lined up next to playoff driver Austin Cindric, who broke a rear shock and lost the runner-up position to Reddick on the penultimate lap. Cindric held third over Justin Allgaier, with Noah Gragson securing the fifth position after starting from the rear of the field in a backup car.

“I wish I had a chance to fight the 10 (Allmendinger) there at the end, but under caution I felt a shock mount break,” Cindric said. “The right-rear shock was clean off the race car before I even restarted the race, so I’m glad I didn’t wreck, and I’m glad I finished third.

“I guess all of that is positive, but at the same time, I felt like we had a good shot, especially if the thing would have gone green, to try to pressure him into a mistake or getting a good lunge.”

While Allmendinger was enjoying the clean air at the front of the field, the top drivers in the Xfinity playoffs were busy salvaging respectable finishes from a litany of troubles.

After giving up the lead to Allmendinger, Bell drew a penalty for blowing the final chicane while racing side by side with Chase Briscoe, but not before contact between their two cars sent Briscoe spinning between Turns 2 and 3 on Lap 58.

WATCH: Briscoe, Bell tangle

Already qualified for the next round of the playoffs after last week’s victory at Richmond Raceway, Bell recovered from a rear-of-the-field penalty to finish 12th and maintained a 10-point advantage over Cole Custer, who came home eighth after spinning in Turn 1 during a multi-car mashup on Lap 44. Despite the wild day, Custer was able clinch a spot in the Round of 8 on points.

After his spin on Lap 58, Briscoe charged through traffic to finish ninth and heads to next week’s elimination race at Dover International Speedway sixth in the standings — 46 points behind Bell but 35 ahead of ninth-place John Hunter Nemechek, who ran seventh Saturday. The playoff field will be cut from 12 drivers to eight at Dover.

Nemechek is 11 points behind Michael Annett in eighth place, tied with Brandon Jones (16th Saturday). Ryan Sieg finished 30th after suffering fuel pressure issues and enters the Dover race 37 points below the cutline. Justin Haley, Allmendinger’s Kaulig Racing teammate, broke a track-bar mount early in the race and finished 31st, six laps down and 39 points behind Annett.

Posted on by RJ Kraft

CONCORD, N.C. — William Byron is on the pole for Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Is the young Hendrick Motorsports driver worthy of a lineup spot considering he is on the NASCAR Playoffs bubble to advance to the Round of 12? And how should you navigate the playoff game format? We’ve dissected the numbers to offer a suggested lineup worthy of your Fantasy Live consideration.

PLAY NOW: Set your lineup | How the game works | Tips to set your lineup

RJ Kraft’s Fantasy Live lineup for race day at Charlotte:
Playoff driver 1: Kyle Larson
Playoff driver 2: Clint Bowyer
Non-playoff driver 1: Jimmie Johnson
Non-playoff driver 2: Matt DiBenedetto
Garage: William Byron

RELATED: Odds for Charlotte | Lap averages | Weekend preview

Analysis: This is an elimination race for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, so it is important to know the agendas. Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. are locked into the Round of 12, while Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin are pretty much set to advance as well — but have not yet mathematically clinched their spots. With that said, I am avoiding those drivers for the most part because I am placing a premium on the drivers who need stage points and points to advance. Truex would have been the one exception to that rule — due to his Round of 16 hot streak and past road-course success — but a blown motor in final practice will drop him to the rear for an engine change.

I am all-in for chasing stage points in this race and targeting drivers who need to grab points to advance. So that puts Byron, Kyle Larson, Clint Bowyer, Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott squarely in my crosshairs. Larson has looked like one of the best cars in practice and led the most laps here last year, so I am playing him. Bowyer’s combination of solid 1.5-mile results and road-racing ability plugs him into my lineup, too. Plus, at just four points out, I expect him to be on the aggressive end for stage points. For the garage, I want to take Elliott because he had the best car in final practice and is only starting 19th because he mucked up the qualifying lap Friday. That said, though, I am taking Byron in the garage as a pure stage-points play since he is starting from the pole. He was aggressive on the stage-points front at Sonoma Raceway and I expect more of the same Sunday.

On the non-playoff side, I am taking Jimmie Johnson for one spot. He qualified fourth, ran well here last year and has had speed in recent weeks. The seven-time champion had an incident in final practice, but the team worked to repair the damage to avoid going to a backup. My second spot was a choice between Matt DiBenedetto and Chris Buescher. The JTG Daugherty Racing driver has the better starting spot, but I like DiBenedetto’s road record a bit more.

For the bonus picks, I am taking Logano to win Stage 1, Elliott to win Stage 2 and Larson for the win with Chevrolet as the manufacturer.

Each week in this space, we’ll also highlight two Props Challenge items for players.

MORE: Need Props help? The Action Network has you covered | Play the Props Challenge today

1. Which Team Penske driver will finish higher: Brad Keselowski or Ryan Blaney? Blaney has had two top-five finishes at road courses in 2019, and Keselowski has one top-10 finish. Blaney also won this race last year, and Keselowski was involved in a late-race wreck. I am taking BLANEY on this one, based on the better road record this year.

2. O/U 3.5 drivers earn at least 10 stage points. I am big on the OVER here. In last year’s race, six drivers (Larson, Kurt Busch, Bowyer, Elliott, Johnson and Blaney) all got at least 10 stage points. Factor in that a slew of drivers starting in the top 10 are likely to be players on that front to improve their playoff position, I feel even better about taking the over on this one.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

CONCORD, N.C. – Clint Bowyer is facing a four-point deficit entering Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

As if that weren’t enough pressure in the first-round elimination race in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, Bowyer must try to make up ground on a 2.28-mile, 17-turn road course where potential calamity awaits at nearly every corner.

Bowyer is 14th in the playoff standings, four points behind pole winner William Byron in 12th. After Sunday’s race, the playoff field will be cut to 12 drivers.

RELATED: Roval starting lineup | Driver standings

“Obviously, we brought the best car that we can possibly build, and speeds are good,” said Bowyer, who qualified fifth for the elimination race. “I made a mistake in the chicane on my mock run (in practice) and gave up a half-second. That’s what you can’t do here. … It’s minimizing mistakes on a track like this, as treacherous as this track is.

“It isn’t like you can just focus on that chicane and say, ‘Oh, man that’s a trouble zone.’ The front straightaway there is crazy. Turn 1 is crazy. Turn 2 is pretty crazy. Turn 3, there’s a really good opportunity to wreck there. Turn 4 is a little bit uneventful. Turn 5 is another crazy opportunity to wreck.

“I don’t know if you’re catching my drift, but there’s a lot of opportunities to make a mistake and end your day. If not, just give up a lot of positions. You’ve got to do the best you can do, but it’s a razor’s edge. You cannot step over it.”

That’s especially true when your playoff life is on the line.

Posted on by Staff Report

Chase Elliott led final practice on Saturday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course, but Martin Truex Jr., who was out front for most of the session, made news by making a shifting mistake that will force him to start from the rear in Sunday’s race. Truex went from second gear to first instead of correctly into third and damaged the engine of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota enough to necessitate a change. Truex told NBCSN that it was the first time in his career he’s made a shifting mistake like that.

“We had a good qualifying effort yesterday (eighth),” Truex said. “It’s just going to be hard starting from the back and I hate all the extra work for my guys. I apologize to them. I’m not sure how it happened. I had one other issue today with a shift in the gate. I don’t know if it was just an issue that was right there on the edge and I just screwed it up a little bit that one time, but we’ll have to look at it a little bit further.”

RELATED: Practice 3 results

Truex wasn’t the only driver to have trouble in final practice as Jimmie Johnson, who led the opening practice Friday, banged the wall in Turn 2 and damaged the left-rear quarter panel of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Johnson’s damage appeared to be repairable, though, which is better than his teammate Alex Bowman could say about the No. 88 Chevrolet. Bowman blasted the wall in the infield section of the course with fewer than 45 seconds left in the 50-minute session, doing significant damage to the right-rear quarter panel and the right-front near the splitter.

His crew immediately took out his backup car, which would mean Bowman, who was slated to start second, would start at the rear.

WATCH: Johnson hits wall

Behind Elliott (at 102.101 mph) was Truex in second place at 102.009 mph. Brad Keselowski (101.891 mph), Clint Bowyer (101.775 mph) and Michael McDowell (101.756 mph) rounded out the top five in final practice. Pole winner William Byron was seventh at 101.640 mph.

PRACTICE 2

Defending race winner Ryan Blaney topped the leaderboard in Saturday’s opening practice at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course. Blaney wheeled his No. 12 Team Penske Ford around the 2.28-mile Roval at 101.882 mph in the second Monster Energy Series session of the weekend. Blaney won last year’s inaugural road-course race when Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr. spun at the finish, opening the door for him to drive through for the win.

There were also some spins and anxious moments in Saturday’s practice that were noteworthy. Kyle Busch spun in Turn 4 and made contact with the wall, damaging the left-rear quarter panel of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota. Busch went to the garage for repairs but did not appear to need a backup car.

RELATED: Practice 2 results | Friday’s results

Later on, Brad Keselowski and Alex Bowman were among the drivers who blew threw the backside chicane, which was redesigned for the 2019 race. Both will need to hit their marks a little better by the time Sunday’s race, the Bank of America Roval 400, rolls around (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Ryan Preece (101.445 mph), Joey Logano (101.388 mph), Johnson (101.290 mph) and Denny Hamlin (101.228 mph) rounded out the top five in order. Hamlin was in his backup car after wrecking the No. 11 JGR Toyota in opening practice Friday.

Posted on by Staff Report

Want to be an Uber or Lyft driver for the NASCAR stars? Well, you had a chance because NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Noah Gragson got a flat tire on the way to Charlotte Motor Speedway and made a desperate plea for help getting to the track before qualifying for Saturday’s race.

Were you on I-485? Then you could have swung by and picked up Gragson, who would have no doubt been indebted to you for at least a day. Should have been worth a couple of race tickets, no? Qualifying was set for 12:10 p.m. ET, and the race was scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET (both on NBCSN and the NBC Sports App).

UPDATE: Gragson was picked up by a JR Motorsports employee and he made it to the track on time.