Posted on by Staff Report

The 2019 Xfinity Series Playoffs field was officially set on Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the regular-season finale.

Nine of 12 spots had been clinched in advance of the Rhino Pro Truck Outfitters 300, meaning three spots were available. Brandon Jones, John Hunter Nemechek and Ryan Sieg locked them up in Saturday’s race.

RELATED: Reddick wins regular season title |Reddick wins at Las Vegas | Race results

“There’s a lot of guys that are going to be tough to beat, but I’m ready to go into battle,” Jones said after a third-place finish at las Vegas. “I have to make it past these couple hard ones, but get me to the mile-and-a-halves where we’re really decent and I think we’re going to be a sleeper coming into this thing.”

Sieg added that it is all about going all out because wild things can happen in the playoffs.

“Go hard and that’s all we can do,” Sieg said. “It’s what we’ve been doing these past few weeks. We just have to do all we can do. You never know what could happen.”

The seven-race Xfinity Series Playoffs begin Sept. 20 at Richmond Raceway. The Round of 12 is made up of Richmond, Charlotte Roval and Dover with the Round of 8 consisting of Kansas, Texas and ISM (Phoenix) and the Championship 4 taking place at Homestead-Miami.

NASCAR XFINITY SERIES PLAYOFFS FIELD WITH SEEDINGS AND POINTS

1. Christopher Bell, Joe Gibbs Racing: 2055 points
2. Cole Custer, Stewart-Haas Racing: 2044 points
3. Tyler Reddick, Richard Childress Racing: 2044 points
4. Austin Cindric, Team Penske: 2017 points
5. Chase Briscoe, Stewart-Haas Racing with Fred Biagi: 2012 points
6. Justin Allgaier, JR Motorsports: 2012 points
7. Michael Annett, JR Motorsports: 2009 points
8. Noah Gragson, JR Motorsports: 2005 points
9. Brandon Jones, Joe Gibbs Racing: 2004 points
10. Justin Haley, Kaulig Racing: 2003 points
11. Ryan Sieg, RSS Racing: 2001 points
12. John Hunter Nemechek, GMS Racing: 2000 points

Contributing: Chase Wilhelm from Las Vegas

Posted on by Staff Report

All Tyler Reddick did was win Saturday evening at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Reddick locked up the 2019 NASCAR Xfinity Series Regular-Season Championship, taking the honor a season after scoring the series championship in 2018. He secured the title midway through Stage 2 of the Rhino Pro Truck Outfitters 30 after a combination of his eight points earned in Stage 1 and the number of early retirees guaranteeing him enough race-end points.

“We just need to be smart about what advantage we have,” Reddick said. “Obviously, if we can go out and win a race and take care of business and not have to worry about the final race, that would be great.

“We don’t want to obviously give away what we worked really hard for in the regular season. We want to use those points we’ve accumulated well and keep them in our back pocket in case we need them.”

RELATED: Official Las Vegas results | Xfinity Series playoff field

The No. 2 Richard Childress Racing driver also took the race victory in the regular-season finale at the 1.5-mile track, boldly stretching out his fuel to edge out Christopher Bell, who finished second.

“We knew we weren’t going to beat the 20 car straight up tonight,” No. 2 crew chief Randall Burnett said. “We didn’t have the speed. At that point, we didn’t have anything to lose because we had already clinched the regular season with the stage points we had gotten.

“We were like, heck, may as well have fun with it and try it. Probably won’t be that aggressive in the playoffs, but you know, if need be, we will. It’s just kind of circumstantial.”

Clinching the regular-season title hands Reddick a 15-point bonus heading into the seven-race playoffs that begin Sept. 20 at Richmond Raceway. The top-10 finishers in the regular-season standings receive bonus points on a sliding scale, starting with 15 for first and ending with one extra point for 10th.

The bonus inches Reddick closer to the total playoff points Bell and Cole Custer will carry entering the playoffs. Both Bell and Custer have six wins apiece this season to Reddick’s five. Bell is the first seed with 2,055 points, while Reddick and Custer are tied for the second with 2,044 points.

After his title season with JR Motorsports, Reddick moved over to Richard Childress Racing and hasn’t missed a beat. Already in 2019, he has more wins (five), top fives (20), top 10s (22), laps led (448) and poles (3) than he had all of last season. The 23-year-old California native has sat atop the point standings since the fourth race of the season at ISM Raceway.

Last season, Justin Allgaier scored the regular-season title. In 2017, Elliott Sadler took the honors. Neither driver went on to score the championship.

Contributing: Chase Wilhelm from Las Vegas

Posted on by Chase Wilhelm

LAS VEGAS – Cat Stevens was right and so was Sheryl Crow: The first cut is the deepest.

That’s the case for Jimmie Johnson, as feelings from missing the first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs of his career sink in. The 10-race, 16-driver party didn’t have room on the invitation list for the seven-time champion.

RELATED: Las Vegas schedule | Las Vegas lineup

As Johnson continues to rebuild the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team alongside crew chief Cliff Daniels, the goals are set, the vision is clear and confidence is through the roof.

But that doesn’t stop the sting.

“There’s tons of excitement and optimism around that, but seeing everybody partying over there on the Strip, doing burnouts and everything, all the guys that made the playoffs, that hurt,” Johnson said. “There’s no way around it.”

The fact it’s painful to watch his competitors compete for a title without him proves the fire still burns bright. Of course, Johnson is not done yet. He just has to wait another year to fight for a record-setting eighth championship.

“I want to be a part of all that, and I should be,” Johnson said. “So, as I kind of analyze that, I’m glad it hurts. If it didn’t hurt, I think there’d be a problem.”

Adding insult to injury, all three of Johnson’s teammates are postseason bound, as Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman and William Byron get ready to fight for a championship beginning with Sunday night’s NASCAR Playoffs opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (7 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriuxXM NASCAR Radio).

“I even said to my teammates in our debriefs on Tuesday congratulations and take advantage of this opportunity that you have,” Johnson said. “I’d do anything to be in your position to have a shot at an eighth championship right now.”

RELATED: Byron is hot at right time | Fantasy picks, sleepers

Disappointment aside, Elliott thinks Johnson will be an asset for all three teams over the next 10 weeks given the experience he carries.

“I’m going to lean on him,” Elliott said. “I try to lean on him as much as I can. I wish I was racing him to be a part of it as well, but I know how the kind of guy he is and the reason he’s a seven-time champion is because of the attitude he carries and I know he’s going to find the silver lining in it somewhere.

“I know that’s hard to find and it may not be this week and it may not be next week, but I know he’s going to find it at some point, and I expect he’ll come back stronger.”

Posted on by RJ Kraft

Clint Bowyer is on the pole for Sunday’s South Point 400 (7 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and will lead a four-car brigade for Stewart-Haas Racing in the front two rows. Does the SHR driver merit a spot in your Fantasy Live lineup? 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 Las Vegas:
Playoff driver 1: Kevin Harvick
Playoff driver 2: Chase Elliott
Non-playoff driver 1: Jimmie Johnson
Non-playoff driver 2: Daniel Suarez
Garage: Kyle Busch

RELATED: Odds for Las Vegas | Lap averages | Weekend preview

Analysis: For the playoff game, I’m going to ride the hot hand of Harvick. He’s been too strong of late to avoid. For my second active play, I’m going to try something and go with Elliott. He had strong averages in final practice and I like that he’ll have better track position than most playoff drivers in the field. The body of work at 1.5-mile tracks this year hasn’t been impressive for him, but it wasn’t in 2016 when he ran well at Chicago to open that postseason.

As for the garage: The 18 camp has been off in qualifying in recent weeks but still scores strong finishes. It was really a choice between Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and the hometown driver Busch. I am reluctant to bet against Busch with no use limits in this format as good as the Penske duo has been at Las Vegas and the long run speed they’ve shown.

On the non-playoff side, I am rolling with Johnson. He had the best 10-lap average among the non-playoff drivers and the speed has been there in recent weeks. Plus, I think the sting of missing the playoffs for the first time is a big motivator for “Seven-Time.” The other non-playoff spot was a choice between Daniel Suarez and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Suarez has put together four straight top-11 finishes while Stenhouse finished in the top 10 here in March and was the best non-playoff car on the 15-lap board. I’m going with the recent record and taking Suarez.

For the bonus picks, I will take Harvick to win Stage 1 with Elliott in Stage 2 and Keselowski for the win. The Keselowski pick is a hedge to have him somewhere in my roster/picks for this race.

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. O/U 1.5 non-playoff drivers finish in the top 10. I am taking the OVER here as we just need two to do it. My early bets would be Johnson and Suarez, but Stenhouse finished in the top 10 in the spring and Menard has a solid history here as well. Last year, three non-playoff drivers finished in the top 10 so it is certainly doable.

2. Which Joe Gibbs Racing driver will finish higher: Denny Hamlin or Martin Truex Jr.? I am taking Truex here in a little bit of a contrarian move. I know Hamlin has the better starting spot and has been the hotter driver of late, but Truex has been the better driver at Las Vegas overall in recent runs. The 2017 champ had better averages in the practice sessions and let’s not forget, day-to-night races are a Truex-Cole Pearn specialty, so I like him to outrun Hamlin here.

Posted on by Holly Cain

LAS VEGAS — Clint Bowyer won the pole position for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoff opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, turning a fast lap of 178.926 mph in the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.

It is only the third pole position he has earned in 14 years of full-time Cup Series competition and the first, coincidentally, since this same date – Sept. 14– at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2007, a race he won. There have been 431 races since his last pole.

It’s exactly the kind of start to his playoffs Bowyer needed. But not one he necessarily expected.

LAS VEGAS: See every car in the field | Official race lineup

“I’m as shocked as you are,’’ Bowyer said, laughing as he sat down to address reporters after the qualifying session. “I’m extremely proud of the effort. We’re on the pole, but 1-2-3-4 for Stewart-Haas Racing that says a lot about our focus.’’

Bowyer will start alongside SHR teammate Daniel Suarez, who was less than a tenth-of-a-second off Bowyer’s pace in the No. 41 SHR Ford. Their teammates, playoff-eligible drivers Kevin Harvick and Aric Almirola, were third and fourth fastest, giving the team a sweep in qualifying.

“You have to qualify well because it puts you in position to start the race on a good note and stay up front and keep some track position, and it really sets you up to score points in Stage 1,’’ said Almirola, driver of the No. 10 SHR Ford. “That is really what qualifying well does for you. I think that is the biggest thing.”

Las Vegas native Kurt Busch was fifth fastest in the No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet – best of the non-SHR competitors. His brother and 2019 regular-season champion, Kyle, will start 20th – second best among the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team. Kyle’s teammate, Denny Hamlin, will start 13th.

LAS VEGAS: Full schedule | What to know | Fantasy picks

Interestingly, five of the top 10 drivers on Sunday’s grid are not playoff competitors – including Suarez, Richard Childress Racing teammates Daniel Hemric (sixth) and Austin Dillon (seventh), Hendrick Motorsports’ Jimmie Johnson (eighth) and Front Row Motorsports driver Michael McDowell, who will start 10th – his best position on the grid this season except for a seventh-place start at Chicagoland Speedway in June.

Defending race winner Brad Keselowski qualified 18th, and Team Penske teammate Joey Logano, who won here in March, qualified 22nd.

Bowyer certainly is hopeful this improved Vegas starting position will also translate into an improved Vegas finish for him. He has only a single top-five showing and four top 10s in 15 starts at the track. His best result is runner-up in 2009.

He arrives in Las Vegas, however, riding a solid streak of success. He has accomplished three top 10s in the previous three races leading into this playoff opener. And he has six top-five and 12 top-10 finishes this season.

“It’s playoff time, and it’s going to get intense right off the bat,’’ Bowyer said. “I say it every year, you can’t win the championship in Las Vegas but you can lose it here.”

Posted on by Zack Albert

LAS VEGAS — William Byron isn’t that far removed from being a rookie. The yellow stripes came off the rear bumper of the No. 24 Chevrolet after last season, but he’s back to being a bit of a newbie in his sophomore year.

Of the 16 drivers in the Monster Energy Series Playoffs field, just one is making his first postseason appearance. That’s Byron, the second-year prodigy who enters Sunday’s playoff opener (7 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM) with speed and a seasoned crew chief in hopes of making waves over the final 10 events.

“The second year is great,” Byron said. “I wish I could have had the first year back, I guess, and been in the playoffs last year, but I definitely appreciate it now, and being able to be a part of it.”

RELATED: Byron on how relationship with Knaus has grown

After a sluggish start to Year 2, Byron rallied his way into the playoff picture with a blend of solid finishes — both on the overall results and in stages, where the No. 24 team converted for lucrative point bonuses. The 21-year-old driver ranked 19th in the series standings at the All-Star break, but surged into the playoff mix by earning more than 30 points in nine of the final 14 races to close out the regular season.

Credit the composure of Byron, but also the guidance of veteran crew chief Chad Knaus, a seven-time champion in his long tenure with Jimmie Johnson, but in his first year with Hendrick’s youngest driver. Byron may not be battle-tested with playoff experience, but in Knaus, he has a future Hall of Famer steering the ship.

“Yeah, we’ve talked quite a bit the last couple of weeks about how we approach it,” Byron says. “He’s done some cool things (like) bringing the whole team in and doing a couple of team-building events and things like that. I haven’t really noticed a lot of difference in how he approaches it. Maybe there will be once we get to the race track, but I feel like we’re just going to go about doing our normal. He always has something in his bag of tricks, I guess, to apply, whether that’s the car or just the way we execute the weekend. So, he’s got a good way of using his expertise to kind of make that next step.”

Byron qualified for the 10-race stretch on the basis of points, but his primary displays of speed have come in qualifying. Byron has placed the No. 24 on the front row nine times this season, and his average start is roughly two positions ahead of his average finish.

Byron and Co. might be considered a smaller blip on the radar as a plucky No. 13 seed, but a first go-round in the playoffs also represents a building block in the next stage of his career.

“We don’t feel like we’re just sneaking into the playoffs or anything,” Byron said. “We locked it in a couple of races ago. So, I feel good about that. I think the next step is just how do we perform in the playoffs and how do we get to the next level of our progression as a program.”

Posted on by Zack Albert

LAS VEGAS — Friday the 13th. That old saw? Trot out the full-moon omens, too.

The unkind cut in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Playoffs hit the star-crossed ThorSport Racing organization the hardest Friday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Three of its teams suffered terminal engine issues before the halfway point of the World of Westgate 200 as the postseason field shrank from eight drivers to six.

Left on the sidelines were regular-season champion Grant Enfinger, who completed just six laps before his No. 98 Ford came to quiet rest in the 1.5-mile track’s garage, and former series champ Johnny Sauter, whose No. 13 entry went up in smoke on the same lap as teammate Matt Crafton, who survived the elimination only thanks to his slight points cushion entering the 201-mile race.

Crafton joined race winner Austin Hill, runner-up Ross Chastain, Stewart Friesen and Tyler Ankrum among those clinching berths in the Round of 6. Brett Moffitt had already clinched his spot in the season’s next phase with wins in the first two playoff events.

“It’s just tough,” said Enfinger, who placed 31st in the 32-truck field. “Really hate it for the guys behind me that have worked their tail off all year. We haven’t had the best month and a half, or last two months really, but we’ve had a heck of a season. We had a heck of a ThorSport Racing F-150 tonight. It’s a shame our dreams come down to a part failure.”

RELATED: Race results | Hill wins at Las Vegas

Crafton and Sauter experienced their issues nearly simultaneously on Lap 40. Crafton’s No. 88 Ford stopped in a shroud of smoke, and Sauter coasted back to pit road in a similar haze. Stopgap repairs allowed Sauter to complete six more laps, but he was unable to make up any ground on the leaderboard before his truck expired. Sauter placed 29th; Crafton 30th.

“What’re you going to do. I mean, that’s the way it goes,” said Sauter, who claimed the series title in 2016. “We had a rocket tonight. I promise you we were doing what we needed to do and it just wasn’t meant to be.”

Crafton entered the race with just a three-point gap above the cutline. The misfortune from his teammates kept him afloat.

“What are the odds that two trucks blowing up at the exact same time, but it wouldn’t surprise me,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of issues under the hood this year.”

The unsavory result for ThorSport allowed Friesen to keep his playoff hopes intact despite a sour-running No. 52 Chevrolet, which dropped a cylinder in the early going. He finished 19th. It also provided a playoff reprieve to rookie Ankrum, who overcame a 14-point deficit to advance by just two points.

Ankrum had his own reason for apprehension, an intermittent engine hiccup that developed as the final green-flag run began.

“Oh, it’s awesome,” Ankrum said. “We knew that we didn’t have to win coming in. We just needed help. I felt really, really happy after those ThorSport trucks blew up, and we knew we were going to be all right from there. We just had to finish.”

 

Posted on by Holly Cain

LAS VEGAS – Austin Hill earned his third NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series win of the 2019 season Friday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – perhaps his most important victory as it advances him to the second round of the playoffs with big momentum and raised expectations.

Hill’s No. 16 Hattori Racing Enterprises Toyota finished an impressive 2.116 seconds ahead of fellow Playoff competitor Ross Chastain, whose No. 45 Chevrolet led a race-best 88-of-134 laps. Polesitter Christian Eckes finished third in the No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota.

“This means the world to me,’’ said Hill, 25, who passed Chastain for the lead with 12 laps remaining and pulled away to the substantial victory margin.

“When I saw the 45 (Chastain) in my sights, we were running close lap times. I changed my line a little bit. And that was a big statement win.’’

RELATED: Las Vegas race results | Series standings  

Much of the drama and heartbreak in the race happened to the drivers vying for the six positions that advanced to the next round of the Playoffs. Joining Hill in the Round of 6 are Chastain, defending series champion Brett Moffitt, Stewart Friesen, Tyler Ankrum and Matt Crafton.

Moffitt faced the least pressure all day because he already transferred to the Round of 6 by winning the playoff opener at Bristol. Chastain wrapped up his transfer spot via points after winning Stage 2.

Friesen carefully nursed his No. 52 Chevrolet to the race finish, posting a 19th-place showing after driving a truck that was down a cylinder and spending substantial stretches of the race on pit road.

Ankrum, an 18-year-old who wasn’t old enough by NASCAR rules to compete in the March Las Vegas race, held on to finish 11th and earn the final playoff position – by a mere two-point margin over 2016 series champion Johnny Sauter.

Sauter’s teammate Matt Crafton suffered a 30th-place finish, but he had enough of a points cushion coming to Las Vegas that he will advance in the playoffs as well.

Heading into the Round of 8 finale, Sauter, Crafton and their ThorSport Racing teammate Grant Enfinger were seemingly  “sure-bets” to advance in the playoffs. But before the halfway point of the race, they had their fates decided in unfortunate and unpredictable manners.

RELATED: Misfortune for ThorSport proves to be good fortune for Ankrum

It was an especially gut-wrenching early end to Enfinger’s championship hopes. Crowned the series’ regular season champion three races ago, the past Las Vegas winner retired after only seven laps when his No. 98 Ford suffered an engine failure. He took the green flag with two points to the good on making the Round of 6 and only minutes later had his championship hopes deflated with the turn of events.

“It’s just frustrating,’’ Enfinger said. “These guys work their tails off all year. We had a good truck, just wasn’t meant to be.”

Only 33 laps later, Sauter and Crafton suffered their simultaneous race-ending problems. Crafton’s No. 88 Ford had to pull off track and he climbed out as the safety crew arrived.

Sauter was able to drive his truck back to pit road where crew members had to extinguish flames under the hood. The team took it to the garage and although he tried to return to the race for the final stage, his truck’s engine gave out on the first lap of the restart. 

Crafton, meanwhile, had to pull his No. 88 ThorSport truck off the track immediately for the safety crew to work on.

“The 13 (Sauter), I saw him hit something and whatever it was it hit our truck too,’’ Crafton said. “I said the 13’s on fire and they told me I was on fire.’’

“I really thought we had something tonight, but we’ll rebound.’’

The next race is set for Oct. 12 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.