Posted on by Staff Report

Kyle Busch emerged from a shootout with one lap remaining in the stage to secure a Stage 2 win Sunday at Michigan International Speedway in the Consumers Energy 400.

RELATED: Race leaderboard | Stage 2 results

Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota led just one lap in the second stage — the final one — after a late-stage restart. The outcome marked Busch’s series-leading ninth stage win this season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

Stage 1 winner Martin Truex Jr. held on for second place in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota at the end of Stage 2. Kurt Busch, Joey Logano and Erik Jones rounded out the top five.

Pole-starter Brad Keselowski, who had led a race-high 67 laps by the end of Stage 2, survived a prolonged spin with the Team Penske No. 2 Ford on Lap 115. Keselowski avoided contact with the outside wall and continued with minimal damage.

WATCH: Keselowski goes for a spin

That caution period set up a one-lap shootout to the stage finish, which ended in a three-car crash involving Richard Childress Racing teammates Austin Dillon and Daniel Hemric with Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola.

Sunday’s event — the 23rd of 36 points-paying races this season — is scheduled for 200 laps (400 miles) at the 2-mile track.

Finish Driver Team Points
1 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing 10
2 Martin Truex Jr. Joe Gibbs Racing 9
3 Kurt Busch Chip Ganassi Racing 8
4 Joey Logano Team Penske 7
5 Erik Jones Joe Gibbs Racing 6
6 Chase Elliott Hendrick Motorsports 5
7 Ryan Blaney Team Penske 4
8 William Byron Hendrick Motorsports 3
9 Clint Bowyer Stewart-Haas Racing 2
10 Paul Menard Wood Brothers Racing 1

STAGE 1

Martin Truex Jr. showed early strength, driving from the back of the pack and fending off teammate Denny Hamlin for a Stage 1 victory Sunday afternoon at Michigan International Speedway.

RELATED: Stage 1 results

Truex — making his 500th career start — led 15 of the 60 laps in the opening stage. His Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota dropped to the rear of the field in pace laps after inspection trouble, but Truex made up the ground quickly and scooted to the front with a fuel-only pit stop. The effort marked Truex’s third stage win of the Monster Energy Series season.

Hamlin led six laps and was a close second in the opening stage of the Consumers Energy 400, his JGR No. 11 Toyota just 0.138 seconds behind at the green-checkered flag. Pole-starter Brad Keselowski in the Team Penske No. 2 Ford led the opening 39 laps and finished third in the first stage. Joey Logano and William Byron rounded out the top five.

A pair of contenders ran into early trouble. Jimmie Johnson was forced to pit road on Lap 15 after a scrape with the Turn 2 retaining wall. Two stops for repairs and tires dropped the seven-time champ’s No. 48 Chevrolet to last place, seven laps off the pace at the end of the stage.

MORE: Johnson off early pace

Kevin Harvick also made an unscheduled stop while running in second place, puncturing a tire on the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Ford after running over debris. Harvick recovered to finish sixth in the stage.

Finish Driver Team Points
1 Martin Truex Jr. Joe Gibbs Racing 10
2 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing 9
3 Brad Keselowski Team Penske 8
4 Joey Logano Team Penske 7
5 William Byron Hendrick Motorsports 6
6 Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Racing 5
7 Ryan Blaney Team Penske 4
8 Alex Bowman Hendrick Motorsports 3
9 Chase Elliott Hendrick Motorsports 2
10 Aric Almirola Stewart-Haas Racing 1
Posted on by Staff Report

Jimmie Johnson’s playoff hopes took another hit Sunday afternoon after an early scrape with the wall at Michigan International Speedway.

RELATED: Race results

Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet drifted out of the groove and made contact with the outside retaining wall in Turn 2 at the 2-mile track. He limped back to the pits with a flat tire and significant right-side body damage on Lap 15 of a scheduled 200.

Repeated pit stops for repairs cost him more ground, both on the results sheet and in the points standings. He wound up 34th in the 38-car field, scored eight laps behind race winner Kevin Harvick in the Consumers Energy 400.

“The right-side tires went into the PJ1 (traction compound) and as soon as I got my tires in it, I went straight into the wall,” Johnson said post-race. “When you’re aggressive, it doesn’t work and then sometimes you’re cautious and it doesn’t work. It was a great car. That hurt, for sure. We’re just going to have to rally on and these guys are doing an amazing job. We’ll keep digging.”

Johnson entered the 400-mile race tied for 16th in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings. With just three races left in the regular season, Johnson sits 12 points behind the playoff cut line in 18th.

Since posting top-five finishes at Chicagoland and Daytona, Johnson has slumped in the last five races with three finishes of 30th or worse. It’s left the seven-time series champion in a pressure-packed scenario with some clear goals.

“To just fight hard for every point,” Johnson said. “The guys around that cut-off point all seem to be having bad luck. If one of us could just string together some good races and get in the clear and get away… I think that’s what the No. 24 (William Byron) has been able to do, is just have some good, consistent races and built a nice gap. You’ve just got to keep fighting for every point.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Decked out in a special bow tie fire suit for the occasion, Martin Truex Jr. will make his 500th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start in Sunday’s Consumer’s Energy 400 at Michigan International Speedway (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Truex, 39, is in his 14th full-time Cup Series season and pilots the No. 19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.

This season, Truex has four wins (Richmond, Dover, Charlotte, Sonoma), nine top fives and 14 top 10s in his first year driving for the organization.

Truex qualified to start 15th Sunday in Michigan, but his No. 19 failed pre-race inspection twice and he now will start from the rear and lose a crew member for the infraction.

RELATED: Truex’s No. 19 fails pre-race inspection

But it should be noted that Truex is the last Cup Series driver to win after starting from the rear. He did it earlier this year at Dover International Speedway.

Truex becomes the 42nd driver to hit the 500-start mark in the Monster Energy Series. His first career start came in 2004 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the No. 1 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt, Inc.

In only his second full time Monster Energy Series season, Truex got his first career win at Dover International Speedway in 2007, leading 216 laps.

Since then, Truex has gotten better with age, logging 22 more wins, 96 top fives and 19 poles. Twenty of those wins have come in the last four seasons.

Competing for Furniture Row Racing, Truex won the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Championship for team owner Barney Visser. FRR shut down after the 2018 season, and Truex moved to Joe Gibbs Racing.

In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Truex competed for parts of 10 years — two full time — with 103 starts and 13 wins.

Truex also ran in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East for four years, with 62 starts, five wins, 23 top fives, 32 top 10s and 13 poles.

Posted on by Staff Report

Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 19 Toyota failed pre-race inspection twice on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway. That means the Joe Gibbs Racing driver will drop to the rear to make his 500th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start and lose a crew member (race engineer) for the race .

RELATED: Michigan starting lineup

Truex was originally slated to start 15th after Busch Pole Qualifying on Friday at the 2-mile track. Michigan native Brad Keselowski will start on the pole in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford, and Kevin Harvick, in the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, will also be on the front row.

Other cars starting from the rear include: The Nos. 32 (Corey LaJoie) and 36 (Matt Tifft) for transmission changes and the No. 77 (Garrett Smithley) for a driver change.

The Nos. 3 (Austin Dillon) and 8 (Daniel Hemric)  will also start from the rear for having their qualifying times disallowed on Friday.

Today’s race is televised on NBCSN at 3 p.m. ET with coverage also on the NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

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.

Michigan International Speedway is the site of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series’ 23rd race of the year. With only four races remaining until the playoff field is set, the intensity should be high at one of the fastest tracks on the schedule.

We’re back to a traditional race weekend schedule, with no post-qualifying inspection failures to worry about. That gives us plenty of time to make bets heading into the race.

Michigan is a 2-mile, D-shaped oval that’s very wide. The addition of the PJ1 traction compound should mean there are multiple grooves of racing. However, track position will also be key.

Joey Logano led 163 of the 203 laps after from the pole position en route to a win at the first Michigan race this year. Starting on the front row this weekend is Logano’s teammate, Brad Keselowski, and Ford stablemate Kevin Harvick.

My model also finds these other data points as statistically significant:

  • Long-run speed in practice
  • Year-to-date quality pass percentage

Armed with these data points and my statistical model, I’ve found two strong outright bets for tomorrow’s race.

*All odds as of 4:00 p.m. ET on Saturday. A quick explainer on the odds below: A $100 wager on +2000 would profit $2000.

Kevin Harvick +600

Harvick is the race favorite according to my model, and the Westgate has appropriately listed him as such. However, a bit of shopping around goes a long way.

Harvick is listed at +600 at MGM and is a must-bet at that price. Lately, race favorites have been going off anywhere from +200 to +450, so this price is fantastic for Harvick.

In addition to starting on the front row, Harvick also has strong practice times. He was quickest across the board in Saturday’s opening practice session, and was third in 10-lap averages in final practice.

Because of the different aerodynamic packages NASCAR has run with the Gen-6 car at Michigan, track history doesn’t pop out as significant. However, with two races per year, it is valuable to look back at the first race. Harvick posted the second-most laps led, and also had the most fastest laps.

If you’re not in Vegas, but can find Harvick at +450 or longer, I’d still make that bet.

Clint Bowyer +2000

Bowyer is a driver on the playoff bubble, just 12 points ahead of the cutline. However, a win would secure his spot in the playoffs, and he has a strong car this weekend that should be in contention.

Bowyer starts fifth, and was also near the top of the charts in practice. He posted the second-fastest five- and 10-lap times in Happy Hour, and was the fastest of 10 drivers that made a 15-lap run.

Bowyer is also stronger than his 15th-place point position in other key metrics. His year-to-date quality pass percentage is 10th, and his driver rating is 11th. Both of those numbers would be even higher if not for his tremendously bad luck.

That means he’s typically a driver running inside the top 10, but just hasn’t been able to consistently finish. Rolling all these numbers together, my model gives Bowyer the fifth-best average finish for tomorrow’s race.

You can find Bowyer at this number at MGM and at the DraftKings Sportsbook. However, I expect it to drop. I’d bet him as low as +1600.

Posted on by Staff Report

David Gravel won his first Knoxville Nationals race, his trip to Victory Lane punctuating a four-day event that ended early Sunday morning on the East Coast. It may have been one of the more emotional victories in the 59-year history of the race, too.

Gravel’s victory in the country’s preeminent sprint car race came with Jason Johnson Racing in an Axalta-sponsored No. 41, with supporter Jeff Gordon watching and cheering.

Johnson died last year due to injuries sustained in a wreck while racing. His widow opted to keep Jason Johnson Racing going, and Gravel was selected to fill the seat. The choice paid off in a huge way. Moments after the win, Gravel and Jaxx Johnson — Jason Johnson’s son — celebrated together.

Dubbed the “Granddaddy Of Them All,” the 59th Knoxville Nationals hosted more than 100 sprint cars at Knoxville Raceway, a half-mile clay oval that served as the site for the four-day showdown. Gravel won his Qualifying Night feature race on Thursday to automatically qualify for Saturday night’s 24-car A-Main. His prize for winning was $150,000.

Gordon, who vouched for Gravel and urged Axalta to sponsor the car for the event, celebrated the win as well.

Logan Schuchart finished second, followed by World of Outlaws star Daryn Pittman, Tim Kaeding and Aaron Reutzel.

Brad Sweet, last year’s Knoxville Nationals winner, finished sixth for team owner Kasey Kahne. Sheldon Haudenschild, who drives for team owner Ricky Stenhouse Jr., took seventh. Rico Abreu qualified for the A-Main and finished 22nd.

Chip Ganassi Racing driver Kyle Larson fell a couple spots shy of qualifying for Saturday night’s A-Main during his qualifying session on Wednesday. With the Monster Energy Series racing in Michigan all weekend, Larson did not further attempt to make the main event at Iowa, but he showed up at the track Saturday to sign autographs and take in the racing.

Posted on by Chase Wilhelm

BROOKLYN, Mich. — It was a roller coaster day for ThorSport Racing in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series regular season finale on Saturday at Michigan International Speedway.

As Grant Enfinger collected the regular-season championship for the organization, Austin Hill’s victory in the Irish Hills meant no first-time 2019 winner — thereby punching Matt Crafton’s ticket into the playoffs on points.

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing after Crafton got into the back of Tyler Ankrum’s No. 17 DGR-Crosley Toyota before even getting to the line for a restart with two laps remaining. That contacted spurred a seven-car pileup on the frontstretch.

RELATED: Full race results | Enfinger clinches regular season title

“The one I really have to say sorry to out here is Ankrum,” Crafton said. “We had a phenomenal, phenomenal restart before that, that shoved him out to the lead. I think he just spun his tires just a little bit when I got to him and went to try to help him. Nothing ill-intended there. I was just trying to help him out and shove him up to the lead and maybe get me to second.”

Unfortunately for ThorSport, there was only room for three of the team’s four drivers in the postseason with Johnny Sauter previously locked into the seven-race stretch with a win at Dover. That left Ben Rhodes as the odd man out.

Rhodes flexed muscle for the majority of Saturday afternoon’s 100-lap event, leading 15 laps and swapping positions in the top 10. But a punctured tire forced Rhodes to pit in the final stage, dashing the No. 99 driver’s playoffs hopes after entering the day in a must-win situation.

RELATED: Hill wins, playoffs field is set

“If we didn’t have bad luck this year, we’d have no luck at all for the season,” Rhodes said. “I don’t know why that is. I do believe that you make your own luck and we’ve been in bad situations, whether that would be parts failures or tires going down. … It seems like for whatever reason, bad luck has found us this year.”

Just because Rhodes isn’t in the playoffs doesn’t mean he’s still focused on his singular goal for this season: a victory. And he’ll do whatever it takes to get one.

“Get out of my way because we’re going to win as many races as we can,” Rhodes said. “We’re basically going to be on the Kyle Busch strategy. We’re going to take advantage on pit stops and we’re going after every win we can get.”

With the eight-driver playoff field set, defending Gander Trucks champion Brett Moffitt is the first seed, with Enfinger three points back before the first-round bout kicks off at Bristol on Thursday (8:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Crafton now sits in sixth, 11 points back, while Sauter is 13 points behind in seventh.

Posted on by Staff Report

According to a report on RacinBoys.com, the Jimmie Johnson-Ryan Blaney feud is over.

Blaney told the outlet he brought beers to Johnson’s motorhome Friday night, the two drivers talked, and they agreed to put their different opinions of what happened between them last week at Watkins Glen International behind them.

“We talked for half an hour,” Blaney told RacinBoys.com. “I thought it ended really well. It was just a discussion, two guys talking, explaining our sides. We didn’t agree on some things, but it was agree to disagree on a few things.”

Johnson confirmed Blaney’s account in a Sunday appearance on FS1’s RaceDay Live, saying Blaney appeared with a pair of tall cans of craft brew from New Hampshire.

“Of course you get to the track and questions are asked and it starts swirling and questions get more specific, and it makes things swirl more and more,” Johnson told FS1. “But at the end of the day, Ryan came and knocked on the bus Friday night and showed up with two beers in hand and we sat down and talked about it. I wish it could have happened earlier and sooner. It would’ve saved us both probably some grief, but this stuff happens in racing. We’re not the first ones to disagree on what happened on track and we won’t be the last.”

Johnson was angered last weekend when he spun after what he viewed as Blaney running through him late in the race at Watkins Glen. Blaney said he was simply racing Johnson hard.

The verbal sparring continued Friday when Johnson said he was disappointed he didn’t receive a mid-week phone call from Blaney to apologize.

“There was a window of opportunity there from my standpoint for Ryan to handle it a certain way, to engage in at least the way that I know I have when it wasn’t on purpose and I have yet to see or hear from him,” Johnson told NASCAR.com. “So, that only validates my line of thought and how angry I was in the car.”

From Blaney’s standpoint, no apology was necessary.

“I have nothing to apologize about,” Blaney told NASCAR.com Friday. “He came down on me. I apologized to him right then and there, even though it was his fault. I have a lot of respect for Jimmie — or had a lot of respect – that’s why I kind of let him chew my ass out for a minute, minute-and-a-half or whatever he did and I didn’t go back into him, especially when he put a finger in my face.

“Then his comments after we got done talking pretty much threw all that out the window. That respect is very little.”

RELATED: Johnson waiting for apology, Blaney says it’s not coming

According to Blaney, though, the two drivers have agreed to put their differences aside and race each other cleanly.

“In my eyes, it ended really well,” Blaney told RacinBoys.com. “Jimmie is a good friend of mine. It’s just the whole week has been blown up — blown out of proportion a lot — for sure. I got his side and said I didn’t appreciate what he said about me afterward and explained it. And I was fine with it.

“No, the racing side-by-side with him doesn’t worry me. We’re still going to race each other hard like we always have, but it was good to talk to him at the race track face-to-face.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

Austin Cindric claimed his second NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in as many weeks – earning an impressive 3.78-second win over Christopher Bell and former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup driver AJ Allmendinger on Saturday afternoon at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.

The 20-year old Cindric had just celebrated his career first win last week at the Watkins Glen International road course and with a huge smile, effusively wondered what may be next for his No. 22 Team Penske Ford as the series heads to the half-mile Bristol  Motor Speedway next week. Should he win at Bristol he would become the first driver in NASCAR Xfinity Series history to earn his first three wins in consecutive races.

RELATED: Race results

“It feels good, two in row and going for three at Bristol,” Cindric said after climbing out of his Ford Mustang. “I’ll probably go crazy if I win there. Should be a lot of fun. This is great momentum for our group.”

Cindric is the seventh different winner in seven Xfinity Series races at the 2.258-mile, 13-turn Mid-Ohio course and his day included impressive feats of both maintaining the lead and high pursuit to reclaim it between pit strategies. He won the pole position by a full three-tenths of a second and held “favorite” status before the green flag even dropped.

Much of the race was spent negotiating restarts and high-speed turns with Bell on his bumper or at his door – as well as fending off another road racing star in Jack Hawksworth, who actually won in class in an International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) race at Mid-Ohio already this year and made his series debut in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota.

Hawksworth started from the outside pole and challenged the front-runners for much of the race, eventually finishing 15th and leading five laps. He also won the second stage, which finished under caution – one of six yellow flags for 17 laps on the afternoon.

”I enjoyed it, it was a lot of fun,” Hawksworth said after the race. “I was having a lot of fun out there. I had a great time and would like to come back.”

Cindric led 46 of the 75 laps and Bell, the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, was the only other driver in double digits out front. Bell is second in the championship standings to Tyler Reddick, who finished fourth Saturday. And after the race, the short track superstar conceded he is getting better on the road courses. Bell was second last week to Cindric, as well.

“I don’t know about that, but I do know we’re going to Bristol next week and I can’t wait,” he said, smiling about the road course prowess he’s shown with the back-to-back runner-up finishes. “The last two weeks have been really great for us points-wise and road racing isn’t my strong suit.”

Reddick, Bell and Cole Custer – who finished eighth Saturday after an eventful day on track – combined to win 13 of the first 18 Xfinity Series races of the season. With Bell’s second straight runner-up showing and Reddick’s fourth-place finish, the defending series champion Reddick maintains a 28-point championship lead on Bell heading to Bristol next week. Cindric joins this threesome as the only Xfinity drivers with multiple wins in 2019.

Chase Briscoe, defending race winner Justin Allgaier and rookie Noah Gragson persevered for a good day, as well. Briscoe won Stage 1 and finished seventh. Allgaier, the defending race winner, rallied to a sixth-place finish after a couple of off-track excursions. And the rookie Gragson, impressed with a fifth-place finish after also being involved in some tight, full-contact racing as well.

The series next races Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway in the Food City 300 (7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App). Chip Ganassi Racing’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup star Kyle Larson won the Xfinity race last year.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Austin Hill’s victory in Saturday’s Corrigan Oil 200 at Michigan International Speedway provided sweet relief for two-time NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series champion Matt Crafton.

With Hill’s second victory of the season, Crafton has a chance to run for a third title, having cliched the final spot in the series Playoffs on points.

RELATED: Race results

The outcome — and Crafton’s fate — weren’t decided until the final moments of a race that went five laps beyond its scheduled distance of 100 laps. For two nail-biting laps of overtime, Sheldon Creed chased Hill, edging ever closer over the last two miles.

But Hill had the advantage off the final corner and beat Creed to the finish line by .125 seconds, denying Creed the playoff spot that went to Crafton. A victory by Creed would have knocked the two-time champion out of the postseason.

“It’s huge,” said Hill, who rebounded from a last-place finish in the previous race at Eldora Speedway. “We’ve had a struggle these last four or five races. We just keep having issues and just can’t finish these races.”

Hill’s winning No. 16 Toyota was brand new, unveiled for this race — appropriately since Hill was racing at Michigan for the first time in the series.

“When we unloaded, we had to work out some bugs in it, but we got it driving really good,” said Hill, who also won the season opener at Daytona. “I was really happy with the speed of it. Man, this race was crazy.”

A nine-car wreck moments after a restart with four laps left in regulation set up the overtime. Tyler Ankrum, the leader at the time, spun his tires, and a well-intentioned push Crafton turned him around and started the melee. The wreck collected NASCAR Playoff hopeful Todd Gilliland, who had driven up to eighth after pitting for tires on Lap 88.

WATCH: Ankrum sparks “Big One” at Michigan

Needing a victory to qualify for the postseason, Gilliland had led 14 laps to that point, but the wreck ended his hopes.

Similarly, Ben Rhodes saw his playoff chances fall apart when he had to pit under green with a cut tire with 21 laps left. Rhodes had led 15 laps before his ill fortune. He and Gilliland finished 23rd and 24th respectively.

Crafton had some nervous moments before he clinched his playoff berth. After a restart on Lap 70, three-drivers on win-or-bust missions — Gilliland, Rhodes and Harrison Burton — were running first through third.

“When all three, the 18 (Burton), the 4 (Gilliland) and the 99 (Rhodes) … when all those guys are 1-2-3 at one point, I’m like, ‘I better get up on the saddle and dig,’” Crafton said. “I was definitely doing everything I could to shuffle them out.”

Tyler Dippel finished a career-best third, followed by Brett Moffitt and Austin Wayne Self. Bayley Currey, Grant Enfinger, Stewart Friesen, Ray Ciccarelli and Crafton completed the top 10.

Enfinger clinched a spot in the playoffs when he took the green flag. By the end of the first stage, he had locked up the regular-season title — and accompanying 15 playoff points — with a sixth-place finish.

MORE: Enfinger seals regular-season title

Crafton, the only driver with a remote chance to catch Enfinger for the regular-season championship, had to start from the rear of the field because of an engine change. The driver of the No. 88 ThorSport Racing Ford climbed to 10th by the end of the first stage, but by then, his chances of unseating his teammate were gone.

Polesitter Ross Chastain won Stage 1 wire-to-wire, but a three-truck accident on pit road cost him dearly. While exiting his stall under caution on Lap 23, Johnny Sauter collided with the No. 9 Chevrolet of Codie Rohrbaugh, knocking Rohrbaugh into the right side of Chastain’s Chevrolet.

RELATED: Chastain involved in multi-truck wreck

Chastain, Sauter and Rohrbaugh all spent extra time on pit road dealing with the damage, but Chastain was the primary victim, his race over.

“It was gut-wrenching, for sure,” Chastain said after leaving the infield care center. “It was a shame, but that’s part of racing. They can’t all be great days. … It’s tough to lose a race with a truck like we had today.”

Eight drivers — Chastain, Hill, Ankrum, Sauter, Enfinger, Moffitt, Friesen and Crafton — will start their potential title runs on Thursday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.