Posted on by Chase Wilhelm

DOVER, Del. — Ross Chastain gave it everything his car could handle during Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series playoff elimination race at Dover International Speedway, but came up just short of advancing to the Round of 8.

It was a battle between Chastain, Austin Cindric and Matt Tifft as Cindric gained seven points in the first two stages to bridge the deficit he had coming into the race, finishing eighth to secure his spot in the next round of the postseason. This left Chastain and Tifft to battle in the waning laps, with Tifft eventually edging Chastain by three points for the final spot in the Round of 8.

RELATED: Race results | Xfinity Playoffs Round of 8 set

But from getting the opportunity to compete (and win) in Chip Ganassi Racing’s No. 42 car, to the strides he and the No. 4 team made together throughout the year, Chastain exuded optimism through the disappointment of missing the cut.

“It’s still so cool,” Chastain said. “I did not expect this starting off the year. I felt like 13th was our spot and I guess at the end of the regular season we were 11th straight up on the 4 car on points. It’s something I’ll never forget. All of this.”

Both teams put up a fight in the final turns; with 15 laps left, Chastain had caught up to Tifft in points putting him in position to win the tiebreaker. But Tifft picked off the positions he needed to in the closing laps to gain a three-point edge on Chastain when the checkered flag fell. Chastain went on to finish 13th, while Tifft earned a 15th-place result.

Chastain’s No. 4 JD Motorsports Chevrolet showed strength throughout the day, but a speeding penalty exiting pit road during the final round of stops forced him to claw his way back through the field. It was one mistake of a handful that Chastain believed took him out of contention.

“Just too many mistakes on my part,” Chastain said. “I sped there on pit road and it probably cost us. Didn’t think I was close, but I was, obviously, I was over (pit road speed). We did our jobs and we came here and did what we needed to do to make it.

“The guys out of Gaffney (South Carolina) did everything they could to bring the best race car and we ran considerably better than we normally would have,” he added. “A lot to be proud about and a lot to build on the rest of the year and the future.”

Although his hunt for the championship may have ended, Chastain is excited move forward with the rest of the season and work on making his craft better for next year.

“I have so much more to learn,” Chastain said. “There’s so much more to learn inside this race car. A lot of these guys feel like they’re the best thing ever, and we’re not. …There’s a lot more we could be doing with these cars, with me personally, so I’m just going to try to keep working at that, come back better after Talladega and then next year, too.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

DOVER, Del. – In a scene that has become nearly routine this season, Christopher Bell won Saturday’s Bar Harbor 200 at Dover International Speedway, collecting his sixth victory in his rookie year in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

What was not routine was the desperation battle for the final spot in the Round of 8 of the Xfinity Playoffs. In the closing moments of the race, after a restart on Lap 184 of 200, Matt Tifft and Ross Chastain dueled for the right to move on to the next round, with Tifft getting the edge by three points and ending Chastain’s Cinderella run.

RELATED: Race results

Already locked into the Round of 8 by virtue of his Round of 12 victory at Richmond, Bell led the field to a restart with 17 laps left and pulled away for the victory, eventually taking the checkered flag .525 seconds ahead of Cole Custer, who also advanced to the next round of the playoffs.

MORE: Round of 8 set for Xfinity Series Playoffs

 “It the means the world,” said Bell, who broke a tie with Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards for most victories in the series as a Sunoco rookie. “To be able to have the season we’ve had, it’s been a career year for me. It’s all credit to everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing and my crew chief Jason Ratcliff.

“Everyone that works at the shop to put these Camrys together. … We have really fast cars every time we go to the track. All of our partners deserve it. Today we had (sponsor) Rheem on the car, other weeks we’ve had Ruud and GameStop. Everyone that makes this happen, I’m thankful to be a part of it and drive for them.” 

Bell’s record victory aside, it was the accident that led to the final restart that infused the closing laps with drama. On Lap 179, Chastain moved Tifft’s Chevrolet with his bumper, nudging the No. 2 Camaro up the track into the No. 60 Ford of Chase Briscoe.

Briscoe spun in front of Tifft, who saved his Playoff life with a deft move around Briscoe’s car.

WATCH: Chastain makes aggressive move

“By the time the 60 was spinning, I was about to spin into the 60,” Tifft said. “There were a lot of words I probably shouldn’t be saying as I was trying to save it. You’re so on the edge of grip already that when somebody gets into the back of you here, it’s everything you can do to save it, let alone hit another car in there.

“Thank goodness we were able to save it there. I thought for sure we had lost it at that point.”

Tifft regained two spots after the restart, and Chastain later lost one to Michael Annett. That proved the difference in the battle for the final Playoff spot. Chastain was pursuing a line of four cars for position when he ran out of time. Contributing to his downfall was a pit road speeding penalty that sent him to the back of the field after a stop on Lap 167.

RELATED: Chastain explains playoff exit

“Too many mistakes on my part,” said Chastain, who won at Las Vegas in a Chip Ganassi Racing car before returning to his customary No. 4 JD Motorsports ride after finishing second at Richmond. “I sped on pit road there – trying to roll up to those guys and do the best we could, and just playing catch-up from there. We had the car, looking at it now, to do it. I was just trying to go by those guys.

“He (Tifft) ran into me after we stopped down there for lug nut check (after the race), but I’m not sorry at all. This is awesome. … I don’t apologize for what I do on the race track — I bring my friends with me. Our car was fast enough to do it. It’s racing, man. It’s awesome. We were in the heart of it. We did our job coming here, and we’ve got a lot to be proud about.” 

Regular-season champion Justin Allgaier (third Saturday) also advanced to the Round of 8, along with (pole winner) Daniel Hemric (seventh), Austin Cindric (eighth), Elliott Sadler (11th) and Tyler Reddick (14th). Chastain finished 13th and Tifft 15th.

Eliminated from the playoffs in addition to Chastain were Brandon Jones (sixth), Ryan Truex (10th) and Ryan Reed (16th). 

Non-playoff drivers Ryan Preece and Spencer Gallagher were fourth and fifth, respectively, on Saturday.

 

Posted on by Staff Report

The NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs have been trimmed down from 12 drivers to eight drivers following the Bar Harbor 200 presented by Sea Watch International on Saturday.

Christopher Bell locked himself into the Round of 8 with a win at Richmond Raceway to open the playoffs and gave himself the outright points lead heading into the next round with a win at Dover to close the Round of 12. Joining him in the next round will be: Justin Allgaier, Daniel Hemric, Cole Custer, Elliott Sadler, Tyler Reddick, Matt Tifft and Austin Cindric.

RELATED: Bell wins at Dover | Chastain gets aggressive on Tifft

The four eliminated drivers are: Ross Chastain, Brandon Jones, Ryan Truex and Ryan Reed. Chastain missed advancing by three points behind both Cindric and Tifft before points are reset for the next round.

The point totals as we head to the Round of 8:

Rank Driver Points
1 Christopher Bell 3044
2 Justin Allgaier 3039
3 Daniel Hemric 3013
4 Cole Custer 3011
5 Elliott Sadler 3011
6 Tyler Reddick 3010
7 Matt Tifft 3003
8 Austin Cindric 3001

After an off weekend, the Xfinity Series Playoffs will resume at Kansas Speedway on Oct. 20. The Round of 8 races are at Kansas, Texas and ISM (Phoenix) before the Championship 4 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Posted on by Chase Wilhelm

DOVER, Del. — After Jimmie Johnson’s exit from the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs last week at the Charlotte road course, a championship opportunity for Hendrick Motorsports now rests on the youth.

Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott go into Sunday’s Gander Outdoors 400 at Dover International Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) below the cutline to begin the Round of 12.

Elliott sits ninth in the playoff standings, five points below the cutline with eight playoff points to his credit, while Bowman is 12th, 13 points behind with no playoff points in play.

RELATED: Johnson sticks by late-race move | Starting lineup for Dover

That means kicking off the second round strong at Dover is essential for both drivers, especially with unpredictable Talladega looming next weekend.

“I think we need to be pretty on point at all three of these races,” Bowman told NASCAR.com prior to Saturday’s final practice. “I don’t think in our points situation we can afford a bad one, so we gotta have three good, solid days. We definitely need a solid day here [at Dover]. I feel like we can win any week we go to the race track, but we need to have a really solid three weeks.”

If Bowman can escape Dover with a good finish, Talladega has the potential to be very good for him, as his superspeedway prowess earned him the Daytona 500 pole, an eighth-place finish at Talladega in May and a top 10 in Daytona’s July race.

Of course, the 2.66-mile track is always a wild card, which makes Bowman more inclined to look at Kansas for his best shot at victory in this three-race playoffs round.

“I’ve won a couple races there in the past in different series,” Bowman said. “That’s a place I really enjoy running. Our (Hendrick) 1.5-mile program has gotten a lot better over the course of the year. I think we can go there and run really well.”

As far as the No. 9 team is concerned, Dover has been money for Elliott. His 5.0 average finish is the best in the field. Crew chief Alan Gustafson said that’s not by happenstance.

“One of his real strong suits is long runs and consistency — his ability to do the same thing and get the same thing out of the car lap after lap,” Gustafson said. “This place [Dover] certainly plays into that where you typically get some really long runs. … I think that plays into his strengths.”

MORE: Knaus: ‘I beat myself up pretty bad’ after Roval ending

Along with Elliott’s past Dover success, he also laid down the fifth-best time in Saturday’s final practice. But even if Elliott has a minor slip-up this weekend, Gustafson is confident in the No. 9 team’s abilities at Talladega.

“We have great superspeedway cars,” Gustafson said. “We have a great superspeedway program. We’ll have extremely fast cars there. Chase does a fantastic job there and I feel like we have as good a shot as anybody.”

Despite all the hype and pressure the playoffs bring, Gustafson is making sure the No. 9 team isn’t sweating it to start in the second round. He’s made an effort to bring more of a simplified mindset to the table for Elliott and the gang.

“To me, typically in my experience, if you’re consumed by the pressure, you’re probably focusing on negative energy,” Gustafson said. “You’re thinking about what can happen or the negative things that can happen. You’re basically focusing on losing. That’s not a good thing, in my opinion. You need to focus on succeeding and focus on all the good things.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

DOVER, Del. — Mexican driver Ruben Garcia Jr., a member of the 2018 NASCAR Drive for Diversity class, won the rain-delayed K&N Pro Series East season finale at Dover International Speedway on Saturday morning.

Garcia took the checkered flag in the Crosley Brands 125 .483 seconds ahead of Brandon McReynolds to collect the 19th victory for Rev Racing, the competitive arm of the D4D program.

The victory is the second of Garcia’s career, the first having come earlier this season at Memphis.

“The first victory outside my country was very, very special, but definitely coming back to Dover and winning was something,” said Garcia, who is also the points leader in the NASCAR Peak Mexico Series.

“I feel like sometimes you enjoy more the second win, because there’s too much going on the first time, and you really don’t appreciate what’s happening.”

Garcia hasn’t solidified his racing plans for next year, but said he hopes to compete on a national touring level in 2019.

Posted on by Chase Wilhelm

DOVER, Del. — Following the purchase of the ARCA Racing Series earlier this year, NASCAR and ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards have developed the initial competition framework that will include the K&N Pro Series beginning with the 2020 season.

While ARCA and the K&N Pro Series will continue to operate as separate entities for the 2019 season, the series will thrive under a new competition framework in 2020 with a model designed to preserve both series’ historic short-track lineage that stretches back more than 60 years.

The new layout will give drivers the opportunity to compete for a total of four championships in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, NASCAR K&N Pro Series West, ARCA Racing Elite Series presented by Menards and the brand-new Stock Car Invitational.

Brandon Thompson, managing director of the NASCAR Touring Series, laid out three over-arching goals of this new format for the sanctioning body.

“Underscoring NASCAR’s commitment to short-track racing is number one,” Thompson told NASCAR.com. “Making sure series veterans – a Bobby Gerhart on the ARCA side or a Ronnie and Dillon Bassett on the K&N side – have a home and we can kind of get back to creating those stables in those series is also very important.  And finally we want to continue to highlight our up-and-coming stars in the sport.”

Here is how it will work:

• The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and NASCAR K&N Pro Series West schedule will feature six to eight events, competing on historic short tracks (less than 1 mile) within their regional footprint as in years past.

• The new ARCA Racing Elite Series championship calendar will be made up of approximately 20 races, with at least half of those races on speedways (longer than 1 mile), including traditional companion events in both ARCA and Pro Series.

• The Stock Car Invitational will be made up of the remaining 10 races of the ARCA Elite Series, on premier short tracks. In order to be eligible for the three-way combination series, East and West competitors must compete in a minimum number of races across those series – the exact number will be announced at a later date.

A car speeding through the garage
Adam Glanzman/NASCAR

Thompson believes the most important element is the opportunity for the next fleet of young drivers to go head-to-head with seasoned veterans on the same playing field with the Stock Car Invitational.

“That’s the part that excites me the most — the opportunity to get those young stars against some of these seasoned veterans and have them all out there at the same time,” he said. “It’s a good natural progression from racing among your peers, so to speak, to going against some wily vets, which is what they’re going to see in the Truck Series. It’s another ode to that developmental ladder and this being a key rung in that ladder.”

For the on-track product, the chassis and body will be roughly the same across all four championship series. Teams electing to complete in the Elite Series will run the current ARCA engine package, while teams competing in the Pro Series East and West will run the existing package for those series as well.

Teams participating in the Stock Car Invitational championship are required to race the same engine they used in either the Elite Series or the Pro Series East/West.

“It will be a meet-in-the-middle for the most part,” Thompson said. “Where there’s not a situation where you can exactly meet halfway, I think you’ll see us take what we all know and discussed as best practices from either one and implement that to take us forward.”

Drivers competing in the Pro Series East, Pro Series West and Stock Car Invitational must be at least 15 years old, while drivers must be at least 18 years old to compete in the Elite Series.

Other details, including exact venues on the race schedule, series name and television coverage will continue to be finalized over the coming months.

Posted on by Staff Report

Kyle Larson topped the leaderboard in Saturday’s final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Dover International Speedway, moving his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet around the track at 159.011 mph.

Larson was the fastest car on the 1-mile track for the second time this weekend — the only two times Cup cars have been on the track after Friday’s qualifying and Saturday’s early practice were both washed out because of rain.

RELATED: Full practice results | 10-lap averages

Two drivers no longer among those in the NASCAR Playoffs’ Round of 12 — Denny Hamlin (157.343 mph) and Erik Jones (157.095 mph) — were second and third-fastest in the practice session.

Aric Almirola (156.808 mph) and Chase Elliott (156.556 mph) rounded out the top five in the last practice in preparation for Sunday’s Gander Outdoors 400 (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). It is the first race in the three-race Round of 12.

RELATED: Dover starting order | Photos from Dover

The Monster Energy Series’ final practice was lengthened to 80 minutes after the first practice of the day was canceled because of a persistent, misting rain.

Three cars served 15-minute practice holds: The No. 00 of Landon Cassill and the No. 52 of Harrison Rhodes (both late to pre-race inspection) and the No. 51 of B.J. McLeod (failed pre-qualifying inspection twice).

Posted on by Reid Spencer

DOVER, Del. — Joey Logano got a stark reminder at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course last Sunday of just how important a single point can be in a championship run.

Fortunately, the wake-up call didn’t prove costly to Logano himself.

But when Kyle Larson bounced off the outside wall in a crippled car on the final lap of the Bank of America Roval 400 and finished just high enough to create a three-way tie for the last two berths in the Round of 12 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, the complexion of the title competition changed radically.

Moments earlier, entering the final chicane, seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson had been battling Martin Truex Jr. for the race win. But Johnson lost control in the chicane and ultimately knocked Truex into the outside wall.

RELATED: Johnson sticks by late-race move | Knaus: ‘I beat myself up’

Johnson would have advanced to the Round of 12 had Larson not steered his car around the track and passed the stalled car of Jeffrey Earnhardt 100 feet from the finish line to gain the one position he needed to create the three-way tie. On a tiebreaker using the respective best finishes in the Round of 16, Johnson was the odd man out.

And Logano noticed.

“We always say, ‘Man, we need every point possible; we need to get every little bit that means so much,’ ” Logano said on Friday at Dover International Speedway. “But think about like not only during that race, but the races leading to it or the regular season. You know how big one stage win would have been? That’s all that matters sometimes to make a huge difference.

“Your whole season can be on one point, and that’s what these playoffs bring, and that’s so cool. We all knew that, but when you see it again, and sometimes you get kind of comfortable with a situation and then you see that and it’s like, ‘Wow, one point would make a really big difference a lot of times.’

“So we need to race aggressively knowing that. You can be put into a situation where the smallest thing makes a big difference.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

As Jimmie Johnson leaned into the microphone Friday morning during his press conference in the Dover International Speedway media center, he fully anticipated the opening line of questioning before opening practice for Sunday’s Gander Outdoors 400 (2 p.m., NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

With time to reflect on the last lap of last weekend’s NASCAR Playoffs cutoff race, would the seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion still have raced hard for the victory or should he have settled in for a safe finish?

As it turned out, Johnson doubled down Friday on his decision to go for the win, even though he collided with race leader Martin Truex Jr. just before the finish line. They both spun out and third place Ryan Blaney motored on by for the victory. Truex recovered to finish 14th instead of hoisting his fifth trophy of the season.

Johnson wound up finishing eighth and in one of the most unique circumstances in playoff history, that put him in a three-way tie in points with Kyle Larson and Aric Almirola and only two of the three able to advance to the Round of 12. Larson and Almirola won the tiebreaker based on “best finish” in the previous two playoff races and Johnson was left to race for a historic eighth championship next year.

The outcry from various “backseat drivers” – racing’s equivalent of a “Monday morning quarterback” – was typically loud and befuddled. But Johnson reiterated Friday at Dover, that under the same circumstances again, he would go for the win instead of playing it conservatively. That’s what race car drivers do.

RELATED: Knaus: ‘I beat myself up’

Johnson, 42, stood on Charlotte Motor Speedway pit lane after the race and calmly answered all the tough questions. He did so again on Friday in a formal media conference setting.

“It wasn’t a banzai move just trying to clean him out,” Johnson said. “It was a very calculated move and if we both hit the brakes at the same point in time. Unfortunately, I got it wrong.

“There were many consequences to follow after that. Disappointed, it’s way easier after the fact is over to say, ‘Well, why didn’t you?’ or ‘How come?’ and all that kind of crap. But I was focused on winning a race and that is what got me there.”

Asked if with time to reflect, would he change the approach?

“I still have to make that move,” Johnson said. 

DEBATE: Was Jimmie’s move the right one?

“I still have to try for it.  … Looking back, I was a little lower than I typically was entering that braking zone and had a bit more steering wheel input in the car and that is why the left-front (tire) initially locked up. So I could change a couple of things, but I still … I don’t know how I don’t go for it.”

The biggest thing, he conceded, is that he regrets collecting the reigning Cup champion and season-long title contender Truex in the accident.

“The other piece that weighs on me and I don’t know if it would for all drivers, but I feel bad for Martin and that No. 78 team,” Johnson said. “I hate that my mistake affected them and could impact their season to some degree. 

“So I don’t like that aspect to it, but it is racing and I know in my heart that it was a legitimate attempt at winning the race and a mistake was made.

“I didn’t go in there and just try to move him out of the way and wreck him and create all this havoc,” Johnson said, emphatically. “So I’ve moved on and did have a good week, but there are a couple of things that still linger and that always seems to go away when you get in the race car and start the next practice session.”

His 2018 championship already decided and looking ahead – something Johnson is clearly ready to do – the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has to like his chances this weekend at Dover’s “Monster Mile.” Perhaps no other venue on the circuit presents a better opportunity for Johnson to snap a 33-race long winless streak – the longest of his career.

Johnson is the all-time winningest driver at Dover with 11 trophies to date. Next closest among the competitors this weekend is championship leader Kyle Busch with three wins. Johnson has 17 top-fives and 14 top-10s in 33 Dover starts and his driver rating of 117.2 is highest by a long-shot over the next-closest driver at Dover – Busch (105.5 driver rating).

MORE: How Johnson’s Dover data stacks up

Johnson’s last win? It came at Dover last spring.

“We’re at my favorite race track and absolutely, do I want to win the race,” Johnson said. “And I’ll do everything in my power to win the race.

“It takes a collective group to have the car, the pit stops, the strategy and all that. And I don’t know if this weekend is that weekend. But if there’s a track where I can make up a 10th or two for the team, this would be one of them.

“And I hope I can do that and make the difference.”