Posted on by Reid Spencer

After last week’s close call at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, Jimmie Johnson was a logical choice to contend for a victory at Dover International Speedway, where he has accumulated 11 of his 83 career victories.

But when the green flag waved at the Monster Mile, Johnson’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet wasn’t even on the track.

RELATED: Full Dover results | Johnson buys bikes for No. 78 team

With what was eventually diagnosed as a lower ball joint failure, Johnson took his car to the garage for repairs and didn’t reappear on the concrete until the Gander Outdoors 400 was 10 laps old. After a subsequent pit road penalty, he finished 36th, 17 laps down.

The mechanical failure was a continuation of the ill fortune the seven-time champion had suffered at Charlotte, where his attempted pass of martin Truex Jr. on the last lap ended in an accident that knocked Johnson out of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs on a tiebreaker.

Truex’s crew chief, Cole Pearn, suggested that Johnson could atone for the Charlotte wreck by giving Truex’s crew road bikes, so Johnson went shopping, bought a trove of girls’ bicycles and placed them on the No. 78 hauler before the crew arrived.

But the frivolity quickly turned to frustration when Johnson failed to start Sunday’s race.

 

Posted on by Staff Report

Ever wonder what goes on in a driver meeting? We’re here to help.

This year, we’ll publish the actual rules video your favorite Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers will watch before climbing into their stock cars. Above is the video for the Gander Outdoors 400 (Sunday, 2 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Dover International Speedway.

Posted on by Chase Wilhelm

DOVER, Del. — We still are reaping the benefits of the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course finish between Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr.

Truex was taken out of contention by Johnson in the final turn coming to the checkered flag after a miscalculation by Johnson caused the No. 48 to spin and collect the No. 78 in the process.

WATCH: See what happened at Charlotte | Truex Jr.: ‘I just told him I was mad he screwed up’

Cole Pearn, crew chief for the Furniture Row Racing team, lightheartedly suggested Johnson buy the entire crew road bikes to ease the frustration.

Johnson granted the request early Sunday morning prior to the Gander Outdoors 400 at Dover International Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), personally delivering them to the No. 78 hauler … but it likely wasn’t what Pearn was expecting.

And the 78 team’s response didn’t disappoint either.

The bikes are being given away and apparently are flying off the “shelves” or in this case the hauler.

Chase Wilhelm | NASCAR Digital Media

 

Chase Wilhelm | NASCAR Digital Media
Posted on by RJ Kraft

Kyle Busch will lead the field to green for Sunday’s Gander Outdoors 400 (2 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). There were two practice sessions this weekend, giving players plenty to digest. We’ve dissected the numbers to offer a suggested lineup worthy of your Fantasy Live consideration as you make roster decisions.

PLAY NOW: Set your lineup | How the playoff game works

Remember that the garage locks at the end of Stage 2. Also, your garage play can only be swapped for a driver of similar classification. (A playoff garage driver can only be swapped for a playoff driver in your lineup; a non-playoff garage driver can only be swapped for a non-playoff driver in your lineup.)

Cars to the rear: Bubba Wallace (failed pre-race inspection three times)

RJ Kraft’s Fantasy Live lineup for race-day at Dover:
Playoff driver 1: Kevin Harvick
Playoff driver 2: Kyle Larson
Non-playoff driver 1: Jimmie Johnson
Non-playoff driver 2: Erik Jones
Garage: Martin Truex Jr.

MORE: Fantasy analysis for Dover | Driver stats | 10-lap averages | Lineup 

Analysis: The Fantasy Live Playoff Game is in Week 4! These five drivers made up my original lineup and I am sticking with them. Larson topped both practice sessions and led the way in the 5, 10 and 15-lap boards in the final session (h/t @SteveLetarte). He’s been very fast all weekend and has a strong Dover history, so I like staying with him. Harvick has been strong on the long run and dominated this race in the spring. I favor Truex’s recent Dover history — four straight top-four finishes over the Jekyll and Hyde nature of Kyle Busch’s recent Dover record — three top-two finishes but also four finishes outside the top 15 over the past seven races at the “Monster Mile” — so, I am keeping the defending champion in the lineup, but moving him to the garage.

WATCH: Why Larson’s a good play | Which ‘Big 3’ driver to start? | Non-playoff picks

For the non-playoff plays, hard to argue against the 11-time Dover winner Jimmie Johnson. Even more so, when he’s fourth on the 15-lap board and looking for redemption after last week’s final-turn mistake cost him a shot at advancing. Erik Jones has the most upside of any non-playoff driver and while his Dover numbers are pedestrian (a 15.0 average finish in three starts), I like the speed he’s had there.

For the bonus picks, I’m taking Harvick for Stage 1 and 2 with Larson for the win. The driver of the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet seems primed to make the most of his second life in the playoffs.

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.