Posted on by Team Release

MOORESVILLE, NC – Team Penske has announced a new partnership with VF Workwear. Under the multi-year agreement, VF Workwear’s Wrangler Riggs brand will be the primary sponsor of the No. 12 Ford Fusion driven by Ryan Blaney in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, beginning with this weekend’s event at Kansas Speedway. The new partnership also includes VF brands serving as a primary sponsor on the No. 12 Ford for races at Michigan (June) and Kansas (October) in both 2019 and 2020.

The VF Workwear family of brands features names that are very familiar to NASCAR fans, including Wrangler®, Dickies®, Timberland Pro®, Red Kap®, Kodiak®, Bulwark® and Horace Small®.

“We are excited to welcome VF Workwear as a new partner to Team Penske and we believe the company and its brands will bring new energy and vision to our organization,” said Roger Penske. “All of the VF Workwear brands are well known to motorsports fans and this represents a great opportunity to connect the Wrangler brand and its heritage in racing to our team. The VF brands also align well with Ryan (Blaney), a terrific young driver on the track and a great representative off the track as well. To me, Wrangler and Ryan just represents a great combination.”

VF Workwear is part of the VF Corporation (NYSE: VFC), which outfits consumers around the world with its diverse portfolio of iconic lifestyle brands, including Vans®, The North Face®, Timberland®, Wrangler® and Lee®. Founded in 1899, VF is one of the world’s largest apparel, footwear and accessories companies with socially and environmentally responsible operations spanning numerous geographies, product categories and distribution channels.

“VF Workwear is proud to partner with Team Penske and Ryan Blaney and we think it’s a great fit across the board,” said Chris Holcombe, President of VF Workwear. “Consumers already know a lot about our brands, and NASCAR fans have an affinity with our Wrangler name and the history it has in the sport. So, to bring a brand onboard like Wrangler Riggs – and have it associated with someone like Ryan who is sort of a throwback in this younger generation of drivers – is a perfect fit for us. We are excited and look forward to having our other brands involved in the future.”

At just 24 years old, Blaney is a key pillar of NASCAR’s youth movement. Competing in his first full-season with Team Penske in the Cup Series in 2018, Blaney captured his second career victory at the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on September 30. Blaney has already eclipsed his career-best totals in top-five finishes and laps led this season as he’s advanced to the NASCAR Playoffs Round of 12.

“I’ve always loved the history of our sport and there is definitely a lot of history with Wrangler in racing,” said Blaney. “Knowing that I will have that Wrangler name on my car this weekend – and hopefully have the chance to help introduce some of the other VF brands to the sport – will be awesome. It’s great that VF Workwear is coming back to our sport and I’m excited for the opportunity to represent them.”

The 2018 season continues with the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, October 21 with race coverage beginning at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.

Posted on by Staff Report

Just in case Kurt Busch ever finds himself in a position again where he 1. Has won the pole, 2. Has led a race-high 56-percent of the laps (108 of 193) and 3. Appears headed to a long-awaited first victory at Talladega Superspeedway, his kind neighbors offered a helping hand Monday.

Busch shared via Twitter that his neighbors know what might have helped him snag that checkered flag Sunday — something his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Aric Almirola did, instead, as Busch’s No. 41 Ford slowed while it approached the finish line.

Yup, some extra gasoline.

At least Busch has retained his sense of humor — something that is probably a little easier considering he’s still ranked sixth among 12 NASCAR Playoffs drivers.

RELATED: Busch runs dry, finishes 14th | Playoff standings

Posted on by NASCAR Official Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Twelve drivers from across the United States and abroad have been invited to try out for NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver Development Program, the top driver developmental program in motorsports, at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway and Bethune-Cookman University on Oct. 22-23.

 The NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver Combine invites promising ethnically diverse and female drivers to test their skills over a two-day period as NASCAR evaluates talent for the 2019 NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver Development class. 

In partnership with Rev Racing, NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver Development Program offers racing opportunities in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, NASCAR Whelen All-American Series and U.S. Legend Cars International for one full season, providing selected drivers with equipment, mentoring, and competition experience. The goal is to provide top diverse talent with a path for development in order to improve participants’ chances of being identified as a prospect by NASCAR’s national series teams, sponsors and manufacturers.

Candidates for the 2019 class have competition experience throughout North America, Asia and Europe. All will vie for an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series™ drivers Daniel Suárez, Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson, the first NASCAR Drive for Diversity driver to qualify for the NASCAR Playoffs. 

“The drivers invited to this year’s NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver Development Combine represent a wide range of diverse backgrounds, both in terms of heritage and driving disciplines,” said Jusan Hamilton, NASCAR senior manager of racing operations and event management.  “The combine has been tremendous in helping the NASCAR industry identify and develop top diverse talent and this year is no different.”

The combine, which will serve as a key element in the selection process for setting the driver lineup for Rev Racing in 2019, will evaluate participants on their driving skill and work ethic on and off the track, as well as their marketing and media skills. Each driver will also take part in a physical fitness assessment at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach. Additionally, Rev Racing and NASCAR will work with B-CU communications students for additional training and evaluation of the combine participants that will include a mock press conference and one-on-one interviews.

Since the inception of NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver Development Program, Rev Racing has earned 19 wins, 88 top-5 finishes, and 186 top-10 finishes in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver Development Program driver Rubén García Jr. won the K&N Pro Series East season finale at Dover International Speedway in early October, the Mexico native’s second win of the season. García Jr. is also the current Championship points leader in the NASCAR Peak Mexico Series. 

“As we embark upon our 11th year managing the Drive for Diversity program in partnership with NASCAR, we couldn’t be more excited about the evolution of our driver development program,” said Max Siegel, CEO of Rev Racing. “Through selection process and training program we look forward to selecting and developing some of NASCAR’s brightest stars.”

In addition to Garcia Jr., drivers under consideration to return to the team in 2019 are Chase Cabre, Ernie Francis Jr., Nick Sanchez and Ryan Vargas. Vargas is a two-time NASCAR Wendell Scott Trailblazer Award winner and has won three NASCAR Late Model races. In 2018, Francis Jr. achieved four wins in the Trans-Am Championship presented by Pirelli and currently leads the series standings. He has won the series championship for four consecutive years. 

This year’s participants also include Juan Manuel González, Loris Hezemans, Perry Patino, Brooke Storer, Ryu Taggart, Gracie Trotter and Britney Zamora. Storer is the 2016 Desoto Speedway Sportman Champion, while Zamora became the first female driver to win the Northwest Super Late Model Series Championship in 2017. In 2015, Taggart earned a third-place finish out of more than 7,000 drivers in the Red Bull Kart Fight in Japan. 

Rev Racing also operates the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Youth Driver Development Program, which targets drivers 12 to 17 to compete in the U.S. Legend Cars International (USLCI) and serves as an entry point to the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver Development Program. The deadline to apply for the youth program is Oct. 31, 2018.

 2018 NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver Combine drivers:

DRIVER

HOMETOWN

2018 RACING EXPERIENCE

Chase Cabre

Tampa, Fla.

NASCAR K&N Pro Series East & NASCAR Whelen All-American Series

Ernie Francis Jr.

Southwest Ranches, Fla.

Trans Am TA Series & NASCAR K&N Pro Series East

Rubén García Jr.

Mexico City, Mexico

NASCAR K&N Pro Series East & NASCAR Peak Mexico Series

Juan Manuel González

Mexico City, Mexico

NASCAR Mexico FedEx Challenge Series NASCAR K&N Pro Series East

Loris Hezemans

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Blancpain GT Sprint Series & NASCAR Whelen Euro Series

Perry Patino

Montgomery, Ala.

Pro Late Model & Late Model Sportsman Series

Nick Sanchez

Miami, Fla.

NASCAR Whelen All-American Series & Bojangles Summer Shootout Pro Legend Car Class

Brooke Storer

Land O’ Lakes, Fla.

Wheelman Series Late Model/Sportsman Division

Ryu Taggart

Jefferson City, Mo.

Pro Late Model Division at Lebanon I-44 Speedway and USRRA A-mod on dirt

Gracie Trotter

Denver, N.C.

CARS Tour & PASS Series, USLCI Legend Cars & Bojangles Summer Shootout Semi Pro Division

Ryan Vargas

La Mirada, Calif.

NASCAR K&N Pro Series East & NASCAR Whelen All-American Series.

Brittney Zamora

Kennewick, Wash.

NASCAR Whelen All-American Series, Budweiser Crown Series & Northwest Super Late Model Series

 

 

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TALLADEGA, Ala. — Martin Truex Jr. called his No. 78 car “evil” after Sunday’s event at Talladega Superspeedway.

Evil enough that he went from a comfortable 36 points above the playoff cutline heading into Talladega to dipping dangerously below the bubble in the waning laps.

Truex knew where he was in the point standings as he ran — but couldn’t do much about it with his handling struggles.

RELATED: Playoffs pulse after Talladega | SHR teammates run out of gas, Almirola wins

“I rode around all day broke, hanging on, miserable,” he said after the race. “I couldn’t even race my car was so screwed up. I feel like the rear end house was falling out of it.”

The late caution triggered by Alex Bowman was a break for the No. 78 team, who ended the race with the final spot above the cutline in the playoff standings with one race to go before the field dwindles from 12 to eight Oct. 21 at Kansas Speedway.

“Just to deal with that all day long and catch a little bit of a break at the end with that caution and being able to get tires. Because I could run hard for three laps. That was it,” he said. “Tires would give me enough grip that I could just hold it wide open for three laps and then I was hanging on after that. We almost had a good run going there when they crashed in front of me. … So, we definitely lost some spots there from where I think we were going to end up.

“But overall it was a positive finish and we went from what was going to be a real bad day to not such a terrible day.”

Sunday’s overtime event in the Yellowhammer State shook up the playoff standings with Aric Almirola — a driver who entered Talladega below the cutline — breaking through for the win. Almirola’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Clint Bowyer’s runner-up result and valuable stage points also moved him from the dangerous side of the bubble to 21 points to the good.

Others weren’t as fortunate, with several NASCAR Playoffs drivers running out of gas when the race extended into overtime; Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney’s unexpected trips down pit road put both Team Penske vehicles 18 and 22 points outside the top eight, respectively, heading into elimination next week.

MORE: Complete Talladega results

“Ol’ Bowyer passed me, huh?” said Keselowski, whose race-favorite No. 2 sputtered out of fuel to end the day 27th after leading 21 laps.

“The 88 was in there and he was kind of banzai, win at all costs and just kept making moves that just killed everybody else and didn’t help himself,” he continued. “Without that, we were kind of shot. I kept trying to get my teammates with me and every time we about got ’em lined up, somebody would banzai them and we just couldn’t do anything.”

The nature of Talladega is famously fickle, the chaos so anticipated that it almost becomes the expectation.

Sunday’s show was different, as Stewart-Haas Racing limited the chaos by dominating the majority of the race and controlling the top pack single file. But the shakeup in the playoff standings was an outcome all too familiar with the superspeedway.

It’s in instances like that where sometimes a little luck goes a long way.

“It’s just Talladega, it’s a crapshoot,” Truex said. “We went from three points out in half a lap to being 18 to the good. I tried not to get too stressed out. (Crew chief) Cole (Pearn) was getting pretty stressed out toward the end of the race once he realized, ‘Oh, man this isn’t getting better.’ We thought there’d be some big pileups earlier and there wasn’t. We were looking pretty stupid there at the end of the race having rode around all day…

“But we’re lucky to finish and we’re lucky to be in a decent spot leaving here.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Kurt Busch was one corner and a straightaway from his second victory of the season and an automatic ticket into the Round of 8 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

But Busch’s No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford ran out of gas in Turn 4 on the final lap of the 1000Bulbs.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Busch steered to the bottom of the track and watched helplessly as teammate Aric Almirola charged past him and claimed the overtime win.

RELATED: Almirola claims ‘Dega win | Complete results

Busch started from the pole led a race-high 108 of 193 laps, as Stewart-Haas dominated the event in unprecedented fashion, grabbing the top four positions in qualifying and finishing 1-2-3-4 in both stages before Almirola took the checkered flag with teammate Clint Bowyer behind him.

“It was a very different Talladega for me,” said Busch, who rolled across the finish line in 14th place. “I really enjoyed leading the race, working with my teammates. I’m really happy a Stewart-Haas car won, but the four of us, I’ve never seen so much synergy.

“We knew we were going to have to race when we got to Kansas (next Sunday). It would have been nice to have the win. We’re here to win.”

RELATED: Playoff standings | SHR puts on drafting clinic

Almirola got the ticket into the Round of 8 with the victory, but Busch leaves Talladega 30 points above the cut line, a relatively comfortable margin.

“That’s good stuff,” Busch said. “We had 21 (points) coming into this, and if you can bank nine and get the heck out of Talladega, that sounds good.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Kyle Larson’s balky No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet qualified 34th on Saturday. After unapproved adjustments to the car, Larson started last in Sunday’s 1000Bulbs.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

After that, things got worse. On lap 104 of 193, Larson blew a left rear tire and spun on the backstretch, losing a lap in the process.

WATCH: Larson goes for a spin

Timely cautions and attrition, however, came to his rescue. Larson got his lap back as the beneficiary under caution for the end of Stage 2, and after spending most of the afternoon running mid-pack, he dodged late accidents to finish 11th—a miraculous result given the lack of strength in his car.

“We just had a terrible race car and were really slow all weekend,” Larson said after the race. “We were able to salvage a decent finish, but the Fords are so fast here and can rack up a lot of stage points.

“Even when they have a bad day, they still gain points on us. It is what it is. We’ll just go to Kansas and try and win.”

RELATED: Playoff standings

With the Round of 12 cutoff race at Kansas set for next Sunday, Larson faces elimination from the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. He’s 11th in the standings, 26 points behind reigning series champion Martin Truex Jr., who is currently in eighth place.

Larson finished fourth at Kansas in May.

“Yeah, Kansas is a good track for us,” Larson. “We’ve challenged for wins there in the past, and hopefully we can go there next week and be strong.”

“Strong” might not be good enough. Given his position in the standings, Larson may have to win to advance.

Posted on by Zack Albert

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Joey Logano could only shake his head. His Team Penske outfit, the class of the field at Talladega Superspeedway in recent years, was unable to make headway against the four-pronged Stewart-Haas Racing cavalcade, which ran first through fourth for the bulk of Sunday’s event.

No one else was able to make much hay on a day when SHR pegged the meter on performance, engineering and teamwork.

RELATED: Almirola wins in Overtime | Busch, Harvick win stages

“I don’t know what it is, but wow, from qualifying all the way through, they’re just stellar race cars that Stewart-Haas put together this weekend,” Logano said. “Like I said, it would’ve been a total crime if one of them didn’t win, as strong as they were and as many laps as they led. I mean, they led the whole race. As solid as they were working as teammates, it was definitely remarkable. One of them deserved to win.”

Aric Almirola stood alone at the end of Sunday’s 1000Bulbs.com 500, with only fuel mileage and an overtime restart breaking up a potential top-four sweep for the organization. So powerful was the SHR quartet, any of them stood a well-earned chance on a sunny afternoon full of playoff implications.

Clint Bowyer followed his teammate to the checkered flag in second place, but sputtering gas tanks in the final two laps kept pole-sitter Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick from following suit. But all four emerged on the plus side of the playoff picture after one of the postseason’s biggest wild-card events, with the Round of 12’s elimination event looming at Kansas Speedway next weekend.

Stewart-Haas drivers started like they ran for much of the day — first through fourth — and led 155 of the 193 laps, frequently orchestrating their positions on restarts by getting in formation and powering away. Teamwork is often a best-laid plan that sometimes unravels in Talladega traffic, but Stewart-Haas stayed devoted throughout to their all-for-one approach. Rarely has it worked so seamlessly.

“The way our cars took off, handled, drafted, had more speed than the rest, endured that speed through the distance of a run, I knew our best opportunity was to stay together,” Bowyer said. “That’s what we did. I think the performance of our cars just kind of painted that picture for us, put ourselves in that position. We did a good job of being disciplined, taking care of one another on the restarts.”

MORE: Bowyer says, ‘We ruled the day’ | Playoff standings

That level of care is what has given Stewart-Haas a more comfortable position after a rocky Round of 12 opener last weekend at Dover left Almirola and Bowyer on the outside looking in.

“We worked every restart out to where we stayed committed to each other and got in line, and it was us against the field,” said Almirola, who notched SHR’s 50th premier series victory and its first at the 2.66-mile track. “When we started to drive off from the field in that first stage as the stage went on, I knew we had something special.”

Team Penske had entered Sunday’s tussle with five wins in the last six Talladega races, the latest stretch of dominance in the cyclical nature of restrictor-plate racing. Sunday, Stewart-Haas Racing dictated the tempo and monopolized the strategy, bringing to mind other commanding stretches in stock-car history.

WATCH: Stewart-Haas Racing puts on drafting clinic

“We knew the Fords coming in here were the cars to beat. They have been at the restrictor-plate tracks for quite a few years now,” said Martin Truex Jr., who came home 23rd Sunday. “But to see that kind of domination … that’s something we haven’t seen since back when Dale Jr. used to come here and lead all those laps. DEI (Dale Earnhardt, Inc.) cars back in ’04, ’03 … before I went there. That’s just crazy to see. Hats off to them. What a hell of a job they did.”

Said Bowyer: “I’ve seen other guys, other teams, other organizations put that together before. The Hendrick organization has been there before, the Gibbs cars have done that before. It was our turn, you know what I mean? The Penske cars have done that before.

“We finally got all four cars to the cream of the crop. Oh my gosh, was it awesome.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Kyle Busch completed a career sweep of sorts Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.

While his 26th-place finish following a last-lap wreck certainly doesn’t look like much at first blush, it’s the first time in 493 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts that “Rowdy” has finished exactly 26th.

RELATED: Full Talladega results

Yes, the man with 50 career Monster Energy Series wins, with 44 runner-up finishes … and even with four 40th-place finishes … had never finished 26th in a race prior to Sunday.

More than that, the 26th-place finish gives Kyle Busch at least one finish for every possible position in the 40-car field.

What it does it all mean?

Well, we don’t know exactly. But it’s an interesting bit of NASCAR trivia with which you can stump your friends.

MORE: Kyle Busch stats

Posted on by Reid Spencer

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Aric Almirola has been tantalizingly close to winning this season, only to come up empty.

On Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, he finally got to light the victory cigar.

When the No. 41 Ford of Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch lost fuel pressure on the final lap of the 1000Bulbs.com 500, Almirola was there to collect his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory since 2014 and clinch a spot in the Round of 8 in the series playoffs.

RELATED: Race results
SHOP: Almirola gear

Almirola’s second career victory — and his first in the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford — came one week after a late caution at Dover robbed him of a chance to win.

At the end of a race in which the Stewart-Haas cars achieved mind-bending dominance at NASCAR’s biggest track, Almirola finished .105 seconds ahead of teammate Clint Bowyer, who, coincidentally, caused the telltale caution at Dover — one that mirrored a similar situation at New Hampshire in July.

“This is awesome! At Talladega!” Almirola exulted after taking the checkered flag. “I’ve been so close so many times this year. Four or five times this year, I feel like we’ve had a shot to win, and I haven’t been able to seal the deal. … I feel like I’ve let (the team) down so many times, because we’ve had so many opportunities to win and haven’t done it. …

“We come here, a place that I love — I won an Xfinity race here last year. I just love racing at Talladega, and I came here with the mind-set that we were going to go give ’em hell, and if we wreck, we wreck, and if we win, we win. And we won!”

Led by Busch, the four Stewart-Haas drivers swept the top four starting positions in Saturday’s knockout qualifying session. But that was just the beginning. Busch won the first stage of Sunday’s race, followed by Bowyer, Kevin Harvick and Almirola.

RELATED: SHR dominates until late hiccups

It was more of the same in Stage 2, with Harvick taking the green/checkers ahead of Bowyer, Busch and Almirola. Harvick scored enough stage points to clinch a spot in the Round of 8 of the Cup Playoffs.

“This was an incredible race for us,” Almirola said. “We were so committed to each other and so organized, and nobody in the field could touch us. It was us against the field. What an impressive run. I’m just proud to be the one on top today.”

The SHR drivers were running 1-2-3-4 with three laps left when playoff driver Alex Bowman lost control of his No. 88 Chevrolet in Turn 4 to cause the eighth caution of the afternoon.

WATCH: Late Bowman wreck shakes up field

The yellow put Harvick and fellow playoff drivers Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney in dire straits with respect to fuel, and all three came to pit road to gas up before the final restart in overtime on Lap 192. Busch held the lead until his car sputtered in Turn 4 on the final lap — after a multicar wreck in Turn 1 damaged the cars of playoff drivers Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr.

Almirola surged into the lead and took the checkered flag, leading his only lap of the afternoon.

With the runner-up finish, Bowyer climbed from outside the Round of 8 cutline to sixth in the playoff standings, 21 points to the good.

WATCH: Bowyer praises SHR teammates

“I was happy for Aric,” Bowyer said. “He had that race won last week (at Dover), and it was me that brought out the caution. I feel like he got a little redemption there.

“Was happy that we finished second.  I think it was second, second and second (in all three stages). As far as our day went, we needed to be a little bit better.”

Because of the late-race fuel shortage, Keselowski and Blaney enter next Sunday’s Round of 12 cutoff race at Kansas in ninth and 10th place, respectively. Keselowski, who finished 27th at Talladega, trails reigning series champion Martin Truex Jr. (23rd Sunday) by 18 points for the final spot in the Round of 8. Blaney, who ran 29th, is 22 points back.

Kyle Larson salvaged an 11th-place finish after a litany of issues, including a blown left-rear tire and spin on the backstretch, but Larson trails Truex by 26 points. Bowman, who finished 33rd after wrecking, can advance to the Round of 8 only by winning at Kansas.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished third on Sunday, followed by Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano, who solidified his claim to a Round of 8 berth with the fifth-place finish. Logano is 39 points ahead of Keselowski, his Team Penske teammate.

AJ Allmendinger ran sixth, followed by Jimmie Johnson, who recovered from a spin through the tri-oval grass and contact with the inside wall on Lap 62 to come home seventh. Erik Jones, Paul Menard and Regan Smith completed the top 10.

Posted on by Staff Report

Following the fifth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race, here’s a brief look at the playoffs picture. The 10-race postseason is exactly at the halfway point, and there is just one race remaining in the Round of 12 before the field is whittled to eight, with four drivers eliminated from the postseason following Kansas (Oct. 21).

Winner

Aric Almirola, who was in agony following last week’s blown opportunity at Dover, passed teammate Kurt Busch on the last lap after Busch ran out of gas and took his first checkered flag of 2018.

MORE: Full race results

Who’s hot

Stewart-Haas Racing. Yep, pick any driver. Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Aric Almirola and Clint Bowyer were collectively the class of the field Sunday, using pure horsepower and a unified strategy to control the entire race. Almirola won and Bowyer finished second — the only reason it wasn’t a 1-2-3-4 finish is because Harvick and Busch ran out of fuel.

Joey Logano. It was tough for anyone to keep up with the Stewart-Haas Racing Fords, including multi-time Talladega winner Logano. But Logano made veteran moves all race, avoided calamity at the end and held on for a top-five finish to jump to third in the standings.

RELATED: ‘We ruled the day’

Who’s not

Martin Truex Jr. Surprise, surprise. Truex Jr.’s Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota was off all day with a rear handling issue, running near the back most of the afternoon. A fortuitous late wreck is the only reason why Truex Jr. is not below the cutline with one race remaining in this round.

Kyle Larson. Larson’s solo spin following a tire issue on Lap 103 took him out of the lead pack and punctuated what had been a frustrating day for the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing group. While he rebounded back to the lead lap admirably (11th), the 26-year-old faces essentially a must-win situation at Kansas following his finish.

MORE: Updated playoff standings

BUBBLE WATCH

Rank Driver Points to cutoff
5. Joey Logano +39
6. Kurt Busch +30
7. Clint Bowyer +21
8. Martin Truex Jr. +18
————— CUT-OFF LINE —————
9. Brad Keselowski -18
10. Ryan Blaney -22
11. Kyle Larson -26
12. Alex Bowman -68

• Does not include Chase Elliott or Aric Almirola, who won at Dover and Talladega, respectively, to lock themselves into the Round of 8.

Next race

The Monster Energy Series travels to Kansas Speedway for a Sunday race on Oct. 21 (2 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). It is the final race in the Round of 12.

Who it favors

Ryan Blaney. The “Big 3” has collectively won the past five Kansas races, but Blaney’s numbers are nearly in the same echelon as those of Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. The Team Penske driver has three top-five finishes and has led 140 laps over the past five Kansas events. Yes, he wrecked out late this spring battling with Kyle Larson, but he also finished third in this race last year.

Who it hurts

Clint Bowyer. It is especially cruel to place Bowyer’s name here, considering Kansas is his home track. But the facility hasn’t been kind to the driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. He has started outside the top 30 in four of the past five Kansas races, and his one top-10 finish during that time frame is tied for worst with Alex Bowman among all playoff drivers.