Justin Haley won Friday night’s race at Texas Motor Speedway, punching his ticket to the Camping World Truck Series finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He joins Martinsville winner Johnny Sauter as the only two drivers locked into the Championship 4 on Nov. 16 (8 p.m., FS1). The field dwindles from six to four next weekend at ISM Raceway in Phoenix, Arizona.

Winner

Haley earned his third win of the season — and his Truck career — in the Lone Star State when late leader Todd Gilliland ran out of gas on the last lap, paving the path for the No. 24 driver to notch the victory. The win extends Haley’s impressive streak of consecutive top-10 results in the Truck Series to 12 straight, giving him ample momentum heading into Phoenix, and ultimately, the championship in Miami.

Who struggled

A lengthy pit stop and involvement in a wreck Friday derailed Noah Gragson’s night that began with a promising second-place starting position. Although the No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports driver finished 10th, Haley’s win put Gragson fourth in the playoff standings — the last spot above the cutline — heading into Phoenix.

“Just got to go into Phoenix with one goal in mind and that’s to win the race,” a disappointed Gragson told NASCAR.com in the garage. “I’m not worried about points, I’m just worried about winning the race, going to Homestead and competing for a championship. Just a bummer, bummer weekend. …

“I’m just over not winning. Need to get back in Victory Lane, we need that momentum. I have the team to do it, we’ve just got to execute, fire on all cylinders and mix it into these races up front and have track position and then just be able to contend for the win. I think we can do it; we definitely have the Safelite Autoglass Tundras capable. Just everything needs to fall into (place) and we just have to have the luck.”

Bubble Watch

Next race
The Camping World Truck Series heads to ISM Raceway on Nov. 9 (8:30 p.m. ET, FS1) for the penultimate race of the 2018 season.

Who’s in danger?
Gragson sits 18 points above the cutline heading into next week’s race, while Grant Enfinger and Matt Crafton are the two drivers below the cutline. Gragson’s outlook appears the best of the group, as he’s finished 16th and 15th, leading 55 laps in his most recent trip to Arizona despite a wreck. Though he has 11 career top 10s at Phoenix, Crafton has crashed in two of his last three races at Phoenix and only led 15 laps in 17 starts. His position in the standings also puts him in a precarious position. Enfinger crashed midway through his only Truck start at Phoenix, recording a 24th-place result.

Rank Driver Points to cutoff
1. Johnny Sauter WINNER
2. Justin Haley WINNER
3. Brett Moffitt +22
4. Noah Gragson +18
————— CUT-OFF LINE —————
5. Grant Enfinger -18
6. Matt Crafton -23

 

FORT WORTH, Tex. – Todd Gilliland’s heartbreak was serendipity for Justin Haley, who staked out his place in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship 4 race with a stunning victory Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway.

Gilliland was half a lap away from collecting his first series win in the JAG Metals 350 when his No. 4 Toyota sputtered on the backstretch and ran out of fuel. Haley, who was 1.3 seconds back on the white-flag lap, surged past Gilliland and crossed the finish line 8.133 seconds ahead of runner-up Ben Rhodes.

With his third victory of the season and his second in the Playoffs, Haley joined GMS Racing teammate Johnny Sauter for a chance to win the series title in the Nov. 16 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. That leaves two spots available to the remaining six competitors.

RELATED: Full results | Texas photos

“That was amazing,” the 19-year-old Haley said in Victory Lane. “I thought we had it lost there. I didn’t quite maximize my pit road (on the final green-flag stop)… This is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity. To get two Chevrolets—me and Johnny—back to back to Miami, that’s what we want.

“We’ve got a 50-percent chance of winning it.”

Gilliland took on one can of fuel when he came to pit road on Lap 115 of 147, and his team calculated—erroneously, as it turned out—that he had enough gas to go to Lap 150. Haley stopped under green seven laps later and was five seconds behind Gilliland when the pit sequence cycled out.

Haley gradually gained ground over the final 25 laps but would have run out of time had Gilliland not run out of fuel.

“I didn’t know we were close on fuel at all,” said Gilliland, who hit the wall in qualifying and had to start from the rear of the field after his team made unapproved adjustments to the truck. “It’s horrible. I’m incredibly disappointed. I still feel like we could have been faster if I hadn’t wrecked during qualifying.

“So many things… we win and lose as a team. But I’m super proud to be in that position, to be fighting for wins every now and then. I feel like we’re on the verge of being a competitor week-in and week-out. I think we’re getting there every week, and that’s what I’m really proud of, but at the same time, it really hurts.”

Gilliland rolled across the stripe in fourth place behind playoff driver Brett Moffitt, who holds third in the Playoff standings behind Sauter (last week’s winner at Martinsville) and Haley.

After a change in gear rules, Moffitt was running the crate NT-1 engine for the first time, in lieu of a Mark Cronquist-built Toyota engine.

“It’s different,” Moffitt said. “I wouldn’t say good, bad or either, but it’s certainly different… We lost a lot of track position, and it doesn’t matter what you have under the hood here at Texas, you’re not going to make up that many spots.

“We just have to execute a better race and move forward. It certainly helps to run good, but when you’re in the Playoffs like this, you have to get back to Victory Lane.”

Noah Gragson, who finished 10th, is the fourth in the Playoff standings, 18 points ahead of Grant Enfinger, who ran out of fuel on the final lap and finished 12th, and 23 ahead of two-time series champion Matt Crafton, who ran ninth.

Austin Hill scored a career-best fifth-place finish in his 49th NCWTS start.

Not involved in any high conflict during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup playoffs so far, veteran Kyle Busch seemed comfortable and at ease heading into Sunday’s AAA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The regular season champion and current championship leader — who holds a sizable 46-point lead on the field — was willing to offer his take on last week’s victory battle at Martinsville Speedway between Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr. But he was more eager to talk about his own game plan for a second Cup championship.

RELATED: Playoff standings

The “bump-and-run” used by Logano to get around Truex for the victory last weekend – and a berth in the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway – has dominated NASCAR social media channels, radio talk shows and television commentary. As for Busch, the 33-year old maintains he’d prefer not to be so aggressive, but acknowledged it is on a case-by-case basis and largely depends on who the other driver is.

“Overall, it’s just there’s certain guys and individuals that you can race that wouldn’t do those sorts of things,’’ Busch said, of the bump-and-run to win technique.

“Names that come to mind would be Jimmie Johnson, Martin Truex Jr. — that you can race with and battle with and do it cleanly. And there’s guys that you have names that you know are going to just flat out run into you on Lap 128 when they get to your rear bumper and move you out of the way in a 500-lap race. ‘OK, whatever dude.’

“It’s all about who it is. It’s their norm and if it’s their norm then you have to treat them back because it’s their norm. But when you do it back because you’re doing it to somebody that you know will do it then you’re now associated as being that kind of guy. How do you balance that? I don’t know.

“For instance, if it was me and Joey (Logano) and Joey flat out ran over me when he got to me at Martinsville, then when I go back on him the next time, am I just doing it because it’s Joey or am I doing it because it’s me? I would say I’m doing it because of who it is not that’s the way I want to do it.”

Busch has been known to go door-to-door throughout his 50-win Cup career. But the father of 3-year-old Brexton, the driver who spent Halloween handing out sponsor M&Ms candy to trick-or-treaters, concedes he may have mellowed. His path to the 2018 championship hasn’t included any major detours into full-on aggressive driving. Yet.

And the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota doesn’t necessarily consider the 1.5-mile Texas high banks a prime backdrop for that style of racing either.

“I think there’s opportunity to be aggressive here if you want to be aggressive, but there’s a lot of risk for reward at this place, especially on restarts with as slick as we’ve seen it be, as narrow as we’ve seen it be the last few years since the repave,’’ Busch explained.

“Depending on how the rubber application gets going here this weekend and how wide of a groove you kind of see between the Truck race and the Xfinity race leading into the Cup race, that kind of determines what all you should expect or how hard you feel like you can go on restarts. “

As for last week’s situation with Logano and Truex, specifically?

“Obviously I didn’t go back and rewatch it, but just remembering what I remember about it, the 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) worked hard for quite a few laps to make a move at Martinsville and at a short track as clean as he possibly could and just cleared a guy too soon and got run over through 3 and 4,’’ Busch said.

“With sometimes who you’re racing around, I guess you have to know what’s going to happen and expect that and try to plan for it, I guess. When you try to do too much planning, last time I checked, that’s not racing.”

Of more concern for Busch is another playoff win so he doesn’t have to points-race his way into the four-driver shot at a title. Of the drivers competing this weekend, only Jimmie Johnson (seven) has more wins than Busch’s three. He’s had seven top-five finishes in the last 10 races on the Fort Worth high banks and won here just this April.

“I’d like to think our odds are pretty good,’’ Busch said. “Obviously anything can happen. We won Martinsville last year and came here and had two flat tires in the race and we didn’t fare very well. You still have to have some luck on your side and have everything kind of go your way. It’s tough to rebound sometimes after a difficult start to a day or even if you have trouble later in the day it’s really difficult to rebound and get a good finish like you need.

“We’d love to be able to win and automatically lock ourselves through, but if that’s not the case then you just have to be smart and mindful of a good points day and try not to hurt yourself and minimize mistakes if some are made.”

 

FORT WORTH, Tex. – Ryan Blaney may have exited the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, but that doesn’t mean the desire to win has left the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford.

RELATED: See every car in the fieldQualifying results

Running the fastest lap of the day in the final round of Friday’s knockout qualifying session at Texas Motor Speedway, Blaney sped around the 1.5-mile track in 26.932 seconds (200.505 mph) to earn the top starting spot for Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

In winning his first Busch Pole Award at Texas, his third of the season and the fifth of his career, Blaney fell just short of the track record (26.877 seconds at 200.915 mph) set by Kurt Busch in November of last year. Nevertheless, Blaney’s lap in the money round was the second fastest ever run on a 1.5-mile intermediate speedway.

Blaney, who paced the first round but fell to eighth in the second, beat playoff driver Clint Bowyer (200.230 mph) by .037 seconds when it counted. Kevin Harvick (199.941 mph) qualified third, as Ford drivers swept the top five spots on the grid and seven of the top eight.

“We just seemed to get tighter round to round,” Blaney said. “We just kept freeing it up, and I messed up Round 2 pretty bad. I got really greedy in (Turn) 1 and drove in there too deep. So we freed it up even more, and I backed my entry up, and that helped it out …

“It felt really fast. That’s what you get with this nighttime qualifying. High speeds. Speeds pick up, and it has been cool here today. We’ve had a really good Ford all day, and it is nice to back it up in qualifying. It doesn’t mean a lot if you are fastest in practice and blow it in qualifying … I’m excited to see how it is in race trim in Saturday’s practice.”

With Aric Almirola qualifying fourth and Kurt Busch eighth, Stewart-Haas Racing placed all four of its drivers in the top seven, and all four are still in contention for the series championship. Brad Keselowski was fifth fastest, giving Team Penske two drivers in the top five.

Toyota driver Denny Hamlin was seventh with the only non-Ford in the top eight. Team Penske driver Joey Logano — already qualified for the Nov. 18 Championship 4 race at Homestead by virtue of last Sunday’s victory at Martinsville, was eighth quickest after topping the second round at 200.267 mph.

Playoff driver Martin Truex Jr. will start 13th on Sunday after Almirola bumped him out of the final round by .001 seconds.

“I got a little loose on Turn 3 in my last lap there,” Truex said. “If I didn’t mess that up, I probably would have been in. It’s a sensitive track, really fast. For whatever reason, we’ve been off qualifying since they redid this place.

“I haven’t quite figured out what I need for qualifying. In our race trim, we’ve been really good here. We’ll see. We’ll work harder on it (Saturday in practice) and see on Sunday.”

Chase Elliott, winner of two Playoff races, will start 16th. Ninth-place qualifier William Byron, Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, was the only Chevrolet driver to crack the top 12.

After three-plus seasons behind the wheel of the No. 6 Ford Fusion, Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN) will mark Trevor Bayne’s last scheduled start for Roush Fenway Racing.

The driver, who shocked the world in 2011 by winning the Daytona 500 in just his second career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start, commented on Instagram on Friday evening about his final race for his longtime organization.

MORE: Roush: Bayne will not return in 2019

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpscPOQA3Qp

Heading into Sunday, Bayne had amassed 16 top 10 finishes across 186 starts at NASCAR’s top level. After driving part-time for Wood Brothers Racing from 2010-14 — including his win in the “Great American Race” — the now-27-year-old joined RFR in 2015 and had been driving the No. 6 full time before sharing it with veteran Matt Kenseth this season.

Roush Fenway Racing announced last month that Ryan Newman, current driver of the No. 31 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, would drive the No. 6 in 2019.

MORE: Newman to drive No. 6 in 2019

Bayne has not announced any future plans at this time.

Team Penske driver and Ford stablemate Brad Keselowski sent Bayne some words of encouragement, as well.

Trackside Live is heading back to Texas Motor Speedway to help celebrate the NASCAR Playoffs tripleheader. The two shows will be at 6:45 p.m. ET Saturday, Nov. 3,  and 11:30 a.m. ET Sunday, Nov. 4.

WATCH: Trackside Live | MORE: Full Texas Schedule | Buy your tickets

Don’t miss your chance to meet your favorite drivers and get in on the playoff action!

FORT WORTH, Texas — The NASCAR Playoffs format places an emphasis on winning — even more so than the regular season.

Joey Logano knew that when he chose to bump Martin Truex Jr. for the win last Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. As he said when he emerged from his No. 22 Ford on the start-finish line, it was all about advancing to the title race at Miami.

Gone are the days when drivers will cruise in 25th to clinch the championship — or sealing the title with 2 races left in the season. Every champion since the playoff format was enacted in 2014 has won the title by winning at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“… You are in the playoffs and have an opportunity to lock yourself into the Championship 4. You don’t know what is going to happen the next two races,” Logano said Friday at Texas Motor Speedway.

“Some fans love it and some don’t. Either way you are going to have plenty of questions afterward. If you don’t do it, they want to know why you didn’t do it. If you do it, half are happy and half aren’t. I am not here to make everyone happy. I am here to do my job for my race team…”

MORE: Truex, Logano on Martinsville finish

Several drivers were critical of Logano’s move, but many understood his thought process; he didn’t have the speed of Martin Truex Jr. and thought Martinsville was his best bet to advance to the Championship 4. It’s the nature of the playoffs; No. 18 crew chief Adam Stevens told NASCAR.com that “You’re going to see desperation rear its ugly head on occasion” in these types of situations with so much on the line.

It begs the question, does the NASCAR Playoffs format make full-contact moments the “new norm” by compelling drivers – especially those who haven’t been as dominant – to go for the win, no matter what it takes?

“I certainly feel for Martin, but I can understand Joey’s standpoint,” former playoff driver Erik Jones told NASCAR.com Friday. “If I’m Martin, I’m mad; but if I’m Joey, it’s your ticket to Homestead. And I think Joey looked at it as if he didn’t win that race, he was going to have a tough time to make it to the final four. They haven’t had enough speed probably to win the next two races or even pointing their way in was going to be challenging.

“So, he saw his window and had to do what he felt like he had to do. I think most drivers would have made a similar move and I think Martin at times would have made that move in certain situations.

“It’s a tough spot, but it’s racing and Martinsville and this format is going to make you make those kind of moves to get to Homestead.”

Based on the NASCAR community’s reaction to Logano’s maneuver, the debate of “to bump or not to bump” is usually more gray than black-and-white. Sometimes it just depends on who the other competitor is.

But even that is complicated.

“There (are) certain guys and individuals that you can race that wouldn’t do those sorts of things,” Kyle Busch said. “Names that come to mind would be Jimmie Johnson, Martin Truex Jr. that you can race with and battle with and do it cleanly and there’s guys that you have names that you know are going to just flat out run into you on Lap 128 when they get to your rear bumper and move you out of the way in a 500-lap race. OK, whatever dude.

“It’s all about who it is. It’s their norm and if it’s their norm then you have to treat them back because it’s their norm, but when you do it back because you’re doing it to somebody that you know will do it then you’re now associated as being that kind of guy. How do you balance that? I don’t know. For instance, if it was me and Joey (Logano) and Joey flat out ran over me when he got to me at Martinsville then when I go back on him the next time, am I just doing it because it’s Joey or am I doing it because it’s me.

“I would say I’m doing it because of who it is not that’s the way I want to do it.”

Truex Jr. solidified Busch’s theory and reinforced his initial post-Martinsville reaction minutes later during his own media availability, saying “if you get in a certain situation where it would be wise to remember what happened, that’s there.”

“I try to do things the right way. I try to race the way I want to be raced. Sometimes I get taken advantage of because of that. At the end of the day, I know when I beat a guy, it’s because I outdrove him and didn’t run into him. That’s my way of thinking and some people disagree with it. Some people think it’s perfectly fine to knock a guy out of the way to get a win. My opinion, it’s not. We all think differently. It’s the not the way I have ever done it. Whether it’s Go-Karts or Modified cars. No matter what it was, that’s the way I was taught to race.

“You race fair. You race clean and you race as hard as you can straight up. I can say that every single win I have had, I earned it. That’s just the way it is.”

WATCH: Truex gets candid on Martinsville finish

To Truex’s point, everyone’s different. And at the end of the day, it’s the NASCAR Playoffs. It’s intense, promotes aggression and it all boils down to winning. Some drivers take liberties with that and some remain true to their own moral code. Some fans and drivers condemned Logano’s move and some applauded it.

But no one can deny the format makes these last few races way more exciting to watch.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – “Over The Edge at ONE DAYTONA” got a little edgier than planned on Friday, only adding to the adventure for that ol’ thrill seeker Rusty Wallace. Winds in the 20-mph range made rappelling down the side of the eight-story, 102-foot International Motorsports Center a bit more interesting.

Wallace wasn’t fazed, which should surprise no one. His inherent nerve notwithstanding, the former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion was participating in his third “OTE” to raise money for charity. He rappelled last year here, then provided an encore at a recent OTE event in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Guess you could say he’s leading the points.

RELATED: Photos from Charlotte event

Wallace was the big name in town for a big day, the second annual Over the Edge at ONE DAYTONA that benefited The NASCAR Foundation and Easterseals Northeast Central Florida, toward providing health care services in the Daytona Beach area for children in need. Funds are raised by rappellers (approximately $125,000 this week), who find sponsors to support their bravery. Wallace, a longtime foundation board member, was in his element.

When Betty Jane France (the late founder of The NASCAR Foundation) invited me to be on the Foundation’s board back in 2006, I jumped on it,” Wallace said. “I’ve just had a great time with the foundation. We’ve raised a lot of money for kids. We’ve raised more than $500,000 thus far rappelling. The Foundation has always been something that’s close to my heart. I think we’re doing a lot of great things for children.

“And I hope we keep doing Over the Edge. This is one of the coolest fundraisers we’ve done. We do a lot of great fundraisers for The NASCAR Foundation but this is one of them that’s at the top of the heap.”

Rusty Wallace goes Over the Edge at Daytona

Wallace, a NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee who also was named one of NASCAR 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998, was joined by fellow high-profile rappellers like Bev Johnson, president and CEO of Easterseals Northeast Central Florida; Sheryl Cook of Ormond Beach, who led all fundraising at last year’s Over the Edge at ONE DAYTONA, with $12,000 in donations; Daytona Beach Police Chief Craig Capri and Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood; and 14-year-old Daniel Dye of Deland, an aspiring race car driver who recently got his first victory in a full-size stock car at New Smyrna Speedway.

“We get such great support from the community which has really embraced The NASCAR Foundation and Easterseals of Northeast Central Florida,” said The NASCAR Foundation Executive Director Nichole Krieger.

“We have community leaders here, we have sponsors, we have fans … and we have what you can call ‘everyday heroes’ who are going over the edge to support kids. And we are so lucky to have Rusty Wallace on our board. He is a real champion of children, always ready to help us out. So when we call him and ask him if he’ll go off the top of a tall building, he just says, ‘Sure, why not? It’s for the kids. I’m happy to help.’ ”

While Friday spotlighted recognizable rappellers like Wallace and various community leaders, Over the Edge at ONE DAYTONA continues on Saturday, with the general public invited to participate. Registered participants must raise a minimum of $1,000 in donations to earn a spot in the rappelling lineup.

Ryan Blaney led a plethora of Fords atop the leaderboard at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday when he was fastest in the weekend’s first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series after logging a lap at 198.976 mph in his No. 12 Team Penske Ford.

Five more Fords — all driven by NASCAR Playoff drivers preparing for the second race of the Round of 8 — filled out six of the top seven spots. The practice was the first for Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Full practice results

Playoff drivers and Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Kevin Harvick (198.456 mph) and Kurt Busch (198.136 mph) were second and third on the leaderboard, respectively. Non-playoff driver Denny Hamlin drove his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota fourth-fastest at 198.136 mph. SHR’s Aric Almirola rounded out the top five in the No. 10 Ford at 197.904 mph.

Other playoff drivers and their finishes included: Joey Logano, sixth; Clint Bowyer, seventh; Kyle Busch, 11th; Martin Truex Jr., 17th; and Chase Elliott, 18th.

No. 99 Kyle Weatherman served a practice hold at the conclusion of practice for being late to post-qualifying/pre-race inspection in Martinsville.

The Monster Energy Series returns to the track at 7 p.m. ET for Busch Pole Qualifying (NBCSN/NBC Sports App).

Editor’s note: The renderings in this article are preliminary in nature.

Chevrolet announced Friday at Texas Motor Speedway that it will have an updated Camaro SS Coupe in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2019, and a new Silverado in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series.

It will be the third time the Camaro SS has been updated since its competition debut in 2013, and the first time since 2014 the Silverado has been redesigned for the Truck Series.

This year also marked the first of Chevrolet running the Camaro in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

“We always want to align our racing vehicles with what is available in the showroom,” Chevrolet Vice President of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports Jim Campbell said in a press release. “The Camaro SS was updated for the 2019 model year, and Silverado RST is all new. We can’t wait to see the Camaro SS and the Silverado RST on the track next February at Daytona.”

2019 xfinity camaro renderingThe most notable changes to both the Xfinity Series 2019 Chevrolet Camaro SS and Gander Outdoors Series Chevrolet Silverado are the upper front fascia, fenders, hood and tail regions, which reflect the look of the all-new production models.

Camaro SS, which made its on-track debut with a win at Daytona International Speedway in February 2013, has visited Victory Lane 67 times, ranking it third among Chevy nameplates that have competed in the Xfinity Series.

Additionally, Camaro SS has earned three Bill France Performance Cup manufacturer championships and three drivers’ championships (Austin Dillon, Chase Elliott and William Byron). With three races remaining in the 2019 season, Chevrolet leads the manufacturer points and has the top three drivers in the standings.

2019 gander outdoor silverado renderingSilverado is the only nameplate Chevrolet has campaigned in the Truck series since the inaugural race 23 years ago. Since then, Silverado has delivered 231 race wins, eight Manufacturers’ Championships and 12 Drivers’ Championships, making it the most successful truck to compete in the series.

With three races remaining in the 2018 season, Silverado drivers have collected 10 wins and Chevrolet leads both the Manufacturer Standings and Johnny Sauter leads the Driver Standings.