Posted on by Team Release

CONCORD, N.C. (August 23, 2016) – Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing (CSLFR) has announced that Sam Hornish Jr. will fill in for Michael McDowell on Friday and Saturday during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race weekend at Michigan International Speedway.  

McDowell is scheduled to race in the NASCAR XFINITY Series at Road America for Richard Childress Racing on Friday and Saturday. He will then travel to Michigan International Speedway and drive the No. 95 Thrivent Financial Chevrolet on Sunday in the Pure Michigan 400 for Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Sitting alongside XFINITY Series wheelman Brennan Poole, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver John Hunter Nemechek was questioned — by an audience full of excited children — about pizza.


That’s right, pizza and not just any pizza, but his favorite kind.


“I’d have to go with pepperoni,” Nemechek, the NEMCO Motorsports driver explained. “You can throw a little bit of pineapple in that and make it a little bit sweet tasting …”


But pizza toppings weren’t the only sweet things Nemechek was talking about Monday at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in uptown Charlotte.


The NASCAR National Series Tracks revealed, starting in 2017, children 12 and under can receive free admittance to all NASCAR XFINITY Series and Camping World Truck Series races, with each track setting guidelines for the program.


The announcement, met by loud cheers, was made during NASCAR’s first all-kids press conference streamed via a Facebook Live event.


“There really is no other experience like attending a NASCAR race in person, and that’s especially true for kids,” NASCAR Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Jill Gregory said in a press release. “So many children become lifelong NASCAR fans because their parents brought them to their first race, and this new ticket offering makes it even more affordable for families to create memories that will last a lifetime.”


Poole talked about just how special this NASCAR movement is, all while reminiscing.


“I’m excited about it. I remember being a young kid and a being fan so to create this opportunity for you guys to come in there and watch us race for free, I think is really special. …


“Some of the best memories for me as a kid were going to the races with my dad and … they’re all just special moments that I remember as a kid, spending time with my dad and watching racing and doing something that we love to do together.”


Young fans, however, don’t have to wait till 2017’s season opener at Daytona International Speedway to enjoy special perks. NASCAR also kicked off Kids Drive NASCAR — a week-long, youth initiative leading up to this weekend’s Camping World Truck Series event at Michigan International Speedway and the XFINITY Series thriller at Road America.


The Kids Drive initiative includes opportunities for kids, not only online, but at the track to have activities and programming.

 

“NASCAR Hammer Down” host Karsyn Elledge — niece of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and daughter of Kelley Earnhardt Miller — and NASCAR Next drivers Todd Gilliland and Harrison Burton capped off the event.

 

All three cheered the movement, and Elledge even plans to “bring my little brother” to next year’s events. 

 

You can watch Poole at Road America (Saturday at 3 p.m. ET, NBCSN) wheeling the No. 48 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet while Nemechek will be at Michigan (Saturday at 1 p.m. ET, FS1) in the No. 8 Chevy. 

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RELATED: Full race results | Driver standings | Chase Grid

Breaking down the full field for the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway:

1. Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. This says it all about Harvick’s second win at Bristol: In 112 Cup races at the track, only four winners started farther back in the field than Harvick’s 24th (Elliott Sadler, 38th, 2001; Dale Earnhardt Jr., 30th, 2004; Kurt Busch, 27th, 2002; Dale Earnhardt, 26th, 1999). Grade: A++

2. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Stenhouse overcame a pit-road speeding penalty to tie his career-best finish, which also came at Bristol (2014). In fact, half of Stenhouse’s six career top-five finishes have come at Bristol. Grade: A+

3. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. It was a day of eighths for Hamlin: His eighth top five of the season and his eighth pit-road speeding penalty. He also had to make an unscheduled stop for a loose wheel that put him two laps down. Nice recovery, but he absolutely has to stick a fork in those pit-road speeding penalties before the Chase begins. Grade: A-

4. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Dillon just avoided the big wreck on Lap 373 to post his first top five since Talladega in May. Also important: Dillon moved up two spots in the Chase standings to 13th, passing Ryan Newman and Chase Elliott. Grade: A

5. Chris Buescher, No. 34 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. Huge day for Buescher, who gets his second career top five — both in the past three races — and moves into the top 30 in points for the first time this season. Grade: A+

6. Carl Edwards, No. 19 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Debris piercing the right front of his car couldn’t stop Edwards from getting his 14th top 10 of the season, one fewer than he had all of 2015. Grade: A

7. Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Hard to believe, but Johnson’s finish was only his second top 10 in the past 10 races. Grade: A

8. Jamie McMurray, No. 1 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. McMurray’s Chase radar is on max. He’s 15th in the Chase standings after his fourth top 10 in the past six races. Grade: A

9. AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Chevrolet, JTG Daugherty Racing. Allmendinger posts back-to-back top 10s for the second time this season, the first time he has had multiple back-to-back top-10 finishes in a season in his Sprint Cup career. Grade: A

10. Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford, Team Penske. We don’t have the space to list all the issues Logano and the No. 22 had to overcome Sunday. This top 10 was hard earned and well deserved. Grade: A

11. Jeff Gordon, No. 88 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. In the 801st and possibly final start of his career, Gordon gets his best finish in his fourth race as Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s sub. Grade: B

12. Trevor Bayne, No. 6 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Bayne jumped over Kyle Larson in the standings and picked up ground on Ryan Newman, who leads Bayne by 35 points for the last spot in the Chase with three races to go before the field is set. Grade: B

13. Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. With Chris Buescher entering the top 30, Kahne went from 11 points behind 16th place in the Chase standings to 39 points back. Grade: B

14. Aric Almirola, No. 43 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. Almirola posted his best finish of the season since finishing 13th in Week 4 at Phoenix. Grade: B

15. Chase Elliott, No. 24 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Elliott’s promising day took a hit when he was collected in the big wreck on Lap 373. On the flip side, he led 14 laps, his first laps led since Week 15 at Michigan. Grade: B

16. Greg Biffle, No. 16 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. A miscommunication over the radio that resulted in an unscheduled green-flag pit stop didn’t help matters. Grade: B-

17. Matt DiBenedetto, No. 83 Toyota, BK Racing. DiBenedetto posted the second-best finish of his young career despite being down three laps at one point because of a tire issue. His best finish? Sixth at Bristol in April. Grade: A

18. Brian Scott, No. 44 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. Scott turned in his second-best finish of the season (12th at Fontana in Week 5). Grade: A

19. Michael McDowell, No. 95 Chevrolet, Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing. McDowell finishes in the top 20 in consecutive races for the first time in his 201-race Cup career. Grade: A

20. Landon Cassill, No. 38 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. Cassill finished 22nd in April to tie his best finish at Bristol. Sunday, he topped that. Grade: A

21. David Ragan, No. 23 Toyota, BK Racing. Ragan avoided disaster with a great evasive maneuver down low to avoid a spinning Kyle Busch on Lap 358. Grade: B

22. Danica Patrick, No. 10 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Patrick finished 22nd for the third time in the past four races. Her other finish in that stretch: 21st two weeks ago at Watkins Glen. Grade: C

23. Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Toyota, Furniture Row Racing. Bad luck found Truex again. He was running third on Lap 358 when he was collected in a wreck caused by Kyle Bush’s spin and the No. 78 suffered heavy damage. His average running position of 9.6 was fifth best. Grade: A-

24. Kyle Larson, No. 42 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Larson had an eventful day, and that’s not code for a great day. A pit-road speeding penalty, cut oil line, three on-track incidents (neither his fault) and untimely tire rub totally erased the benefit of having a super-fast car. Grade: B-

25. Casey Mears, No. 13 Chevrolet, Germain Racing. Mears has one top 10 in 28 starts at Bristol giving him the lowest top-10 percentage among active drivers with at least 15 Cup starts at the track. Grade: C

26. Regan Smith, No. 7 Chevrolet, Tommy Baldwin Racing. Smith brought out the third caution when he got into the wall on Lap 157; attrition enabled him to post a top-30 finish. Grade: C-

27. Reed Sorenson, No. 55 Chevrolet, Premium Motorsports. Sorenson tied Regan Smith for the fewest green-flag passes with six. Grade: C-

28. Ryan Newman, No. 31 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Pit-road penalties and tire problems carried (dropped?) the day. Still, Newman is 16th in the Chase standings with a 35-point cushion over Trevor Bayne with three races to go. Grade: D

29. Jeffrey Earnhardt, No. 32, Go Fas Racing Ford. Earnhardt improved three spots from his debut at Bristol in April. Grade: C-

30. Tony Stewart, No. 14 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. We’ll let Tony sum up his final start at Bristol: “We had a wheel that was loose, and that messed our whole day up.” Perhaps, but owner Tony got a win and was part of a double burnout with winner Kevin Harvick. Grade: D

31. Clint Bowyer, No. 15 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. A broken brake rotor put Bowyer into the wall on Lap 416. Grade D

32. Paul Menard, No. 27 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Menard was running in the top 10 when he got caught up in the aftermath of Kurt Busch‘s spin and his car sustained a punctured radiator when he ran into Chase Elliott. That’s Bristol. Grade: C-

33. Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Ford, Team Penske. Keselowski was running third when Kurt Busch got loose in front of him, turned and Keselowski hit him hard. Keselowski had run among the leaders until the accident on Lap 373. Grade: C

34. Cole Whitt, No. 98 Chevrolet, Premium Motorsports. The No. 98 spent time in the garage, and Whitt finished 58 laps off the pace. Grade: D

35. Ryan Blaney, No. 21 Ford, Wood Brothers Racing. Blaney was caught up in the Kurt Busch wreck. As cars checked up, Blaney slammed into Matt Kenseth, who had been turned by Chase Elliott. Blaney returned to the track, but when the day ended he had little to show for a top-five starting spot. Grade: C

36. Josh Wise, No. 30 Chevrolet, The Motorsports Group. Wise completed 416 laps, his fewest at Bristol since 2012, his rookie season. Grade: F

37. Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. A so-so day at Bristol became a no-no day when Kenseth was collected in the Kurt Busch wreck. Since a four-race run of 1st, 13th, 3rd and 1st, Kenseth has now gone 42nd, 36th and 37th. That’s Bristol, too. Grade: C

38. Kurt Busch, No. 41 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Finally we come to the driver who miscalculated his move “by a few inches”and ignited the wreck on Lap 373 that collected 10 other cars. Busch later tweeted, “Tasted the checkers, pushed too hard too soon.” No argument here. Busch had completed every lap run this season until Sunday. Grade: F

39. Kyle Busch, No. 18 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Busch led a race-high 256 laps and owned the day until something broke in his car (his team will hear about that on Tuesday, he said). The No. 18 went into a soft spin, but it was met with a hard hit by Justin Allgaier that left Busch with his third DNF in his past four races at Bristol, all for crashes. Grade: C-

40. Justin Allgaier, No. 46 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. Subbing for Michael Annett (flu-like symptoms), Allgaier made his first Sprint Cup start of the season one day after finishing second in the XFINITY Series race at Bristol. Two days later he earned the wrath of Kyle Busch for plowing into him when Busch spun out on Lap 358. That’s the high and lows of Bristol. Grade: F



Posted on by Staff Report

With the start of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup only one month away, several Sprint Cup Series teams will try to get a leg up on the competition at Chicagoland Speedway this week by taking part in an organizational test for the series.
 
Thirteen teams are tentatively scheduled to make the trek to the 1.5-mile track for the two-day test initially scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, Aug. 23-24. Because of weather in the area, the test was adjusted to an all day session on Tuesday running into the night. Drivers expected to be on hand are:

— Jamie McMurray (Chip Ganassi Racing No. 1 Chevrolet)
— Kevin Harvick (Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet)
— Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Roush Fenway Racing No. 17 Ford)—Trevor Bayne filled in so Stenhouse could attend Bryan Clauson’s services
— Kyle Busch (Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota)
— Ryan Blaney (Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Ford)
— Joey Logano (Team Penske No. 22 Ford)
— David Ragan (BK Racing No. 23 Ford)
— Ryan Newman (Richard Childress Racing No. 31 Chevrolet)
— Chris Buescher (Front Row Motorsports No. 34 Ford)
— Brian Scott (Richard Petty Motorsports No. 44 Ford)
— Michael Annett (HScott Motorsports No. 46 Chevrolet)
— Jimmie Johnson (Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet)
— Michael McDowell (Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing No. 95 Chevrolet)
 
Chicagoland is scheduled to host the opening Chase race, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400, on Sunday, Sept. 18 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
 
That the test will be held so close to the race date “is huge,” said six-time series champion Jimmie Johnson.
 
“To be on the track in close proximity when we go back and race, we obviously have a lot going on just as all teams do trying to gear up and get ready for the Chase,” he said.
 
Johnson has 14 career starts at the 1.5-mile track, but it is one of four — along with Watkins Glen, Homestead and Kentucky — where he has yet to win.
 
“We have all these great machines that simulate on-track activity at the shop but until you take it to the race track and put it to use you have no idea if it’s really paying off,” he said. “So we’re looking to validate quite a few things and hopefully we get sunshine and really true conditions to what we’ll see when we come back for the race.”
 
The Chicago test is the fourth of five organizational tests for Sprint Cup Series teams this season. The remaining test is scheduled at Homestead Miami Speedway on Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 18-19.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Watch the live stream here | Bristol results


NASCAR.com will live stream post-race inspection Tuesday from 8-11:30 a.m. ET at the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina.


Tune in for a three-hour view of the inspection floor of the 61,000-square-foot shop, bringing you behind the scenes as NASCAR officials tear down and inspect Sprint Cup Series vehicles following Sunday’s rain-delayed race at Bristol Motor Speedway.


The two cars selected for further evaluation at the R&D Center this week are:


— The No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet of race winner Kevin Harvick
— The No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford of race runner-up Ricky Stenhouse Jr.


For more details about the inspection process, click here.

Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Aug. 22, 2016) — NASCAR today announced exclusively via Facebook Live that beginning in 2017, kids ages 12 and younger will be admitted free to all NASCAR XFINITY Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races.


The announcement was made during an all-kids press conference hosted at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C. The press conference also kicked off Kids Drive NASCAR, a week-long, youth initiative leading up to this weekend’s national series races at Michigan International Speedway and Road America.


“There really is no other experience like attending a NASCAR race in person, and that’s especially true for kids,” said Jill Gregory, NASCAR senior vice president and chief marketing officer. “So many children become lifelong NASCAR fans because their parents brought them to their first race, and this new ticket offering makes it even more affordable for families to create memories that will last a lifetime.”


Many race tracks already have in place a bevy of offerings geared towards youth, including youth autograph sessions, youth garage tours, kids’ clubs and designated kids’ zones. Numerous tracks also have employed various ticket platforms focused on youth, but this new program marks the first time where tracks will institute a consistent offer wherever NASCAR XFINITY Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races take place.


Beginning in 2017, the number of complimentary tickets available for children 12 and younger will vary from venue to venue for every adult ticket purchased. Specific track policies and procedures, including sections in which the tickets are offered, will still apply and may differ for each track as well in an effort to welcome and accommodate as many families as possible.


This program is another example of NASCAR-sanctioned tracks improving the at-track experience with the ultimate goal of delivering additional value and an unparalleled live-event experience for NASCAR fans.


“NASCAR Hammer Down” host Karsyn Elledge, and NASCAR Next drivers Todd Gilliland and Harrison Burton helped announce the program during Monday’s kids-only press conference, the first in a series of industry events and activities that will celebrate Kids Drive NASCAR week.


For the latest Kids Drive NASCAR news and content, fans can visit NASCAR.com and follow NASCAR on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.


Be sure to tune-in when the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series hits the track this weekend at Michigan International Speedway for the Pure Michigan 400 on Sunday, Aug. 28 at 2 p.m. ET on NBCSN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and MRN. 

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Noted road-course racer Dan Gurney won the event and Marvin Panch finished second to give Wood Brothers Racing a 1-2 finish in the Motor Trend 500 at Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway.

 

The name of the fellow who climbed aboard the car in Greenville, South Carolina, however, has been lost in the mists of time.

 

Say what?

 

The year was 1964 and crew chief Leonard Wood, along with brother Ray, was transporting Panch’s No. 21 Ford across the country, returning from Riverside to the team’s shop in Stuart, Virginia.

 

After a brief stop for dinner in Greenville, the two resumed their journey, planning one more stop in Charlotte, North Carolina.

 

“People were standing around the car, it was 20 degrees,” Leonard Wood told NASCAR.com regarding the brief break for a quick meal just across the South Carolina state line. “Normally you’d stop and talk to them a little bit but it was so cold we just jumped in the truck, pulled away and left.”

 

The first sign that the two had picked up an uninvited passenger, Wood said, came about halfway between Greenville and Charlotte when their truck “started making this noise and we couldn’t figure out what it was.”

 

“Ray said ‘You can even feel it in the roof. It’s vibrating the roof!’ ” Leonard Wood recalled.

 

Initially, Wood said he thought the loud vibration was the result of a jet aircraft, “so I’m looking around to see if I could see an airport,” he said.

 

Neither crewman realized the vibration was coming from the race car, and the engine being revved wide open. But the noise soon stopped so the pair continued on up the road, unaware that a none-too-sober gentleman had climbed inside the race car back in Greenville during the food stop.

 

When they arrived in Charlotte for one final stop, Wood said the noise and vibration had resumed. And this time he realized it wasn’t coming from any aircraft. It was coming from the race car on the back of the open truck.

 

“I looked in the side mirror when we got off the highway and I saw steam coming out the exhausts of the race car,” he said. “I knew something was wrong and I told Ray to stop this thing.

 

“I saw what looked like a person in the car behind the wheel and I thought, ‘Man, one of the crew members is trying to pull a trick on me.’ Of course I bypassed that thought immediately because I thought ‘There’s no one on the crew that’s going to be stupid enough to get in that car as cold as it is.’

 

“I look in there and this guy’s got Marvin’s helmet on. I said ‘What do you think you’re doing in here?’ and he said ‘Let’s go!’ “

 

In the meantime, Ray Wood had gotten out of the truck, still unaware of the inebriated passenger. With help from Leonard they attempted to pull the unwanted fellow from behind the wheel.

 

“I said ‘We’ll let you go in a minute,’ grabbed ahold of him and jerked him out,” Leonard said. “He got his foot hung and was hollering and squalling. We turned him loose and he just settled back in there and got comfortable again. He had a little bit to keep him warm, liquid wise.”

 

As fate would have it, a local law enforcement officer happened by and stopped to see what was going on. After explaining the situation, the officer gave the “would-be racer” another ride — this one in the back of a patrol car.

 

Panch, who would go on to win three times that season for the Wood Brothers, had told Leonard after finishing second at Riverside that the motor had been about to blow near the end of the race.

 

“When I got home,” Wood said, “I said, ‘Marvin, that thing was good for another 100 miles!’

 

“But the funniest thing is Glen (Wood, team founder) had passed us in the station wagon and didn’t see the man in there.

 

“If he had, he would have had a heart attack.”

Posted on by Nascar

RELATED: Race results | Updated Chase Grid | Driver standings


BRISTOL, Tenn. – Chris Buescher took another important step toward earning a berth in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, garnering a hard-fought fifth-place finish in Sunday’s rain-delayed Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

It was the second top-five finish of the season for the 23-year old driver of the No. 34 Ford for Front Row Motorsports, and came just three weeks after his first career win in the series.

That win, which came at Pocono Raceway, opened the door for a Chase berth but only if the 2015 XFINITY Series champion could make his way into the top 30 in points.

The finish at Bristol did just that, vaulting him past David Ragan and into 30th place. Teammate Landon Cassill sits 29th, 27 points ahead.

RELATED: How the Chase bubble looks post-Bristol
“I don’t know exactly where we’re at quite yet, but I know we had to get there,” Buescher said on pit road after his top-five finish. “That’s Chase eligibility in one race out of the four we had to do it. Now we have to hold onto it.”

Sunday’s event, the continuation of a race that started Saturday night but was interrupted after just 48 laps due to rain, was also impacted by weather, starting more than three hours late. Kevin Harvick, the 2014 series champion, won, with Ricky Stenhouse (Roush Fenway Racing), Denny Hamlin (Joe Gibbs Racing), Austin Dillon (Richard Childress Racing) and Buescher completing the top five.

The overnight delay didn’t seem to impact the performance of Buescher and his team. After running inside the top 20 for most of the race, Buescher finally cracked the top 10 with 125 laps of the 500-lap race remaining. From there, he steadily worked his way into the top five.

“I’m really proud of this team,” he said. “… We knew Bristol would be a good one for us. It took us a day later to do it, but we got ourselves a top-five and had a blast out here. That was an awesome run.”

Buescher has only a brief history at Bristol in Sprint Cup competition, finishing 25th here in last year’s spring race and 21st earlier this season. In the XFINITY Series, he posted three top 10s in five starts.

“I love Bristol. I absolutely love this race track.”

With five laps to go, Buescher had closed on Dillon when his team told him, “You’ve got room; try him if you can.” Another position would mean another point earned. Buescher said the risk of losing spots should he make a run at the RCR driver wasn’t a concern.

“I wasn’t planning on messing up if I got next to him,” he said. “It was one of those things where we could catch him and then mess up a corner and get a little bit of gap, and then we got back to him there.

“I think the 19 (of Carl Edwards) and someone else was behind us, and they were within a couple car-lengths, so I didn’t want to go to the bottom and give those two cars a chance to pass us and lose two points that easily.”

With a precarious points position and three races remaining to determine the full 16-team Chase field, Buescher says the team’s plan of attack won’t be altered by what could go wrong in those races, either. It’s what should go right that matters.

“We came to Bristol knowing that we had speed, that we love this race track, and it was a good chance for us to go out and have an awesome run,” he said, “and that’s exactly what we were able to do.

“Points will fall however they will. You can’t focus on them too much because you lose sight of what the main goal is, and that’s to go out and win races.”


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RELATED: Full race results | Driver standings | Chase Grid

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Austin Dillon didn’t think his team had a winning car this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway.


His performance on the track begged to differ, as Dillon powered his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet to the front, battling eventual race winner Kevin Harvick for the lead before earning a solid fourth-place result in Sunday’s rain-delayed event at the short track. Coupled with his victory in the XFINITY Series race at Bristol Friday night, Dillon’s weekend in the Appalachian Mountains turned into his best combined series effort he’s seen all season.


But he and his team had to fight for it.


“We had a car that we had to really work on all day,” a red-faced and worn-out-looking Dillon said on pit road after the race. “I tell you what, my butt’s kicked right now. We just had to really fight hard early in the race, we about went a lap down and they made good adjustments to put us back in the race.


“Proud of (crew chief) Slugger (Labbe), proud of my pit crew – they really stepped up and that means a lot getting ready to what we’re going into.”


After restarting third at Lap 450, the 26-year-old driver moved into the second position behind Harvick three quick laps later, putting Dillon in position to challenge the No. 4 driver for the lead. The No. 3 wheelman fought to overtake Harvick for eight laps, looking for momentum in the inside lane.


He made it look effortless, but Dillon assures it was anything but.


“I was really proud of that little short run we had on the bottom,” Dillon said. “Harvick was pretty loose and I got to his door. Just didn’t have enough to really do much on the top. (I was) holding on for my dear life there at the end.”


Sitting 13th in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings, Dillon finds himself in a relatively comfortable points position with three races remaining until the playoffs begin.


But Dillon & Co. aren’t just looking for “good points days”– they’re looking for a win. That long-waited victory could very well come next weekend at Michigan International Speedway.


“I’m racing like I’m in the playoffs right now, for sure,” Dillon said. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do. Really looking forward to Michigan, probably my best track, so hopefully we can go win one and not have to worry about it for two weeks.”


Crew chief Slugger Labbe also has his sights set on the Irish Hills, having circled it following the team’s 13th-place run at Pocono in August.


“Last time at Michigan we ran extremely well with the low downforce package,” Labbe told NASCAR.com on pit road. “We’re taking the same car back that we had at Pocono that ran extremely well at Pocono battling for the lead against Kyle Larson … so we’re just hoping for big things.


“After Pocono, he was kind of mad that we didn’t finish at good as we wanted so I told everyone on this team to make sure we circle Michigan and that’s the one we’re going to win. So, we’re going to shoot really hard for it, prepare, do the best we can and give it our best shot at Michigan.”

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: See the full Chase Grid


Here’s a breakdown of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Grid and bubble picture after Sunday’s Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

BUESCHER’S STANDING

Chris Buescher vaulted into the top 30 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings with a resounding fifth-place finish in the rain-delayed 500-lapper. Crossing the top-30 plateau ticked off the final requirement for postseason eligibility, coupling it with his breakthrough Sprint Cup victory earlier in the month at Pocono Raceway. Sunday’s effort hands the Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate a 13-point cushion over 31st-ranked David Ragan, who finished 21st Sunday. Buescher will need to maintain or improve his spot in the top 30 to give his Front Row Motorsports team its first Chase appearance.


LOCKED IN

Drivers who have clinched a spot in the Chase are: Brad Keselowski, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin (all with multiple wins), along with one-win drivers Kurt Busch, Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr. After Sunday’s 500-lapper, three regular-season races (Michigan, Darlington, Richmond) remain before the postseason field is set.


WIN, BASICALLY IN

Tony Stewart endured an extended stay behind the wall for a mechanical issue, finishing 29 laps down in 30th place. The Sonoma winner sits 27th in Sprint Cup points with a comfortable cushion on a top 30 spot. With Stewart’s stature and Buescher’s newfound Chase status, just four at-large spots (at present) for non-winners remain up for grabs based on drivers’ positioning in the standings. Here’s how that picture looks post-Bristol.


BUBBLE WATCH


Editor’s note: The standings below are the Chase Grid standings, not the Sprint Cup Series drivers standings.

CHASE BUBBLE WATCH

Standing Driver Points differential from cutoff
13. Austin Dillon +55
14. Chase Elliott +47
15. Jamie McMurray +42
16. Ryan Newman +35
————————– CUT-OFF LINE ————————–
17. Trevor Bayne -35
18. Kyle Larson -39
19. Kasey Kahne -39
20. AJ Allmendinger -58
21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -62
22. Ryan Blaney -68
23. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -115
24. Greg Biffle -135
25. Danica Patrick -144
26. Paul Menard -145
27. Clint Bowyer -169
28. Aric Almirola -170
29. Casey Mears -201
30. Landon Cassill -221