Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

LAS VEGAS — A slow first pit stop had Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team playing catch-up all afternoon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Crew chief Chris Gabehart swung for the fences to give Hamlin the best strategy possible to maximize their results, but their eighth-place finish in the opening race of the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs left them fifth in the standings — first out, but a whopping 27 points beneath the provisional elimination line.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“Yeah, just not a clean day,” Hamlin said. “That certainly kind of sums it up. You’ll have that. We’ll just do the best we can to to get the best finish.

“I thought Chris did a great job trying to get some sort of finish. Once we lost the track position early, he was doing everything he could to try to get it back through some alternate strategy. It goes long there, we fall back to the back. Just part of it.”

The setback came at Lap 33 during green-flag stops. While race leader Christopher Bell had an 8.8-second service, Hamlin’s stop totaled 13.4 seconds, slowed by a combination of Hamlin stopped short in his pit stall, sluggish service on the right-front exchange and trouble on the left-rear. In that cycle, the No. 11 Toyota fell from fifth to 14th.

After finishing Stage 1 in 11th, Gabehart had Hamlin stay on the race track on older tires at the start of Stage 2 rather than pit for fresh tires in an effort to gain clean air. That call ultimately didn’t pan out as Hamlin struggled and fell through the field and outside the top 20 for a time.

“I made a really aggressive pit call trying to trying to bail us out of that,” Gabehart told NASCAR.com. “Aggression is important in those moments, and it’s served me well. That was just a little bit too aggressive. But we buried ourselves after that, so it wasn’t the pivotal moment. It just didn’t do us any favors.”

Hamlin ultimately finished Stage 2 in 19th place before disaster in the pits struck again. Stopping short in his stall again, the left-rear wheel wasn’t completely tightened before the jack was dropped to signal Denny’s departure. Instead, he had to reverse the No. 11 car back to the stall for the team to make sure the wheel was tight.

Then came a vibration that Hamlin nursed for the next 20 laps until the subsequent caution, during which the team determined a wheel weight from the right front was “gone,” likely causing the vibration.

Denny Hamlin drives in a NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas.
Meg Oliphant | Getty Images

Trapped with a loss of track position again, Gabehart ultimately had Hamlin save fuel for the final 72 laps, utilizing the same strategy Joey Logano and Co. employed en route to the victory.

“One bad issue compounds the next decision, right?” Gabehart said. “Especially in the Round of 8 when you’re racing against such good teams, if you get buried once, you’ve really got to try to find a way out of that. There’s track position and clean air and all those things, restarts. We saw what restarts can do to some of these playoff guys. So yeah, one bad play affects the next. No doubt that pit call is just one where, you know, if I had to do over again, I would have been aggressive. I just wouldn’t have been quite that aggressive.”

WATCH: Reddick up and over at Vegas; Elliott, Blaney involved

The No. 11 team left Vegas with zero stage points and a total of 29 points tallied.

“In the Round of 8, that’s not enough points,” Gabehart said. “I mean, eighth with no stage points is not going to get it done, certainly considering, the setback we had for ourselves there late in the season with a huge penalty. So not the day we hoped for. You’ve just got to execute cleaner than that in the Round of 8. We’re just not executing on pit road.”

Hamlin and Gabehart never gave up on the day, but Gabehart wasn’t ready to pat himself on the back quite yet.

“The 11 team’s not going to talk about resiliency when you got the 22 team, Paul Wolfe and Joey Logano over there who embarrassed everybody in that category there,” Gabehart said. “I knew the minute they got in [to the Round of 8] Sunday night post-Charlotte, I wrote them into the final four first. Write it down. Joey Logano is going to find a way. It’s that simple. That team — it’s a team sport, so I don’t want to single Joey out. I think it’s a testament to how they do business. I knew they were going to get in, and they did.

“So yeah, I’m happy that we were able to salvage an eighth, which is better than we had ran for 230 laps. … But it’s not enough in this round.”

Posted on by Dustin Albino

LAS VEGAS — Christopher Bell’s No. 20 Toyota was a rocket ship during Sunday’s South Point 400 — for most of the race, it was clear he was superior to the field.  

When Bell’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs spun on the backstretch on Lap 192, it was just outside of the fuel window for most teams to make it to the finish. And with Bell having a dominant car, leading a race-high 155 laps, he would burn more fuel by leading the race.  

“A win is a guarantee [of a berth into the Championship 4], and we had a win right at our fingertips,” Bell said.  

RELATED: Official results | Playoff Pulse

When the caution flag waved, crew chief Adam Stevens told Bell he would likely be a handful of laps short of making it to the end of the race on fuel. Stevens’ strategy was to go as hard as possible at the beginning of the run before pitting and chasing down any stragglers that attempted to stretch their fuel.  

It quickly became evident that playoff drivers Joey Logano, who is regarded as one of the best fuel-saving drivers in the sport, and Denny Hamlin were trying to go the distance. Meanwhile, Bell soared through the field after exiting the pits nearly 30 seconds off the lead and was told that drivers were aiming to go the distance on fuel.  

While chasing down race leader Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney, who was eight laps off the pace after getting involved in an earlier wreck, began drafting with his Team Penske teammate Logano. Bell was clocking off seconds at a time, but when the checkered flag flew, he was nearly three-quarters of a second short of catching Logano.  

Logano’s Las Vegas victory locks him into the Championship 4 next month at Phoenix Raceway for a record sixth time in 11 years.  

MORE: At-track photos: Vegas | Cup Series schedule

“Disappointment,” Bell added when describing his race. “I lost an Xfinity race here; I think it was in 2019, in the exact same way where the yellow flag comes out on the outside of the window, leading the race, having to make a pit stop, and someone in the back stretches it. I’ve seen it before, and I couldn’t believe it.”  

Dominating the race, Stevens knew his hands were tied. He also knew that there was a chance that some drivers were willing to gamble for the jackpot.  

“There’s nothing we could have done differently as a team; we executed on all fronts,” Stevens stated. “We brought arguably the best car, good pit strategy, great pit stops and that caution fell at exactly the wrong time. Two laps earlier or two laps later, it doesn’t pan out that way. It happened right where it screwed the leaders. You can’t be upset about that, you can’t control that.”  

Mowing back through the field, Bell doesn’t believe he lost any time in lapped traffic. If the race was 268 laps, he likely would have been the victor. Instead, the result is “more of a dagger than last year” when he finished runner-up at the checkered flag to Kyle Larson.  

By scoring 19 stage points and tallying 54 points on Sunday, Bell has a 42-point buffer over the elimination line with two races remaining in the Round of 8. He’s also the defending winner at Homestead-Miami Speedway.  

The No. 20 team has five straight top-10 finishes and is hitting its stride, but as Bell noted, nothing is guaranteed of being good enough to make the Championship 4.  

“I would rather be in that spot than any other spot, but I can’t tell you who is going to win next week and who is going to win the week after that,” Stevens said. “The points might not make that much of a difference; it might make all the difference. It all depends on how many winners there are. The math changes quickly if you have a top-eight winner.” 

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

Las Vegas Motor Speedway left a huge mark to open the Round of 8 in the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs. Five of the eight remaining title-eligible drivers had issues in Sunday’s showdown in the high desert while Christopher Bell, William Byron and Joey Logano kept their cars clean to maximize their day and take advantage of their competitors’ struggles. See who the winners and losers were from Las Vegas before the Round of 8 shifts to Homestead-Miami Speedway.

WINNER

Even-year Joey Logano continues to be inevitable and another clutch win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway netted the No. 22 driver his sixth career Championship 4 ticket. Logano gambled on the final 69-lap green flag to not pit for tires, and it paid off as the two-time series champion held off the hard-charging Christopher Bell by 0.662 seconds to advance to Phoenix after originally being eliminated in the Round of 12 before Alex Bowman’s disqualification.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

WHO’S HOT?

Christopher Bell. Vegas is going to be a heartbreaker for the No. 20 driver regardless of the runner-up result as it’s the 13th time Bell has won the Cup pole and failed to win the race. It’s the second Vegas playoff race in a row Bell has been the bridesmaid. However, the result is Bell’s fifth top 10 in seven playoff races this season, and he sits a comfortable 42 points above the elimination race heading to Homestead.

William Byron. The No. 24 driver continues his hot streak of finishes with his fourth consecutive top-1o result after finishing second and third (twice) in the Round of 12. A fourth-place result will do for Byron as he’s currently ranked fourth in the postseason standings, 27 points ahead of Denny Hamlin on the elimination line.

WHO’S NOT?

Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott. After starting on the front row and winning Stage 1, Reddick was in prime position to be the first driver to punch his ticket to the Championship 4, but that was all wiped out on Lap 89 as the No. 45 driver was collected in a multicar incident early in Stage 2. Fellow playoff drivers Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney were also involved as Reddick, Elliott and Martin Truex Jr. squeezed into each other off Turn 4, catalyzing the incident. Reddick was scored with a 35th-place result. Elliott and Blaney continued in Sunday’s event, but both finished outside the top 30 and now will be in virtual must-win situations for the remainder of the Round of 8.

Kyle Larson. Opening races of each round in this year’s playoffs continue to cause nightmares for the No. 5 team as a brutal pit-stop sequence in Stage 2 put Larson multiple laps down. Larson’s pit crew had issues on the right side, causing a slow stop and was immediately followed by crew chief Cliff Daniels calling the No.5 back to pit road to look at the left side under green flag. After getting back on the lead lap, the No. 5 managed to recover and finished 11th.

BUBBLE WATCH

RANKDRIVERCUTOFF
1Joey LoganoADV
2Christopher Bell42
3Kyle Larson35
4William Byron27
ELIMINATION LINE
5Denny Hamlin-27
6Tyler Reddick-30
7Ryan Blaney-47
8Chase Elliott-53
Posted on by Holly Cain

LAS VEGAS — Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano made his Team Penske’s fuel strategy call work to perfection Sunday afternoon to claim victory in the South Point 400 playoff race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and earn the first of four NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 berths.

Logano led only the final six laps on the Vegas 1.5-mile track but was able to hold off the afternoon’s most dominant car, Christopher Bell’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, by a slight 0.662-second margin in the final few laps.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Vegas

Bell, on the other hand, led a race-best 155 of the 267 laps and won Stage 2, but he pitted 35 laps later than Logano and was not able to make up the nearly 30-second advantage Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford held on track after Bell’s stop.

Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suárez, who also used the same strategy as Logano, finished third after leading 57 laps, followed by playoff driver William Byron and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman completing the top five.

It’s been quite the turn of fortune for Logano, who a week ago, after the Round of 12 finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course, thought he was eliminated from the playoffs only to receive news from NASCAR hours after the checkered flag that he had been reinstated. Bowman had initially held that playoff position, but his car was ruled underweight in post-race inspection and he was disqualified after the Charlotte Roval race.

SHOP: Race winner gear

That meant Logano, not Bowman, would advance to this Round of 8, which includes two more races – next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway and then Nov. 3 at Martinsville, Va. – to set the four-driver championship field. Of note, Logano’s last Las Vegas playoff race win in 2022 propelled him to the series championship.

“Man, we did some fuel-mileage stuff, didn’t we? Holy crap,” said a smiling Logano, whose four career wins now at Las Vegas ties NASCAR Hall of Famer Jimmie Johnson for most all-time at the track.

“What an incredible turn of events here the last week. Very fast Pennzoil Mustang. We’re going to the Championship 4 again. It’s real. Great fuel mileage, great calls by [crew chief] Paul [Wolfe], Nick Hensley, our gas man, making sure she’s full, giving me the info to keep the lead that we needed to. We’re going racing again. What an incredible situation, man. I’m so blessed.

“Just an incredible day. Like I said, it takes the whole team to do the fuel-mileage stuff. Not just the engineers, spotter. It takes all of us to do it. Total team win. We may not have been the fastest car today, but we were a solid top-five car and were able to maximize it at the end.’’

Bell was as disappointed as Logano was elated.

“I don’t know, and I don’t think I have come to terms yet,” said Bell, who is now 0-for-13 in wins after starting a race from pole position. “Just a bummer. I think everyone on this team did everything perfect today. This thing was obviously on rails, pit crew did an amazing job and [pit crew] Adam [Stevens] called a great race. Did everything we needed to, but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be today.

“The points look pretty good, but you’re never safe in this deal,” Bell added. “We needed to win today and unfortunately, we didn’t. We’ll go on to the next one.”

The race certainly provided major implications for the eight playoff drivers — three of them were eliminated from winning contention by Stage 2, two more struggled with pit stops thereafter, leaving Logano, Bell, Byron and eighth-place finisher Denny Hamlin to lead the championship presence among the top 10. Bell’s afternoon was good enough to propel him into the championship points lead with a 42-point advantage on the elimination line.

Hamlin’s eighth-place effort was impressive after a difficult day for his No. 11 Toyota team, which endured a challenging day on pit road before also using a similar fuel-save plan to Logano’s. JGR teammate Martin Truex Jr. was sixth, followed by Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain, Hamlin, Legacy Motor Club’s John Hunter Nemechek and RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson finished 11th — falling off the lead lap in Stage 2 after also having an uneven visit to pit road that forced a second, unscheduled stop. He is now second in the points standings, 35 points above the cutoff line. His Hendrick teammate Byron holds that important fourth-place spot, 27 points ahead of Hamlin.

Regular Season Champion and the race’s outside polesitter Tyler Reddick finished 35th, eliminated after a rollover accident in tight racing on Lap 89. The accident collected fellow playoff driver Chase Elliott along with Brad Keselowski and reigning series champion and playoff driver Ryan Blaney also involved.

MORE: Reddick, Elliott, Blaney tangle in Stage 2 restart

“We can still have a good day at Homestead and be in the mix in Martinsville,” said a frustrated Reddick, who led nine laps and won the first stage. “Ideally, yeah, it would have been nice to win today. It would be nice to win next week, and that is what we will focus on, but thankfully we got 10 stage points in Stage 1, and it’s not like we are absolutely out of it on points yet. We are going to have to be perfect here on out, probably.”

It was a rough weekend from even before the race’s green flag for Blaney, who suffered a flat tire in Saturday’s opening practice that put his primary No. 12 Team Penske Ford into the wall. He started his backup car from last in the 37-car field Sunday and was steadily moving forward before being caught up in that multicar accident with Reddick and Elliott. He finished 32nd. Elliott was 33rd.

Hamlin is fifth in the championship standings, 27 off Byron. Reddick is 30 points below the elimination line, followed by Blaney (-47) and Elliott (-53).

The NASCAR Cup Series moves to South Florida for Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Bell is the defending race winner.

Note: Post-race technical inspection was completed in the Cup Series garage at Las Vegas Motor Speedway without issue, confirming Logano as the race winner. NASCAR officials also indicated that no cars would return to the Research & Development Center for further inspection.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Brandon White

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — On Saturday in northwestern North Carolina, Justin Bonsignore let the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour community know the championship will run through him.

An efficient day on his part and an inconsistent afternoon from rival Ron Silk at North Wilkesboro Speedway enabled Bonsignore to unofficially take a 10-point advantage in the point standings. Bonsignore’s 44th career victory also put him in a tie with Reggie Ruggiero for second on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour win list.

RELATED: Complete race results from Wilkesboro

Bonsignore got a head start on his competition the previous evening at North Wilkesboro with a similarly stellar performance. Many circumstances were different on Sunday compared to Saturday, yet Bonsignore maintained the status quo to take a second elevator ride to Victory Lane in one weekend.

“To come [to North Wilkesboro] last night, win that race and then come back today on a different tire with a different car and do it so convincingly with no tire stops is so special,” Bonsignore said. “You don’t get cars like that too often. These things are so hard, and I thought we’d have to win out to win the championship.

“Now we control our own destiny, and we’ll head to Martinsville chasing a clock.”

The car Bonsignore piloted in Sunday’s Brushy Mountain Powersports 150 was the same one he used to prevail at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park last weekend after leading 121 laps.

Last year’s season finale at Martinsville Speedway convinced Bonsignore and everyone at Ken Massa Motorsports a major revamp was needed to that car. During the offseason, the car was torn down except for the center section and sat idle at Fury Race Cars up until recently.

Crew chief Ryan Stone moving the team’s shop from Connecticut to North Carolina was the primary reason why one of Bonsignore’s most efficient cars remained inactive for a prolonged period. Despite this, the new car Bonsignore had been using was just as strong, as he racked up two Modified Tour victories with it this year.

Bringing Bonsignore’s older car back to the track has shifted the Modified Tour championship entirely in his favor. Once he dispatched Matt Hirschman and polesitter Austin Beers, Bonsignore went uncontested at North Wilkesboro the rest of the day, lapping all the way up to the fifth position.

Bonsignore intends to bring the same car from Thompson and North Wilkesboro to Martinsville with two goals in mind: Win the championship and a grandfather clock.

History has favored Bonsignore over Silk during their respective appearances at Martinsville. While Silk only has one career Martinsville top five back in 2009, Bonsignore’s lone finish outside the top three in four starts was due to a mechanical failure he sustained in 2022.

Momentum is in Bonsignore’s favor as he is on the precipice of a fourth Modified Tour title, but he plans to be pragmatic about his approach at Martinsville. A lot can go wrong at Martinsville with a larger field of cars entered, but Bonsignore is confident the speed of his car will enable him to close out 2024 on a perfect note.

“Ultimately, I want to win a grandfather clock,” Bonsignore said. “I’ve won at all three [NASCAR] Cup Series race tracks this year so far, but the grandfather clock is the grandaddy of them all for sure. We’ll be smart about who we race against and the places we put ourselves in as the race winds down.

“Everybody is going to be working hard to get better, but hopefully this car gets even better than it was today.”

Hirschman finished 6.5 seconds behind Bonsignore in the runner-up finish with Beers following him in third. Patrick Emerling and Tyler Rypkema rounded out the top five and the lead-lap finishers.

The rest of the top 10 consisted of Chase Dowling, Luke Baldwin, Bobby Labonte, Carson Loftin and Kyle Bonsignore. Silk ended up 11th, two laps behind Bonsignore.

Only one race remains to decide the 2024 Modified Tour championship. The final stop on the calendar will be at Martinsville on Saturday evening for the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 200, which airs live on FloRacing at 8 p.m. ET.

Posted on by Staff Report

Playoff competitors Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney found early trouble in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with a wild crash at the start of Stage 2 leaving all three drivers with finishes outside the top 30.

Tyler Reddick was sidelined after his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota rolled through the frontstretch grass in the 89th of a scheduled 267 laps in the South Point 400. Reddick, Elliott and Martin Truex Jr. had squeezed together at the exit of Turn 4 shortly after the restart that put Stage 2 underway. Blaney and Brad Keselowski also caught damage in the aftermath.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Vegas

Elliott and Blaney continued, with both drivers making multiple pit stops for their crews to fix the damage, but Reddick and Keselowski were done for the day. Both sidelined drivers were evaluated and released after a check at the infield care center. Elliott later brought his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to the garage on Lap 107 for extended repairs, with both he and Blaney reaching the minimum speed to continue. Elliott returned to the race on Lap 131, 26 laps down in 33rd place.

Reddick, the Cup Series’ Regular Season Champion, entered the first race of the postseason’s Round of 8 with a 10-point advantage to the provisional elimination line. He advanced from the three-race Round of 12 on the basis of points.

Reddick had led nine laps and won Stage 1. He said he was playing offense on the restart, trying to gain as much ground as possible in the middle segment of the race, but said he also felt like the transition from infield grass to the paved quarter-mile inside the 1.5-mile track might upend his car.

“You have to be aggressive on the restart,” Reddick said. “It is hard to pass after a while. Being myself on a mile and a half, being aggressive — by the time I realized I was in trouble, the 19 (Truex) started sliding and the 9 (Elliott) was coming up, and I was pretty much already on their outside at that point, with nowhere to really go. I needed to make the decision earlier when I saw them sliding to be more conservative to avoid an incident — just not who I am, but it is unfortunate. It took us out of the race.

“We had a really, really fast Jordan Brand Toyota Camry, probably would have been in the mix all race long, but we will go to Homestead — a place where I have had to get it done before — and go for it there.”

Blaney, who had started last in a reserve No. 12 Ford after a crash during Saturday practice, finished eight laps down in 32nd place. Elliott was 33rd, 37 laps off the lead pace. Reddick ended up 35th in the 37-car field, completing just 89 laps.

“We’re still alive,” said Blaney, who now sits 47 points below the provisional elimination line. “It’s definitely not the best of days. It was just a rough weekend overall. I don’t know what to do about it, to be honest with you, running over something and having a hole in it in practice. And then just getting clipped by the 6 (Keselowski) there. I thought I could get around him and didn’t know if he’d come up the race track and then by the time he was kind of on the track it was too late. I got clipped and bent everything all to hell, so it was just a rough weekend. We still have two more weeks, so we’re definitely not out of it.”

Reddick is now minus-30 points relative to the elimination border, and Elliott sits minus-53 — last among the eight remaining postseason-eligible drivers.

Two races — Oct. 27 at Homestead-Miami Speedway and Nov. 3 at Martinsville Speedway — remain before the playoff-eligible field is trimmed to the Championship 4 quartet who will vie for the Cup Series title in the Nov. 10 season finale at Phoenix Raceway.

Posted on by Staff Report

Brushy Mountain Powersports 150

North Wilkesboro Speedway

  • Race results
Pos No. Name Sponsor Laps
 Diff
1 51 Justin Bonsignore Phoenix Communications, Inc. 150  —
2 60 Matt Hirschman PeeDee Motorsports 150 6.473
3 64 Austin Beers G&G Electrical Supply/Dell Electric/Lumiere Electrical 150 9.777
4 1 Patrick Emerling Fleetworks Inc 150 9.877
5 3 Tyler Rypkema USNE/Northeast Drilling 150 18.464
6 44 Chase Dowling Harshaw Paving/S&S Paving 149 1 Lap
7 7 Luke Baldwin* Baldwin Automotive 149 1 Lap
8 38 Bobby  Labonte Pace-O-Matic 149 1 Lap
9 23 Carson Loftin* L&R Transmissions/LeBleu Water/QMF Metal Fabrication 149 1 Lap
10 22 Kyle Bonsignore Chalew Performance/MTT/Munns Auto 149 1 Lap
11 16 Ron Silk Blue Mountain Machine/Future Homes 148 2 Laps
12 46 Craig Lutz Riverhead Building Supply 148 2 Laps
13 77 Ryan Newman Curb Records/Montrose Molders/Aggressive Hydraulics 148 2 Laps
14 4 Tim Connolly Connolly Companies, LLC 148 2 Laps
15 02 Joey Coulter SRI Performance/Bilstein Shocks 148 2 Laps
16 06 Sam Rameau Quality Fleet Services/Rameau Family Motorsports 146 4 Laps
17 18 Ken Heagy Buoy One Seafood & Restaurant 144 6 Laps
18 01 Melissa Fifield The Yellow House 125 25 Laps
19 09 Chris Hatton Jr.* Generac 39 111 Laps
20 24 Andrew Krause Supreme Manufacturing 3 147 Laps

 

Posted on by Staff Report

Brushy Mountain Powersports 150

North Wilkesboro Speedway

  • Qualifying results
Pos. No. Driver Sponsor Best Time Best Speed
1 64 Austin Beers G&G Electrical Supply/Dell Electric/Lumiere Electrical 17.486 128.674
2 60 Matt Hirschman PeeDee Motorsports 17.55 128.205
3 23 Carson Loftin* L&R Transmissions/LeBleu Water/QMF Metal Fabrication 17.558 128.147
4 51 Justin Bonsignore Phoenix Communications, Inc. 17.585 127.95
5 7 Luke Baldwin* Baldwin Automotive 17.675 127.298
6 16 Ron Silk Blue Mountain Machine/Future Homes 17.688 127.205
7 3 Tyler Rypkema USNE/Northeast Drilling 17.71 127.047
8 22 Kyle Bonsignore Chalew Performance/MTT/Munns Auto 17.757 126.711
9 1 Patrick Emerling Fleetworks Inc 17.798 126.419
10 46 Craig Lutz Riverhead Building Supply 17.833 126.171
11 44 Chase Dowling TBD 17.841 126.114
12 02 Joey Coulter IV SRI Performance/Bilstein Shocks 17.946 125.376
13 77 Ryan Newman Curb Records/Montrose Molders/Aggressive Hydraulics 18.009 124.938
14 4 Tim Connolly Connolly Companies, LLC 18.084 124.419
15 06 Sam Rameau Quality Fleet Services/Rameau Family Motorsports 18.165 123.865
16 38 Bobby  Labonte Pace-O-Matic 18.24 123.355
17 24 Andrew Krause Supreme Manufacturing 18.592 121.02
18 18 Ken Heagy Buoy One Seafood & Restaurant 18.596 120.994
19 09 Christopher Hatton Jr.* Generac 19.202 117.175
20 01 Melissa Fifield The Yellow House 19.862 113.282

 

Posted on by Alex Cadavid

Editor’s note: Projections updated after Saturday’s practice and qualifying.

The playoff field shrunk to eight drivers after the Charlotte Roval, with three Hendrick Motorsports drivers still in title contention. The next two events take place on 1.5-mile tracks, allowing the organization — that excels on intermediates — to solidify more than one driver into the Championship 4.

Sin City has become Hendrick’s second home, as the organization has won the last three races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with its drivers sweeping both stages in each of those victories. Sunday’s South Point 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) is an opportunity for the organization to become the first to win four straight there and Racing Insights believes it has two drivers who can get to Victory Lane yet again.

RELATED: Set your Fantasy Live lineup | Weekend schedule

Kyle Larson and William Byron are projected to finish in the top five (updated after Saturday’s sessions), and both have looked primed throughout the playoffs to make title bids for a second straight year.

Larson enters as the defending race winner and the only driver in the Cup field with multiple wins on 1.5-mile tracks this season (Las Vegas and Kansas in the spring). The No. 5 driver has had unfortunate luck in the two round-opening races this year (wreck at Atlanta; blown tire at Kansas). Still, with Vegas being one of his bread-and-butter tracks, there’s a good chance he will further assert his dominance as championship frontrunner. Since joining Hendrick, Larson has led 602 laps at Las Vegas with 404 of those laps being in a Next Gen car. In his last 13 starts at Vegas, Larson has 11 top-10 finishes, including five in the top two in the previous seven.

As for Byron, he won at Las Vegas in last year’s spring race and boasts the second-best average finish (7.2) and 200 laps led in the Next Gen era at the track. The No. 24 driver also escaped the Round of 12 with the best average finish among playoff drivers at 2.67. Plus, Byron has scored a series-best 190 points on intermediates so far this year.

Four times the driver that has won the Round of 8 opener has gone on to win the championship, proving Sunday’s race is crucial for the remaining eight drivers. A win in the desert oasis gives a team two weeks over the competition to prepare for the season finale at Phoenix Raceway, bettering their chance of being crowned champion.

DRIVERS TO WATCH

DENNY HAMLIN: Hamlin will be making a ninth Round of 8 appearance — tied for most with Joey Logano. He owns a single Vegas win and finished eighth there in the spring, and with wild-card tracks in the rearview, look for the No. 11 team to be challenging for a win as it has scored 189 points on intermediates this year.

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Bell was breathing down Larson’s neck in the closing laps during this race last year. He also now leads all drivers in points scored in the playoffs with 211 after Alex Bowman’s Roval DQ. Bell has found a well-balanced blend of speed and consistency this year as he scored 20 top 10s this year.

RYAN BLANEY: Blaney will have to start from the rear after a practice wreck and going to a backup car. As a result, he dropped from seventh to 15th in our projections. Before the practice wreck, things were trending in the positive direction for him. He finished sixth in this race last fall and came back to Vegas in the spring this year to finish third.

JOEY LOGANO: The even-year enigma lives on as Logano can still make it to the Championship 4 for a sixth time. The best way to do it? Win. Both times Logano won the championship he won the opening Round of 8 race, including this race two years ago.

MARTIN TRUEX JR.: Only a handful of races remain for Truex to find Victory Lane before ending his full-time career. He’s a two-time Vegas winner and has posted top 10s in the last eight races at the LVMS. A spoiler isn’t out of the question and he’s one of the best bets to play as one.

RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR THE SOUTH POINT 400

Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula includes current track, current track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to arrive at a projected winner and full race results. 

FinishCar NumberDriver
15Kyle Larson
245Tyler Reddick
311Denny Hamlin
420Christopher Bell
524William Byron
61Ross Chastain
79Chase Elliott
848Alex Bowman
919Martin Truex Jr.
1054Ty Gibbs
1117Chris Buescher
128Kyle Busch
1323Bubba Wallace
146Brad Keselowski
1512Ryan Blaney
1622Joey Logano
1799Daniel Suárez
1877Carson Hocevar
197Justin Haley
203Austin Dillon
2110Noah Gragson
222Austin Cindric
2334Michael McDowell
2443Erik Jones
2514Chase Briscoe
2671Zane Smith
274Josh Berry
2841Ryan Preece
2947Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
3038Todd Gilliland
3142John Hunter Nemechek
3231Daniel Hemric
3351Corey LaJoie
3421Harrison Burton
3584Jimmie Johnson
3616Shane van Gisbergen
3715Cody Ware
Posted on by Staff Report

Brushy Mountain Powersports 150

North Wilkesboro Speedway

  • Practice results
Pos. No. Driver Sponsor Best Time Best Speed In Lap Laps Diff.
1 60 Matt Hirschman PeeDee Motorsports 17.237 130.533 26 28
2 64 Austin Beers G&G Electrical Supply/Dell Electric/Lumiere Electrical 17.319 129.915 43 70 0.082
3 51 Justin Bonsignore Phoenix Communications, Inc. 17.391 129.377 42 85 0.154
4 23 Carson Loftin* L&R Transmissions/LeBleu Water/QMF Metal Fabrication 17.405 129.273 30 44 0.168
5 22 Kyle Bonsignore Chalew Performance/MTT/Munns Auto 17.406 129.266 32 49 0.169
6 16 Ron Silk Blue Mountain Machine/Future Homes 17.421 129.154 58 59 0.184
7 02 Joey Coulter IV SRI Performance/Bilstein Shocks 17.422 129.147 33 34 0.185
8 7 Luke Baldwin* Baldwin Automotive 17.429 129.095 33 34 0.192
9 1 Patrick Emerling Fleetworks Inc 17.449 128.947 15 25 0.212
10 46 Craig Lutz Riverhead Building Supply 17.47 128.792 43 47 0.233
11 3 Tyler Rypkema USNE/Northeast Drilling 17.535 128.315 49 53 0.298
12 06 Sam Rameau Quality Fleet Services/Rameau Family Motorsports 17.555 128.169 51 75 0.318
13 44 Chase Dowling TBD 17.606 127.797 10 50 0.369
14 77 Ryan Newman Curb Records/Montrose Molders/Aggressive Hydraulics 17.642 127.537 30 40 0.405
15 38 Bobby  Labonte Pace-O-Matic 17.698 127.133 17 43 0.461
16 4 Tim Connolly Connolly Companies, LLC 17.751 126.753 18 48 0.514
17 24 Andrew Krause Supreme Manufacturing 17.919 125.565 6 8 0.682
18 18 Ken Heagy Buoy One Seafood & Restaurant 18.131 124.097 26 40 0.894
19 09 Christopher Hatton Jr.* Generac 18.775 119.84 45 56 1.538
20 01 Melissa Fifield The Yellow House 19.337 116.357 34 43 2.1