NASCAR officials announced penalties Tuesday to the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team for a detached wheel during last weekend’s Cup Series race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.
Austin Dillon drove the No. 3 Chevrolet to a 32nd-place finish in Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400. In the 81st lap of the 109-lap race, the left-front tire dislodged as Dillon rounded Turn 4, forcing the event’s fifth and final caution period. The loose wheel violated Sections 8.8.10.4.A & C in the NASCAR Rule Book, which concerns the “loss or separation of an improperly installed tire/wheel from the vehicle during the event.”
As a result, competition officials suspended RCR No. 3 crew members Joshua Thomas (front tire-changer) and Nick Covey (jack) for the next two Cup Series events — Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the Oct. 27 event at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
NASCAR officials also fined four crew chiefs from the Xfinity Series after their cars were found with a single unsecured lug nut each in a post-race check Saturday at the Charlotte Roval. Each crew chief was fined $5,000 for the safety violations; the drivers for all four teams are still championship-eligible in the Xfinity Series Playoffs.
Teams with single-lug infractions (with their corresponding crew chiefs and drivers):
No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet (crew chief James Pohlman, driver Justin Allgaier)
No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet (crew chief Phillip Bell, driver Sammy Smith)
No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet (crew chief Andy Street, driver Austin Hill)
No. 81 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (crew chief Jeff Meendering, driver Chandler Smith)
Joey Logano was already back home after Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval elimination race Sunday evening, unwinding by playing foosball with a friend in his shop. Some tabletop soccer helped distract from the resignation that his championship eligibility in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs had evaporated.
That’s when Logano’s phone notifications started to build.
Those pings eventually let Logano in on the scuttlebutt that had been trickling out of post-race inspection. The Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet driven by Alex Bowman was found to be underweight. Bowman was disqualified and ruled out of the postseason picture; Logano was back into the playoff field, advancing with an 11th-hour reprieve.
Logano detailed what he termed a “wild roller coaster of emotions” after Sunday’s turn of events, shedding light on his renewed outlook during a Tuesday media availability with his quest for a third Cup Series title freshly restored. The 34-year-old veteran had mustered a valiant points-gathering day in Sunday’s Round of 12 finale but ended up nine points shy of advancing with the initial, unofficial results. When inspection ended, Logano was slotted back in as the eighth and final driver still alive on the postseason grid.
“I was starting to move forward,” Logano said, recounting the time between the checkered flag and the results being made official. “You get there literally the moment we get out of the race car. It takes a little bit to get your thoughts collected, and honestly, by the time I was driving home, my wife and I were talking about something far more important than what we were doing at the race track. My mind was already starting to shift on what were the next moves and kind of getting over the race. Then I started hearing the rumors from there, and the phone started to ring shortly after.”
Those rumors swirled around potential delays in the inspection process. “Usually, nothing happens,” Logano said about the conjecture, which he took with a grain of cautious optimism. But the questions and uncertainty started to gain momentum, and that snowball effect caught his attention.
“I was like, ‘Something’s up here,'” Logano told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio earlier Tuesday morning. “Hang on a second. Something’s going on. I need to figure it out because a lot of people are calling all at the same time.”
That optimism was rewarded, and it stuck Monday after Hendrick Motorsports elected not to appeal the penalty. Logano now heads to Sunday’s Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) with loftier goals beyond adding a fourth victory at the 1.5-mile Nevada oval. Logano said that playoff eligibility intact or not, his approach stays the same: “You go out there and you attack.”
Logano won the playoff-opening race at Atlanta Motor Speedway last month, and he led laps in three of the four races that followed, though his finishes did not produce a top-10 result in that stretch. He got back on course at the Charlotte Roval, finishing eighth and piling up 18 stage points in a 47-point total effort. That grit in a pressure-packed situation, combined with the speed in his No. 22 Ford, have been encouraging as Logano sets a target on reaching the championship stage in the Nov. 10 season finale at Phoenix Raceway.
“The stats may not look like it. It may look like we’re underdogs from the outset looking in, but internally we feel very confident in our race team that we can make a run at this thing and get ourselves into the Championship 4,” said Logano, who is 11 points below the provisional elimination line. “We’ve seen it in the past where you get in there and anything can happen at Phoenix. The goal right now is to look at the next three races and how do we maximize that. We can point our way in. We’re only 11 out, so it’s not a lot of points by no means. It can happen very quickly, so one race at a time. Right now, the focus is Vegas and we’ll try to maximize the day there.”
Two Team Penske drivers have reached the Round of 8, with Logano joining defending Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney among those drivers still vying for the Bill France Cup. Penske teammate Austin Cindric failed to advance from the Round of 12 group, despite a fourth-place finish at the Roval.
Logano (2022) and Blaney (2023) have won the last two Cup Series titles, and the blueprint for Team Penske’s success has been a performance uptick as the season draws to its close. It’s a plan that Logano hopes to replicate this year.
“Trends are trends for a reason, right?” Logano said. “I don’t know why or what that is, but it does seem like Team Penske does a good job rising to the occasion when it matters during the playoffs. I feel like that happened a little sooner this year. We started to make that turnaround a little bit quicker than last year, and still, last year, Blaney was able to win the championship. Yeah, I feel great about it because we’ve done this before. Like I said before, from the outside looking in, you look at it and say, ‘Well, they haven’t had as many top fives. They haven’t had as many top 10s. They haven’t been as competitive.’ Who cares? We’ve lived this story many times before. Yeah, would it be easier if you had more playoff points? Yeah, but you know what? You win this weekend, and you’re sitting as the favorite going into Phoenix, so it changes like that, and that’s with the playoff system that we have.
“Every point matters throughout the whole season. I’m not discounting that, but you have to be your absolute best at this point in the season or else those points don’t even matter, so I feel confident in our team that we’ve got that. We’re still alive. We’re still going and that’s the name of the game in these playoffs.”
After the race was postponed for two weeks due to Hurricane Helene’s impact on the Appalachain Mountains, North Wilkesboro Speedway is set to host the penultimate event of the 2024 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season.
Last year saw NASCAR’s oldest division visit North Wilkesboro for the first time in its long, prestigious history. A field of 38 cars showed up to take the green flag, with veteran Matt Hirschman bringing home the victory over the championship frontrunners in Ron Silk and Justin Bonsignore.
Just like 2023, Silk and Bonsignore enter Sunday’s Brushy Mountain Powersports 150 atop the Modified Tour standings, with the former holding the points lead. Despite this, Bonsignore has momentum on his side for North Wilkesboro after winning at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park on Sunday.
A freshly repaved North Wilkesboro will present a plethora of challenges for Silk, Bonsignore and the rest of the Modified Tour field as they look to add their own successful chapter at one of the southeast’s most prestigious facilities.
Tickets to the Brushy Mountain Powersports 150 can be purchased here. Below is everything to know ahead of Sunday’s race, which starts at 2 p.m. ET and can be seen on FloRacing.
A victory at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park has Justin Bonsignore only five points back from Ron Silk in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour standings. (Photo: Kostas Lymperopoulos/NASCAR)
Brushy Mountain Powersports 150
Justin Bonsignore is all too familiar with how the penultimate race can decide the Modified Tour championship.
During last year’s visit to Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park, Bonsignore and Ron Silk never left each other’s sightlines until the final restart of the afternoon. A missed shift from Bonsignore from the front row knocked him to 13thin the final running order, giving Silk the buffer he needed to secure the title at Martinsville Speedway.
North Wilkesboro now fills Thompson’s role in the championship pursuit for 2024, but the stakes remain high for both title contenders. Bonsignore’s triumph at Thompson last week trimmed the deficit to just five points, but Silk still leads all Modified Tour competitors with four victories on the year.
Although Bonsignore and Silk have come together on numerous occasions, their battle for the victory last weekend was both aggressive and clean. Should the two get into a heated duel at North Wilkesboro on Sunday, Patrick Emerling remains within range of the championship despite now being 21 points behind Silk.
The complete entry list for the Brushy Mountain Powersports 150 will be released later this week.
North Wilkesboro Speedway could be a crucial turning point in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship. (Photo: Eakin Howard/NASCAR)
Schedule: Sunday, October 20 … Final practice from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. ET … Qualifying at 1 p.m. ET … Brushy Mountain Powersports 150 at 2 p.m. ET.
Qualifying: Two consecutive qualifying laps. Faster lap determines qualifying position. Adjustments or repairs may not be made on the vehicle after the vehicle has taken the green flag at the start/finish line. NASCAR reserves the right to have more than one vehicle engage in qualifying runs at the same time. Starting field for the Brushy Mountain Powersports 150 is limited to 32 starters including Provisional Positions.
Tire allotment: The maximum tire allotment available for this event is twelve (12) tires per team. All tires used for qualifying and the race must be purchased at the track and scanned by Hoosier, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. Four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. All qualifying tires must remain in impound until released by NASCAR Officials. The remaining tire allotment may be used for practice and or/change tires during the event. The tire change rule is two (2) tires, per caution period.
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Oct. 15, 2024) — Sam Hunt Racing announced that Andrew “Bubba” Pollard will make his second career NASCAR Xfinity Series start on Saturday, Nov. 2, competing in the National Debt Relief 250 at Martinsville Speedway. (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio). SANY America will serve as the primary partner aboard the No. 26 Toyota.
“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to race at Martinsville with SANY and SHR,” Pollard said. “I really enjoyed the experience racing at Richmond earlier this season. Thanks to SANY, I’m excited to be back in an Xfinity car and can’t wait to hit the track again.”
The 37-year-old Senoia, Georgia, native made his Xfinity Series debut earlier this season at Richmond Raceway where he finished sixth after starting at the tail of the field. Pollard has over 100 late model wins and has collected 15 championship trophies from various late model championships. Pollard, whose long-time racing car number has been No. 26, is one of the most decorated short-track racers of all time, and Sam Hunt Racing is excited to welcome him to the team.
“There’s nothing more fulfilling than going to the track with true racers, and Bubba is exactly that,” said Sam Hunt, owner of Sam Hunt Racing. “He’s not only a true racer, but a great person who respects and appreciates the effort and sacrifice that goes into each race. To have him drive for me, along with having a great partner in SANY — is a dream come true and something the entire organization is looking forward to. It’s going to be a really fun weekend in Martinsville.”
SANY America, headquartered in Peachtree City, Georgia, will be on board of the No. 26 Toyota at Martinsville. The partnership between Pollard and SANY America was a natural fit for the blue-collar driver as his family business and family-owned race track of Senoia Raceway utilize heavy equipment and machinery to complete daily tasks.
“Bubba is the right fit for SANY. He’s hands-on in every aspect of his business including his short track racing program right down the road from our Georgia headquarters where we manufacture heavy construction equipment,” said David Nicoll, chief executive officer of SANY America, Inc. “He has succeeded through hard work, grit, and determination just like SANY employees, dealers, and customers. We’re proud to have Bubba in the driver’s seat of the No. 26 SANY car and look forward to a great race in Martinsville.”
Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon said Tuesday that the organization accepted the disqualification penalty handed to its No. 48 Chevrolet team last weekend, explaining that the team did not file an appeal in part because no exonerating evidence was found in post-race inspection.
Gordon’s remarks came during Tuesday’s “Morning Drive” segment on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, after Kyle Larson’s clinching victory for Hendrick Motorsports in Sunday’s Charlotte Motor Speedway road course event. Larson reached the Round of 8 in the Cup Series Playoffs, with teammates William Byron and Chase Elliott joining him after Sunday’s elimination race. Fellow Hendrick driver Alex Bowman was also in position to advance in the postseason to make it a clean sweep for all four teams, but his No. 48 Chevy did not meet the minimum weight requirement in post-race inspection, resulting in a disqualification penalty.
Bowman was relegated to a last-place finish in the 38-car field, dropping him from the playoff field and opening the door for Team Penske’s Joey Logano to fill the eighth and final spot in the next round. Hendrick Motorsports faced a 5 p.m. ET deadline Monday to appeal the penalty but chose not to, apologizing to the team’s fans and partners and saying in a statement: “We simply did not give ourselves enough margin to meet the post-race requirement. Although unintentional, the infraction was avoidable.”
Gordon said the organization considered multiple factors in reaching that decision, including any possible damage from the No. 48 car’s significant curb hop on the frontstretch chicane early in the race.
“You just look at this race in general and the amount of contact, we wanted to really inspect the car fully to see was there enough damage or was there something that got dislodged from the car,” Gordon told SiriusXM. “So NASCAR was great through the whole process. You can’t really inspect much of it at the race track, so we weren’t really sure, but they took it over to the tech center, looked at it yesterday and thoroughly examined it and didn’t find anything. So quite honestly, it’s just one of those things where NASCAR has minimum pre-race, minimum post-race weights, and our teams in order to just make the best performing race cars every weekend for our drivers, we know that we’ve got to stay as close to those minimums as possible, and in this case, the 48 car, they just cut it too close and missed it, and so that’s on us.
“Pretty embarrassed by it and very disappointing after what was looking like a historical day and one of the most exciting days that we’ve had at the race track, being a home race and everything and celebrating in Victory Lane and all four, and that all got wiped away. So we looked at all the facts, and we didn’t feel like there was really anything that we felt comfortable appealing, and we’re going to move on.”
Gordon said he has met with Hendrick Motorsports competition executives Jeff Andrews and Chad Knaus, along with the teams’ car chiefs and crew chiefs, adding that “we’re going to assess and probably adjust our procedures and our processes” to ensure that inspection tolerances are met in the races ahead.
“Certainly looking back at this, it doesn’t seem like pushing it as far as we did or cutting it as close as we did there was worth it,” Gordon said. “But at the same time, I love that our race teams pay attention to all the details, and it’s in a thousand different areas on the car. So we’ll certainly take a look at that, and the most important thing is making sure that all four of our cars moving forward are going to be able to meet those tolerances.”
Bowman’s championship eligibility expired after the Charlotte Roval, with his playoff hopes dashed by a 20-point margin after Sunday evening’s penalty. But Gordon lauded what’s been a bounceback season for Bowman, who snapped an 80-race skid with his summertime victory in the Chicago Street Race and who returned to the playoffs after missing the field in 2023.
“There’s a multitude of factors that make this tough to swallow, but one of the keys is the performance of the 48 team and what Alex has done,” Gordon said. “That team’s had a lot of pressure on them. They’ve been building this team up, getting more depth, getting comfortable with one another. Alex being healthy this year, they go win at Chicago, get themselves in the playoffs, and performed at a high level through the playoffs. So you hate to take that momentum and that opportunity away, and I know they’re disappointed as well, and I also know that they’ve got points to gain and get as high up in the points as they can once you see what plays out in this next round. Those guys can go gain a lot of points and get high up and keep the momentum going and win races and take that into next season and hopefully get the season started off right.”
The rest of the Hendrick Motorsports group has aspirations for finishing strong and advancing to the Championship 4 finale at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 10. Elliott has built on his consistency, Byron has rekindled some of his early season magic in recent weeks, and Larson added another in a series of dominating outings Sunday with his sixth win of the season.
Hendrick Motorsports has placed two cars among the final four championship contenders in two of the last three years at Phoenix, and Gordon said the organization was inching toward a well-timed peak in performance.
“That’s super-impressive, and that’s what you want,” Gordon said. “You want to get red-hot at this time of the year, and I think all of our teams, I can just tell they’ve got that twinkle in their eye, they’ve got an amazing opportunity to go battle for a championship, and this next round aligns really well for all three of the teams that we still have in the playoffs. Any one of them can not only … I’m hoping we get all three of them to Phoenix, but any one of them can win the championship this year.”
Rajah Caruth is now fully engulfed in his second full-time season in the Craftsman Truck Series and is currently competing in his first NASCAR Playoff appearance, eyeing a shot at making the Championship 4 to take home the coveted trophy at Phoenix Raceway when the series holds its finale on Friday, Nov. 8.
While Caruth has admittedly had an up-and-down year, the 22-year-old is still laser-focused on the tasks at hand and ensuring he is as prepared as possible when the time comes.
“It’s been an up-and-down year for sure, I think,” Caruth told NASCAR.com. “There have been a lot of solid times, but there have also been times where there are things that are left to be desired. I think what I’ve learned from the grind of the year so far is that truck racing isn’t as jam-packed as the Xfinity Series or the Cup Series, so I have just been trying to use my time wisely.
“I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of fun and cool things off of the race track, but at the same time, just using my time wisely and being present at the race shop and with my team and kind of learning what it takes to be a contending driver on and off of the race track.”
Caruth will enter the Round of 8 playoff race at Homestead-Miami Speedway (Saturday, Oct. 26, Noon ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) just five points below the elimination line after a fourth-place finish at Talladega, his third top-10 finish in the last four races.
Confidence is high for the Washington, D.C. native, returning to a 1.5-mile race track. Earlier this year, a win at the 1.5-mile oval at Las Vegas Motor Speedway propelled Caruth to a postseason position.
“I think Homestead is just a really fun race track,” Caruth said. “I’ve only raced there once, but I feel like it’s kinda right in my driving style. I feel really confident in my ability to run against the wall or be disciplined to a line but also, at the same time, be flexible to change where I need to be.
“I honestly think it is going to be business as usual, but you never know. It’s obviously playoff racing, so things can happen, but fortunately, we have had good and bad luck this year but really had some good luck at Talladega. Hopefully, we won’t need to rely on it and just take it to them when we get to Homestead.”
The calmness and level-headed mindset can be felt just by how Caruth speaks and conducts himself. He blocks out the noise of everything around him and stays focused on what he and his No. 71 Spire Motorsports team can control. He intends to maintain this mindset as he stares down the opportunity at his first championship in the Craftsman Truck Series.
“To be honest, I don’t really care what the external view of it is,” Caruth added. “I am more focused on my team and the things we need to do on the race track. Just be invested in each other work-wise and in our personal lives as well. Really, for me, I feel like, why not us? We have shown potential, we have put in the work, and we have put ourselves in a position to get really good finishes. There is no reason why we can’t be one of the four in Phoenix.
“For me, if and when we get there, I guess the rest is just gravy. The goal is to get there with a shot, so I am confident in our chances to do so in about a month from now.”
Melissa Fifield’s 158th start as a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour driver will be one of if not the most meaningful in a decade-long career.
The 32-year-old from Wakefield, New Hampshire is engaged to be married in November. On Oct. 20, when North Wilkesboro Speedway hosts the Brushy Mountain Powersports 150, the familiar black No. 01 Modified will feature partners near and dear to Fifield and her fiancé Hunter Smith.
Their wedding venue, The Yellow House, will be the primary sponsor on her car.
Likewise, the couple’s wedding photographer — Samantha Couick Photography — will be on board as an associate sponsor. As will Fifield’s wedding-day hair and makeup artist, Heather Mariano of Fletcher and Gaines.
In what feels like an unprecedented arrangement, all parties are thrilled about the partnership that will culminate in the race at 2 p.m. ET that Sunday in hills of northwestern North Carolina.
“Melissa and Hunter are just delightful,” said Chad King, an Innkeeper at The Yellow House. “So easygoing; fantastic people. We’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know them a little bit though this process.”
Melissa Fifield’s custom racing gloves from K1 feature an image of her engagement ring on her ring finger. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
Built in the late 1800s as a summer home, The Yellow House is now a bed and breakfast getaway in Waynesville, North Carolina, the meeting point of the Blue Ridge and Great Smokey Mountains. As a wedding venue, it offers patrons a personal and intimate setting.
That — a smaller venue where guests can feel as though they’re on a weekend vacation that just so happens to include a wedding ceremony — is exactly what Fifield and Smith had in mind for their special day.
The couple toured The Yellow House in November, ironically the exact weekend of their 2024 wedding date. Fifield quickly fell in love with the venue, and Smith concurred. They worked out the details with King and booked their event.
Then, the couple had an idea.
“We were driving, and we got to talking about the venue; we knew this was going to be the place we’d get married regardless,” said Smith, who manages a driver and crew performance operation and spots for Bobby Labonte in Modified racing. “I just kind of sparked the idea [of partnering with The Yellow House]. As we were driving home, we passed an exit for Wilkesboro. I mentioned to her: ‘What do you think?’
“Do you think they would do this? Would it be weird to ask? Do you think it’s overstepping? I don’t want them to think, like, if you don’t sponsor us, we’re not going to get married there.”
Melissa Fifield is nearing her 160th start on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
Fifield saw no harm in at least inquiring. Wilkesboro, after all, is an easy drive from Waynesville.
“We just presented the offer, like, ‘Let’s just shoot the shot,'” she said. “This would be a unique opportunity for both of us to do something that’s never been done.”
Fortunately for the couple, racing is a big part of King’s life. His brother races sprint cars in Wisconsin, and he’s spent many nights at dirt tracks getting pelted with mud, memories he cherishes.
So his response to the pitch from Fifield and Smith did not take long to formulate.
“It was like, ‘Yep, sure. Let’s do this,'” King said. “That’s exactly how the conversation went when I was talking with my partner about it. It was a really easy decision.
“The racing aspect is like, ‘Oh, I understand that world.’ It’s also a really interesting opportunity for us as a business. Especially being connected to NASCAR. We’ve never had an opportunity quite like this.”
Melissa Fifield (Photo: Jeffrey Barnes/NASCAR)
Fifield’s Modified at North Wilkesboro will feature The Yellow House prominently. Despite his busy schedule, Smith will be able to attend the race; he just so happens to be spotting for Labonte that day.
King will bring his husband, father and racer brother to North Wilkesboro to share the experience with Fifield and Smith. For King and his family, as much as anything, the event is an opportunity to enjoy great racing at a historic track.
For Fifield and Smith, though, it will be an unforgettable experience partnering with those who will make one day in November the best of their lives.
“We’re both really looking forward to having Chad and everyone at the race in North Wilkesboro,” Fifield said.
Added Smith: “This is going to be really fun, and something different.”
Hendrick Motorsports has elected not to appeal the No. 48 Chevrolet team’s disqualification penalty from last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, the team announced Monday.
The No. 48 Chevy was disqualified in technical inspection after Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400, the final race in the Cup Series Playoffs’ Round of 12. Competition officials determined that the car did not meet the minimum weight requirement, and No. 48 driver Alex Bowman was dropped from an 18th-place result to a last-place finish in the 38-car field.
A statement provided by the team said:
“Hendrick Motorsports will not appeal the disqualification of the No. 48 car following Sunday’s race at the Charlotte ROVAL. NASCAR allows a clear margin to account for the difference in pre- and post-race weight. After a thorough review by our team and the sanctioning body, we simply did not give ourselves enough margin to meet the post-race requirement. Although unintentional, the infraction was avoidable. We are extremely disappointed to lose a playoff spot under these circumstances and apologize to our fans and partners.”
That demotion in the finishing order kept Bowman from advancing to the next round of the Cup Series Playoffs. His original finish plus an apparent Stage 2 victory were initially enough to clear Bowman’s path into the Round of 8 by a nine-point margin. The revised results left Bowman 20 points shy of advancing, and Joey Logano was the beneficiary with his move back above the elimination line into the championship-eligible field.
Brad Moran, managing director of the NASCAR Cup Series, said the No. 48 team was provided with multiple attempts to clear post-race inspection: “We … gave them the opportunity to fuel the car as well as purge the water system and add water. So we gave them every opportunity to make minimum weight. We ran them back through. Unfortunately, they were light again. They are allowed a 0.5% weight break, which is for usage of fluids and so on. That’s about 17 pounds. We backed the car back off the scales, ran it back on and then, unfortunately, it was the same weight. So the car had a weight issue. All the other cars cleared inspection. The 48 didn’t, and that ends up in a disqualification.”
The Cup Series is set to open the postseason’s Round of 8 in Sunday’s South Point 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM) at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Kyle Larson, winner of Sunday’s Charlotte Roval event, has won the last two events at the 1.5-mile Nevada track and will join Hendrick teammates William Byron and Chase Elliott in the next round.
CONCORD, N.C. — For nearly three hours, a brilliantly executed day by Joey Logano and Co. appeared all for naught.
Entering Sunday’s Round of 12 elimination race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, Logano sat 13 points beneath the advancement line. The No. 22 Team Penske cohort muscled up to the task, collecting a race-best 17 stage points and scoring 46 points — third-most behind only Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott. But at the checkered flag, Logano’s eighth-place finish equated to a four-point deficit, missing the Round of 8 after a sensational charge by Tyler Reddick.
How quickly things change.
During post-race technical inspection, the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was ruled too light, ultimately leading to a disqualification for failing to meet minimum weight requirements. Driver Alex Bowman suddenly had his 18th-place result wiped from the board in addition to his 10 stage points, officially placing him last on the results rundown with only a single point awarded.
Bowman’s demise dropped him outside the postseason field of eight based on points allotted. And sure enough, there to capitalize was Logano.
Instead, Logano was credited with 18 stage points and 47 points, all enough to surpass Bowman by a healthy 20-point margin and advance into the Round of 8. And while a stroke of luck surely played to its favor, the No. 22 team positioned itself to take advantage of the opportunity.
“I mean, there’s a lot to be proud of,” Logano said moments after the race. “You know, we came here with our back up against the wall needing to score a lot of points. And you think about the stages and then cycling yourself into kind of a tough spot. No matter how you call the race, you put yourself in a spot where you’re going to be at a disadvantage on tires or be way back in the pack. We were at one point, and I was able to kind of manage and I think we’re what second and third in the stages. So we did good with that.”
That third-place result in Stage 2 was plussed-up to a P2 after Bowman’s stage win was discredited, offering another point to Logano’s tally.
The two drivers just ahead of Logano in the standings were regular-season champion Reddick (plus-14) and 2020 Cup champ Elliott (plus-13). Crew chief Paul Wolfe knew points would be at a premium for his No. 22 team Sunday and never wavered from that agenda. In the end, it paid off.
“I think today, I’m pleased with how we executed the day,” Wolfe told NASCAR.com. “You know, we had a plan this week of coming here, making sure we qualified well, get those stage points. It really played out exactly how we planned. I wish we could have had a little more speed in the car overall, but to get all the stage points and then keep track position all day, which there was opportunity for that to flip. We stayed out there at the end of Stage 2. Joey did a nice job managing the car on the older tires.
“I really can’t say that we could have played it any differently, other than just having a little more speed would have been nice. But overall, we did a great job today.”
Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR Digital Media
A second life for a Team Penske contender is dangerous for the rest of the postseason players, too. Logano and teammate Ryan Blaney have scored each of the last two Cup Series championships, the first two in which the Next Gen vehicle were used. But Logano’s Round of 12 wasn’t flashy, marked by a 14th-place run at Kansas before the “Big One” at Talladega relegated him to 33rd place.
Yet doubt never crept into Logano’s mind.
“We’re a championship-winning team,” he said. “It’s just, you know, we didn’t have a good round.”
Wolfe described his team’s 2024 campaign as “up and down,” but its turnaround came in the summer months, which included a playoff-position-clinching victory in June at Nashville Superspeedway.
“I think the second part of the season here as a company, Team Penske has been able to close the gap, I guess, on the competition — or maybe they’ve come back to us a little bit,” Wolfe said. “I think it’s probably a combination of both with the way NASCAR has been trying to do a really good job of enforcing the rules and making sure everyone’s (good) on that side of it. So I think that’s helped us some, and we’ve found a few things that have just made us better on the higher speed stuff was where we were lacking.
“I mean, I think you look at how we ran in Kansas, which was probably one of our worst tracks earlier in the season, all the Penske cars were strong there. So that, I think, gives us hope and optimism going into this next round with Vegas and Homestead on the list there, and obviously, Martinsville is a strong race for us as well. I think we’re in a good spot and, like I said, we’re gonna keep digging here and hopefully get us (a) championship.”
Worth noting is that Logano has qualified for the Championship 4 in every even-numbered year since 2014, scoring the title in both 2018 and 2022. It seemed like that streak was over for good when the checkered flag waved Sunday at the Roval.
But just like that, Logano’s playoff magic sparked back to life.
“I’ve watched enough NASCAR races now — and I hope you have, too — to know it’s never over until they’re over,” Logano said.
