Chase Elliott will start at the rear of the field in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race at Kansas Speedway after an engine issue cropped up in Saturday’s practice session.
Elliott managed the 15th-fastest lap in practice for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App), but the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet sat on pit road with its hood up in the second half of the 20-minute session. After his team worked in the engine compartment, Elliott was able to participate in Busch Light Pole Qualifying, but posted the slowest lap in the 38-car field at 166.950 mph — some two seconds off the front-runners’ pace.
Elliott will start last in the opening race of the Round of 12 in the Cup Series postseason. A representative for the No. 9 team indicated that the crew was still evaluating the mechanical issue as qualifying rolled to its completion, and the team said it would change engines before Sunday’s event, according to a post from its social media channels.
“We went through all the things that you can check on pit road,” said Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion. “Obviously, when you have an engine issue like that, it can be difficult to identify what exactly is broke. For me, I came off Turn 2 and basically just felt like it went down a cylinder, audible change, and lost a lot of power, so I knew something was wrong and came in as quick as I could, just to try to keep from messing it up any worse. But such a bummer. What a terrible time to have something go wrong. The Hendrick engine shop has been so good throughout my career. I don’t even think I’ve filled up a hand of engine issues that we’ve had over the course of my entire career, so I hate it, but would much rather have it happen today than tomorrow.”
Elliott advanced through the opening Round of 16 in the postseason, and he enters the three races that make up the Round of 12 ranked seventh among the remaining dozen title contenders. He sits six points ahead of the provisional elimination line entering Sunday’s 400-miler.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Winning the Regular Season Championship offers a driver a substantial buffer to aid them in advancing in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. For the first time in his career, Tyler Reddick earned the honor after the checkered flag waved for the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
Reddick then advanced to the Round of 12 but needed nearly all of his bonus from the regular-season title to do so after a slow first three outings in his 2024 postseason campaign.
With back-to-back results of 27th and 20th, respectively, across the last two race weekends, the No. 45 Toyota driver is in need of a quick turnaround Sunday at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
“It was definitely not a good first round for us,” Reddick said during a press conference Saturday. “I think a number of things played into that, but we’ve done a really good job all year long of, at our worst, being able to still get a top 10 out of it. Some of the handling issues that we had at tracks where normally it’s not an issue for us really set that in stone for that first round. We still could have scored decent points, especially the last two races, but we were just missing things a little bit, made mistakes in qualifying on my behalf that put us back there.”
After the points reset to begin the Round of 12, Reddick stands 20 points above the elimination line in fourth place. It’s not the most comfortable gap for the 28-year-old wheelman, and it’ll be emphasized further after struggles for the No. 45 and the entire 23XI Racing organization at Kansas in the spring.
Reddick started 15th and ended up with a 20th-place result in that race. He attributed the lack of pace to several variables that occurred throughout the event.
“Qualifying didn’t exactly pan out perfect,” said Reddick, who starts fourth Sunday. “Made some mistakes on my end that put us out of the top 10. But as for the race itself, I’d say we were decent. I think we could have ran top five but certainly hitting the wall the way that I did to start the race, racing with the 48 did a lot of damage to our car and from there, it spiraled out of control. We ran something over, put a hole in the floor in the car. Just a lot of things went wrong to really hurt the performance.
“Seeing some of the tire wear that we had that some of the others didn’t, there’s things to be learned there. The finish wasn’t great, but as we prepared for this coming weekend, we weren’t panicked or in any kind of freak-out coming back here because the other Toyotas ran good, and we know where they’re at, and we’ve been very close to winning speed and had that potential in years past. So we knew that we weren’t going to have to look at a lot of things to improve or change coming back.”
The next three races could be a feast for Reddick as he’s the defending winner of the Kansas playoff race, the most recent victor at Talladega Superspeedway and has three top 10s in four starts in the Round of 12’s finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course.
Knowing what awaits in the coming weeks and rounds beyond, the No. 45’s ceiling appears to be high.
“We’re able to look at the results and understand why we were there,” Reddick said. “We’re not scratching our heads as to why we ran that bad. We know what caused it. It is what it is. It stinks but we get to reset and start over this round where we were to begin it.”
LEXINGTON, N.C. (Sept. 28, 2024) — Kaulig Racing announced that Ty Dillon will drive the team’s No.10 Chevrolet in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.
The team will release the rights to the No. 31 at the conclusion of the 2024 season and acquire the No. 10 for the 2025 season. Daniel Hemric, the current driver of the No. 31 Chevy, will not return to the team in 2025, the driver announced on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“We’re excited to be able to acquire the rights of the No. 10 for the 2025 Cup Series season,” said Chris Rice, president of Kaulig Racing. “When we decided to move to the Cup Series, the number was not available, so we are looking forward to having familiarity and synergy across both series with the Nos. 10 and 16.”
Dillon, who has made 244 total Cup starts, competed full-time for six seasons in the series between 2017 and 2023. Most notably, Dillon competed at Germain Racing for four seasons before the team ceased operations following the 2020 season. Kaulig Racing went on to purchase the building, renovate it and currently operates out of the building.
“I am incredibly grateful for another opportunity to run full-time in the Cup Series, and to be able to do it with the men and women at Kaulig Racing means a lot to me personally,” said Dillon. “They gave me a chance this year to go out and prove myself in a handful of starts. The team and I were able to connect early on, and we put together a few strong runs in the No. 16. I’m really looking forward to what 2025 brings with this team. We have a bright future ahead of us and we’re going to give it our all each and every race next season.”
Dillon is currently competing in a part-time schedule for Kaulig Racing in the team’s No. 16 Chevrolet, finishing in the top 20 in two of his four starts for the team.
“Ty has done a really great job for us this year in our No. 16 car, competing in a limited schedule,” said team owner Matt Kaulig. “He has been consistent each time he gets in the car and has really helped our program grow this season. We think he will be instrumental in continuing our Cup program in alliance with Richard Childress Racing.”
Dillon will compete in his final Cup race of the season with Kaulig Racing Sunday at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) before taking over the No. 10 Chevrolet in 2025. Information regarding partnerships for 2025 will be announced at a later date.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Friday evening’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway was straightforward for its 134-lap duration.
Just one caution for cause bunched the field back up but all that was yet to be determined in the final stage was who would be the final driver to race their way into the Round of 8 of the 2024 postseason.
CR7 Motorsports’ Grant Enfinger outdueled two-time series champion Ben Rhodes for the final spot by 25 points after the No. 99 ThorSport Racing driver ran out of fuel with two laps to go after trying to stretch his tank for the full 52-lap run to the end.
“Kind of knew, just racing with Ben and knowing the situation they’re in, they were going to throw that “Hail Mary,” Enfinger said. “We had contemplated trying to cover that just to make sure he couldn’t jump us 12 spots just to stay on the same strategy as him but we were still a couple laps out of our window so Jeff (Stankiewicz, crew chief) opted not to do that and he made the right call for sure.
“But Ben definitely kept us honest and he definitely took a couple years off mine and Jeff’s life.”
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media
Struggling with handling issues for the duration of the race, Rhodes failed to score points in either of the first two stages. Attempting to go without a stop for the final green-flag run kept the bubble battle close with Enfinger but the ill-fated No. 99 neither had the pace nor fuel to pull off the last-ditch effort.
“I’ve got a couple [hypotheses],” Rhodes told NASCAR.com in regards to how his truck raced. “Maybe.. possibly, bar load, but I’m gonna have to go back and talk with guys and investigate, figure out what went wrong. It’s pretty crazy how we were able to qualify fourth, the truck drove so well, and then fire off the race where you’re absolute junk. We made really, really, really, really big adjustments on it and nothing really made a difference except one, which leads me to believe somehow bar load, something happened there.”
Despite not having the night or opening round Enfinger wanted out of his No. 9 Chevrolet Silverado, the team will get to enter the Round of 8 for a second consecutive season as the 39-year-old veteran continues to chase his first championship after last year’s heartbreak at Phoenix.
However, he’ll have work to do heading to his home track of Talladega Superspeedway as he enters the semi-final round 11 points below the Championship 4 cutoff.
“This is definitely not a three-race stint that we’re proud of by any means at CR7 Motorsports,” Enfinger said. “Feel like we turned a corner earlier in the year and then we stumbled here this Round of 10. So looking forward to getting back on track next week at Talladega, and anything can happen there obviously but it’s my home track. I love racing there. We’ll get through there and go on.”
This season will mark the first time since 2020 Rhodes failed to make the Championship 4 and while the 27-year-old will be etched in series history as a multi-time titleholder, getting eliminated never gets easy.
“Oh yeah, they all hurt if you don’t have the trophy, especially after you win a couple now, it makes everything hurt a lot worse,” Rhodes lamented. “You just demand more performance out of yourself and your team. For us to be so far off in the race is quite crazy, especially with the changes we threw at it. So we just got to go back and research, figure out what happened, and I’m going to use the rest of season to develop now and try to make sure that next year we can get ourselves solid performances.”
KANSAS City, Kan. — Corey Heim won Friday night’s Kubota Tractor 200 in the fastest truck, but he needed help from fellow playoff driver Ty Majeski to secure the victory in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Round of 10 elimination race at Kansas Speedway.
Majeski ran out of fuel approaching the white flag while leading, allowing Heim to surge past in his No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota and claim his sixth victory of the season in a race that saw reigning series champion Ben Rhodes and playoff rookie Daniel Dye eliminated from title contention.
Under the third and final caution on Lap 78 of the 134-lap race, Majeski came to pit road for tires and fuel, along with ThorSport Racing teammate Rhodes and eventual fourth-place finisher Kaden Honeycutt.
Heim, runner-up Layne Riggs and third-place finisher Christian Eckes stayed on track during the caution and made green-flag pit stops within the final 30 laps. Heim, who started the race from the rear of the field after hitting the outside wall and cutting a tire in practice earlier in the day, was chasing Majeski when the latter ran out of fuel.
Majeski, who had clinched a berth in the Round of 8 with his win in Stage 1, rolled home in 15th, the last driver on the lead lap.
“We were the best truck all night—it’s my favorite track, I love coming here,” said Heim, who won at the 1.5-mile speedway in the spring. “I look forward to this. I had a smile on my face all week coming to this place.
“I just thought we could sweep the year here. It’s an awesome place to come. I certainly thought we had it lost there to the 98 (Majeski), almost making it on fuel, but it just shows my team made the right call.”
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
The victory was Heim’s second at Kansas and the 11th of his career. He led a race-high 64 laps in an event that featured 10 lead changes among three drivers.
Heim, Eckes and Nick Sanchez had clinched spots in the Round of 8 in the second race of the Round of 10 at Bristol. Majeski, seventh-place finisher Rajah Caruth, ninth-place Grant Enfinger, 14th-place Tyler Ankrum and 18th-place Taylor Gray advanced on points Friday night.
In the closing laps, there was real suspense regarding the fortunes of two-time series champion Rhodes and Enfinger. Rhodes was on the same strategy as Majeski and ran as high as third as the race neared its conclusion.
But Enfinger gained positions as Rhodes lost them in the late going, and the die was cast when Rhodes ran out of fuel just before the white flag.
“We qualified fourth, and at the start of the race — massive changes with the truck,” said Rhodes, who won titles in 2021 and 2023. “We could not get it tightened up… Still kind of unacceptable. If we’d have gotten our stage points, it would have taken care of itself.”
Rhodes came home 22nd after running out of fuel and fell 25 points short of Enfinger for the final spot in the Round of 8.
“It was definitely a little bit stressful, definitely too close for comfort there,” Enfinger said. “This is a round we want to forget. We snuck through here, and now we’re looking forward to going to Talladega next week (for the first race in the Round of 8).”
Dye scraped the outside wall twice during the first stage and made multiple pit stops, falling three laps down. He finished 27th and, like Enfinger, was 25 points away from advancing to the next round.
Riggs, who didn’t qualify for the Playoffs in his rookie season, added the runner-up finish to his two victories in the previous two races.
Dawson Sutton ran fifth, followed by Tanner Gray, Caruth, Bayley Currey, Enfinger and Connor Mosack.
The Truck Series will begin the Round of 8 at Talladega Superspeedway next Friday (4:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Note: Post-race inspection in the Craftsman Truck Series garage at Kansas Speedway was completed without issue, confirming Heim as the race winner.
NASCAR.com’s 36 for 36 continues at Kansas Speedway.
With 36 races and 36 full-time Charter cars, our players select one car per race, but there’s a simple twist: once they’ve made the pick, they can’t choose that car again for the rest of the 36-race season. Yes, that means every car will be selected exactly once … a survivor pool, by another name.
Follow along weekly as our panel of pickers — Dustin Albino from Jayski, along with Steve Luvender and Cameron Richardson from NASCAR.com — embarks on a season-long journey to think like strategists and prove their picking prowess.
We’ll also feature a fourth “community” 36 for 36 pick each week, as decided by fan vote on the r/NASCAR subreddit. Can the collective vote topple our trio of full-timers?
Current Standings:
Steve Luvender: 737
Dustin Albino: -61
r/NASCAR Community: -89
Cameron Richardson: -136
Race 30 of 36: Kansas
Saturday night’s Bristol Night Race was a tough one for two of our pickers. Cameron Richardson and the r/NASCAR community both selected John Hunter Nemechek, who ran into trouble early and finished 33rd. By picking William Byron for 26 points, Steve Luvender added one point to his points lead over Dustin Albino, who went with Ty Gibbs.
Kansas kicks off the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, and it’s also the home stretch in 36 for 36 — players have whittled their picks down to just seven drivers. What’s their plan for this week?
Jayski’s Dustin Albino: No. 11, Denny Hamlin
Dustin’s pick last week: No. 54, Ty Gibbs (25 points)
Total season points: 676 (second place)
Dustin: Hamlin is the only driver that has top-five finishes in all five Next Gen races at Kansas. That was highlighted by his last-lap dustup with Kyle Larson in the spring of 2023, propelling the No. 11 Toyota to Victory Lane. Three of his last four Kansas results have ended in the top two positions. Dating back to the fall of 2021, he has six straight top fives here. Simply put, Hamlin is elite at Kansas, and his four wins sit atop the all-time wins list at the 1.5-mile venue. It seems like the perfect weekend to use Hamlin, who needs a stellar run this weekend with Talladega Superspeedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course looming in the Round of 12.
NASCAR.com’s Steve Luvender: No. 23, Bubba Wallace
Steve’s pick last week: No. 24, William Byron (26 points)
Total season points: 37 (first place)
Steve: I’m going with 2022 Kansas playoff race winner Bubba Wallace this weekend. 23XI Racing seems to have this track figured out, and Wallace has momentum on his side after a third-place finish at Bristol last week. I considered Wallace’s teammate Tyler Reddick, who won this race last year, but I have my eye on him for another race. This week, I’m all in on No. 23.
Cameron’s pick last week: No. 42, John Hunter Nemechek (4 points)
Total season points: 601 (fourth place)
Cameron: Like Denny Hamlin is at Kansas, the No. 45 Toyota has been the same in the fall playoff race. The No. 45 has been victorious in the last two Kansas playoff races, with Bubba Wallace playing spoiler in 2022 and Tyler Reddick holding off the field in overtime last season to win his way into the Round of 12. After a mum start to his playoff campaign, Kansas would be the perfect track for Reddick to gain back momentum as the title favorite after winning the Regular Season Championship. My only concern for Reddick: 23XI did not have the speed in the spring weekend, and with how my picks have performed this year, I wouldn’t be surprised if misfortunes unfold on Sunday.
r/NASCAR Community: No. 9, Chase Elliott
r/NASCAR’s pick last week: No. 42, John Hunter Nemechek (4 points)
Total season points: 648 (third place)
The NASCAR subreddit voted Chase Elliott as their Kansas pick in this week’s voting thread. Here’s what Redditors had to say:
u/Extreme-Bite-9123: “Elliot here. His stats here are great, he’s going to be trying to maximize points, Hendrick damn near owns this place, and he finished third here in the spring.”
u/FridgusDomin8or: “I could definitely see the appeal here for Elliott — he’s going to run pretty well, not be involved in anything, get some good points, and he finished third here in the spring”
u/HomerWillNotD1e34782: “Chase Definitely could be up front and contend for the Win, He’s Good at the Track, and Could be a Sneaky Good Pick.”
u/DependentAd3724: “Reddick is a better fit at Homestead, this is one of Chase’s best, definitely the best place we have to use him in the context of the other drivers”
Check back next week to see how our pickers fared as the season-long 36 for 36 journey continues.
And, if you’ve got a competitive itch beyond meticulously managing your Fantasy Live lineup each week, feel free to save or print your own 36 for 36 sheet and see if you can beat our pickers and the Reddit community!
Throughout the 2024 NASCAR season, Ken Martin, director of historical content for the sanctioning body, will offer his suggestions on which historical races fans should watch from the NASCAR Classics library in preparation for each upcoming race weekend.
Martin has worked exclusively for NASCAR since 2008 but has been involved with the sport since 1982, overseeing various projects. He has worked in the broadcast booth for hundreds of races, assisting the broadcast team with different tasks. This includes calculating the “points as they run” for the historic 1992 finale, the Hooters 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The following suggestions are Ken’s picks to watch before this Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 Presented by ESPN BET at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
The freshly repaved Kansas Speedway turned out to put on a wild race, as the fifth event of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs produced the yellow flag 14 times.
Despite all of the cautions, the race turned out to be mostly smooth for the playoff field. Two drivers, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart, bounced back from separate issues to recover for top-10 finishes.
Johnson, who entered the race second in points, was just one driver who found himself in trouble. He hit the wall near the halfway point of the event, bringing out the sixth caution flag of the day. The No. 48 team repaired his car over a handful of pit stops and came back to finish ninth.
Stewart had two separate issues that plagued him throughout the event, after starting deep in the field in the 33rd position. He was caught speeding on pit road early on and later spun with just about 100 laps remaining. Stewart managed to finish fifth.
Matt Kenseth, who was racing in his final season for team owner Jack Roush, led 78 laps and held off a late charge from Martin Truex Jr. to capture the victory. It was announced one month earlier that Kenseth would leave his longtime team and join Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2013 season.
Paul Menard and his No. 27 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet had an impressive third-place finish, their best finish of the season. The only other non-playoff driver to finish in the top 11 was Regan Smith.
Smith was driving the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for an injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. and finished seventh after starting 39th.
The standings following the race saw Brad Keselowski leave with a seven-point advantage over Jimmie Johnson with Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer and Kasey Kahne rounding out the remainder of the top five with just four races remaining on the schedule.
The elimination-style playoff format had already proved to be intense throughout its first year of existence and the 2015 playoff race at Kansas was no different.
Matt Kenseth dominated the contest, leading 153 of the race’s 269 laps but chaos ensued when Joey Logano and Kenseth battled for the victory as the final laps passed by.
The two drivers were racing for the win and Kenseth tried to hold off Logano but contact sent Kenseth out of the way, bringing out the caution.
The final restart of the day saw Logano stay out front of the field and capture his second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series victory.
Kenseth wasn’t as lucky. He was not able to recover from the late slide and finished 14th. If he could have held on for the victory, it would have clinched Kenseth a spot in the next round of the playoffs. Thanks to a 42nd-place finish at Charlotte the previous week, he needed to win at Talladega if he wanted to move on and continue his quest for his second series title.
The incident proved to be a battle of opinions between the two drivers as they disagreed on what happened on the track.
Logano called it “good hard racing,” saying that Kenseth raced him hard and he followed suit.
Kenseth on the other hand, was far from agreeing with Logano. He blamed Logano for wrecking him, saying it was not a great decision for him. He said that he was always a fan of Logano but not anymore.
Eleven of the 12 remaining playoff drivers finished 16th or better, leaving a tight points battle for the final playoff spots in the next round up for grabs heading into the wild card that was Talladega.
With just the first eight drivers moving on to the next round, second through 10th place in the standings were only separated by 20 points.
As the playoff drivers looked to cash in on a victory to move on to the second round, Bubba Wallace played spoiler.
Wallace, who was driving the No. 45 Toyota for 23XI Racing, led the final 43 laps en route to the second victory of his NASCAR Cup Series career.
Normally the driver of the No. 23 car for the team, Wallace moved over to drive its No. 45 car following Kurt Busch’s injury as the No. 45 car was eligible for the owners’ championship.
He held off his car owner Denny Hamlin, who was looking for a victory to help move him on to the second round of the playoffs. Hamlin still managed to leave Kansas sitting third in points with a comfortable advantage of almost 40 points with one race remaining in the round.
Three playoff drivers found themselves leaving Kansas in a tough position following a rough day.
Tyler Reddick, who won the pole for the race, crashed and slipped to 12th in the standings, leaving him in a must-win situation at Bristol the following week.
Kyle Busch also had a tough day, finishing 26th, putting him 13th in points, and 2014 series champion Kevin Harvick finished last following an early accident. He sat 16th in the standings, almost 40 points below the elimination line.
William Byron will likely be the one to tell you he’s no stranger to a midseason slump. It happened again this year as the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports driver has been winless since April after he was victorious in three of the year’s first eight races.
No matter how bad the slump may have gotten in the past, Byron always turned it on once the 10-race postseason kicked off.
However, 2024 has thrown Byron a bit of a curveball early in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs as he was only able to muster a best finish of ninth in the Round of 16 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It’s just the second time in his career Byron failed to score a top-five result in the first three races of the postseason, with the other being in 2019, his first playoff appearance.
Despite the slow start in this year’s championship quest, Byron and the No. 24 camp aren’t pressing the panic button any time soon.
“I feel like that’s what makes our group really good is we’ve really come together during this time and we know we’re not where we want to be or need to be,” Byron told NASCAR.com. “But now is the time to start showing that and now is when it matters.”
This weekend will matter substantially for the 12 drivers remaining in the battle for the Bill France Trophy as Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) opens another potentially chaotic round that ends with Talladega Superspeedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course.
Byron has a mixed bag of results in 13 starts in the Sunflower State. His last two finishes at the track have been outside the top 10, with 15th- and 23rd-place results, respectively. Neither was due to a lack of speed, but mistakes in both events from the 26-year-old wheelman.
“Just kind of had some trouble early in both of those weekends,” Byron said. “Feel like we had a lot of speed, but we just had some difficulties. In ’23, I spun out in the first stage, kind of damaged the car some and then in the spring this year, hit the wall in qualifying. Just kind of a little bit of driver mistakes and feel like it kind of took us out of the rest of the weekend or damaged our car potential. This weekend, just looking to have a solid weekend, start to finish and I feel like we always have the speed at Kansas and just trying to find that right balance for longer runs and just have what we need to go there and perform.”
With two 1.5-mile ovals waiting in the Round of 8, Kansas will set the tone for how the playoff drivers will fare for the rest of the season.
In 2023, three of the four drivers eliminated in the Round of 16 finished outside the top 10 when Kansas was the middle race of that round and in 2022, the four drivers eliminated in the opening round all finished outside the top 10 at the oval.
“It’s definitely a really important track and it’s really a good judge of where everyone is speed-wise and how they are execution-wise because pit stops are important in Kansas,” Byron said. “It’s one of those places where I think it’ll be really important for the future of the playoffs and kind of where you stack up. There’s just a lot of points that you can get and it’s a little bit more in your control than Talladega. If you go out and get top five in stage points, both stages, you’re going to be in really good shape.”
A points reset starting the Round of 12 sees Byron 14 points above the elimination line and in fourth place of the playoff field. It offers the No. 24 team a golden opportunity to reboot and get its championship hopes back on track.
“I feel like our group is really well prepared. We prepare better than anyone I feel like on our team,” Byron said. “I just think that it’s about things starting to come together and come our way. A couple little things here and there and it’s going to add up and make a difference. So I feel good about where our group is and what we’re capable of. We’ve shown that over the last 14 to 18 months of what we’re able to do and races were able to win.
“I’m excited, and I feel like our team is ready to go.”
After 14 full-time seasons and eight straight years with a victory — seven of which were multi-win campaigns — a Justin Allgaier rise to the NASCAR Xfinity Series champion’s stage at Phoenix Raceway in November just feels like a matter of time.
The driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet has been so tantalizingly close for so long, qualifying for the Championship 4 in five of the last seven years and placing runner-up in the title-deciding finale in 2020 and 2023 but yet to seal the deal.
Allgaier, 38, enters the 2024 Xfinity Series Playoffs as one of the favortites as the No. 1 seed with two wins in hand this season. Six races separate him from another shot at finally scoring that ever-elusive title. There is at least one lingering question, though.
“I think that’s the hard part — how do you kind of regenerate something different after having success year over year and still not being able to get a championship?” Allgaier pondered during Xfinity Series Playoff Media Day on Tuesday. “How do you go into Phoenix and have a different school of thought or different mindset?”
Allgaier’s last visit to the 1-mile track in Arizona felt almost emblematic of his prior championship quests. The No. 7 Chevrolet was cruising to a sure victory at Phoenix in March, nursing a three-second lead with five laps to go. That was until a flat left-rear tire sent him spinning backward into the Turn 1 wall, abruptly ending his day without a trophy in hand.
Perhaps, though, the bad luck that has plagued Allgaier and Co. is out of the way and was left behind in the regular season. The finale at Bristol Motor Speedway was another painfully perfect example of chances souring. Entering with a 43-point lead to win the Regular Season Championship, Allgaier was leading when the lapped car of Austin Green blew a tire and bounced off the wall, clipping Allgaier and damaging the No. 7 car. He charged all the way back to the top five — then got spun into the inside wall when Sheldon Creed and Allgaier moved for the same spot on corner exit and sent him spinning. Allgaier ultimately finished 30th, 10 laps down, and lost the regular-season crown by a mere three points.
“I think for us, this year’s been really weird,” Allgaier said. “I would say, arguably, finish-wise, it’s been one of the worst years we’ve had. I mean, it just seems like if it could go wrong, it’s gone wrong. We’ve put ourselves in bad position at the end of these races numerous times, and we’re still right there points-wise. We’re still doing all the right things. We’re still going to go into these playoffs as the point leader with the most amount of bonus points at the end of the regular season. So I think that that’s where it’s been really odd or a weird season, if you will.”
Now comes a reset: a three-race Round of 12 beginning with a trip to Kansas Speedway on Saturday (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a 27-point buffer to the provisional elimination line for Allgaier. But for as questionable as his luck has been — five DNFs and seven finishes of 28th or worse in the opening 26 races including two of the last three — Allgaier takes nothing for granted.
“While I would love to go to Phoenix and have a shot at a championship, I also know that we’ve got to get to Phoenix,” he said. “And if I look at the two individual rounds before the final round, there’s a lot of unknowns. There’s a lot of question marks. There’s a lot of things that could go in your favor and could go against you. So we just have to go into it with a mindset of, we scored a lot of points this year. We’ve done all the right things, and even if we don’t have the finishes to show for it, we’ve had the points to show for it. So we can point our way in just as easy as you can win your way in.”
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JR Motorsports co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. sees the potential in both Allgaier and crew chief Jim Pohlman. Since joining forces to begin the 2023 season, Allgaier and Pohlman have compiled six victories, 22 top fives and 35 top 10s in a combined 59 races. Earnhardt doesn’t view this year as a now-or-never moment for the duo — but “soon” is safely on his radar.
“I really believe that he is in the best possible position to win it,” Earnhardt said at Bristol last weekend. “Him and Jim, they’ve got a past and a trust in each other. And when he asked to have Jim as his crew chief, I was like, ‘All right, you’re picking your guy.’ And man, it has been as good as you could hope. I know if you just look at the stat sheet, you can say there’s an issue in stage three for a handful of races, where they swept the stages but don’t get the result. But I look at just the car’s speed. When he unloads and they go through the process of the weekend, he’s had some really, really great race cars comparable to our other cars. I feel like Jim’s exceeding or overachieving a bit in some moments.
“And so I’m not really worrying about if you don’t win it [this year]. I’m more saying in the next handful of years, I think he’s got the best shot he’s ever had to do it, and I would be surprised if he didn’t. If he doesn’t win a championship in the next couple of years with where we are as a team and him and Jim and what they’re doing, I will be a little bit surprised.”
On Tuesday, Allgaier talked about how strong the relationship is between himself and Pohlman and pointed to the fun and success they have had together as a driver/crew-chief combination. Through 2023, Allgaier felt like they couldn’t make a wrong call — every decision fell in the No. 7 team’s favor. This year has featured only some of those moments while also adding in some significant headwinds.
Don’t be mistaken, though — Allgaier relishes it all the same.
“I think sometimes you need the peaks and the valleys, right?” he said. “You need the peaks to really enjoy the moment and to have the successes of what goes on in this sport. But you really need the valleys to kind of reset yourself and give yourself that extra little bit of of drive and want.
“Listen, there’s no question Bristol did not go the way that we wanted it to go. But that’s great motivation, right? I look at that race and I look at all the the challenges that we went through; it’s great motivation to go into Kansas this week and go try to right the wrongs, right, to do the things that we didn’t do at Bristol. And I think we have the car to do that.”
What he has with certainty is faith and support from within his team. Allgaier has driven for JR Motorsports since 2016 and has collected 22 of his 25 Xfinity wins in the No. 7 Chevrolet, becoming a perennial threat for the Xfinity Series championship. Earnhardt, a Class of 2021 NASCAR Hall of Fame and two-time series champion himself, believes that Allgaier has what it takes to hoist that trophy as well — whether in November 2024 or in the future.
“We’ve made some great decisions in our company, but hiring Justin was one of those,” Earnhardt said. “He has been so professional, just represents all our partners so well — everybody that’s ever connected to him with Unilever or obviously Brandt that he’s cultivated on his own, all the other partners that have ever been on his car. They love him. He’s perfect. He just handles all that stuff so well. And he’s measured in his criticism when things don’t go well. He doesn’t do something or say something that is difficult for you as an owner or the team or the organization.
“He’s just so, so good, and I’m thankful for that. So I’m wanting to help him get this championship because I know it means a lot to him, but I think we’re putting him in really good position to do that.”
For decades, the Hendrick family was a fixture at short tracks across Virginia.
Ray Hendrick is widely considered to be one of the best to ever race a Modified. He’s credited with winning more than 700 features, mostly in Modifieds, though some also came in the Late Model Sportsman division. He was selected as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998.
His son, Roy Lee Hendrick, was also a dedicated racer who claimed track championships at a variety of venues including South Boston, Southside and Orange County Speedways. Even after his retirement from racing, Roy Lee could be found a local short tracks and car shows with a vintage Modified once piloted by his father.
The elder Hendrick died in 1990 after a battle with cancer. Roy Lee recently passed away at the age of 71.
This weekend at Martinsville Speedway during the ValleyStar Credit Union 300, two-time NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division I champion Peyton Sellers will honor the memories of Ray and Roy Lee with a special throwback scheme.
The car Peyton Sellers will drive during Saturday’s ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway. (Photo: Courtesy of Sellers Racing)
“I used to run into Roy at different car shows and different things and speak to him. I didn’t have a tremendous friendship or anything, but I knew him casually, and we’d speak and talk about the old days and that sort of thing,” Sellers recalled. “It’s an interesting way to say let’s not forget that. Let’s not forget how good they were and the legacy that the Hendricks have had on the state of Virginia.”
Ray Hendrick and Sellers have a lot in common.
Both men have won countless races and track championships across the state of Virginia, including South Boston Speedway, where Sellers is a seven-time champion and Hendrick won championships in the Modified and Late Model Sportsman classes.
Another connection the two have — which is easily overlooked — is that they have both driven a No. 26 stock car with sponsorship from Clarence’s Steakhouse.
Ray’s time piloting the No. 26 Clarence’s Steakhouse car was brief and split between stints in 1975 and 1978. However, much like all his race cars, the car carried the same famous red and orange wings that remain an iconic part of Virginia short-track racing lore.
This weekend, Sellers’ car will resemble the No. 26 car Ray piloted in the 1970s, wings and all.
Ray Hendrick in front of the Flying 26 at Daytona International Speedway in the 1970s. (Photo: Courtesy Clarence’s Steakhouse)
“The Flying 26 was something we’d seen in some old photographs,” said Sellers. “Once I got to learning a little bit more about the history of it, I said the timing is good, we’re gonna have a big crowd at Martinsville, we only go there once a year and it’s Clarence’s hometown. It was the right time.
“With Roy passing this year and Ray being such a legend around here, it was a good tribute to both of them. I talked to Clarence (Pickurel, owner of Clarence’s Steakhouse) and those guys about it and they seemed excited about it, so it seemed right.”
Sellers enters the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 with plenty of momentum. He captured his seventh track championship at South Boston a few weeks ago and enters Martinsville second in the Virginia Late Model Triple Crowns standings with an average finish of 3.5.
Recently crowned NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division I champion Connor Hall leads the Triple Crown standings with an average finish of 1.5.
Martinsville was a place where Ray Hendrick excelled. He’s credited with 20 victories at the legendary 0.526-mile oval, more than any other driver across all divisions that have raced at the track. Sellers spent years trying to earn just one win, which he finally did in 2022.
A second win, Sellers says, would be the perfect way to honor the Hendrick family and everything they’ve done to promote grassroots racing in the state of Virginia.
“I feel like as we’re prepared this year as we ever have been,” Sellers said. “I do think that competition is going to be as stiff as always. There aren’t quite as many cars on the entry list, but the depth of the field will definitely be there.
