Posted on by Neil Paine

As the Cup Series returns from its Olympic vacation, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Just four races — at Richmond, Michigan, Daytona and Darlington — remain before the postseason field is set, which means it’s an especially desperate time for those winless drivers seeking the four playoff slots that haven’t been locked in yet.

What is each bubble driver’s path to the playoffs? 

We’ll enlist the help of 10,000 simulations of the rest of the regular season using my Adjusted Points+ index, rating every driver’s ability at each remaining track type and their projected odds of finishing in each position, each race. Results that have the biggest differentials between simulations where a driver makes the playoffs and not are the ones that are most essential along their path to glory.

Martin Truex Jr.

Status: No. 13 in playoff picture, +108 to the cutline
What he needs: Avoid a catastrophe.

By far, the scenarios that have the biggest impact — in either direction — on Truex’s chances of piloting his way into the playoffs are poor finishes at each of the remaining tracks. In the (rare) cases where he misses the playoffs, Truex has an average finish of 28.6, including 30th at Michigan and Darlington. And in roughly two-thirds of the simulations where he falls short, he places 30th or worse in at least three of the four remaining races. So barring a string of catastrophic finishes — or an extremely remote situation like Simulation No. 252, where Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. shut him out on wins — Truex ought to be in good shape for the playoffs, whether he gets in on points or by winning a race (which happened far more times in the simulations than Truex outright missing the playoffs).

Ty Gibbs

Status: No. 14 in playoff picture, +42 to the cutline
What he needs: Outduel Kyle Busch at Richmond and/or Bubba Wallace at Michigan and Darlington.

Gibbs is in solid enough shape that he can borrow some of the Truex playbook from above: In order to make the playoffs, just avoid too many horrible finishes. (Gibbs gets in more than 50% of the time if he finishes 25th or better in half of the remaining races.) However, it’s also worth keeping an eye on a few specific matchups for Gibbs. In scenarios where he makes the playoffs versus not, Gibbs finishes nine spots better on average at Michigan and Darlington and six spots better at Richmond. But Busch also finishes 4.2 spots worse at Richmond and Wallace finishes 4.1 spots worse at Darlington and Michigan when Gibbs makes the playoffs. It’s no coincidence because those are the two most likely drivers currently outside the playoffs to barge their way in — and Gibbs needs to outperform them.

Chris Buescher celebrates amid a confetti shower in Victory Lane at Richmond Raceway.
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media

Chris Buescher

Status: No. 15 in playoff picture, +17 to the cutline
What he needs: A strong run for the RFK Fords at Richmond.

Buescher’s position is a lot shakier than either Truex’s or Gibbs’, so there are more ways for things to go wrong for him — including being outdriven by Wallace at Michigan and Darlington (the two have been essentially equal on ovals so far this season), or a disaster at Daytona (he finishes 20th or worse in 58% of the simulations where he misses the playoffs). But Buescher will shore up his position if he and RFK Racing teammate Brad Keselowski run well at Richmond. It’s a short track where they’ve had a lot of success since Keselowski joined the organization for the 2022 season; RFK has the third-best average finish per driver at short tracks (14.3) of any team over that span. In simulations where both RFK cars finish among the top 10 at Richmond, Buescher makes the playoffs 88% of the time.

Ross Chastain

Status: No. 16 in playoff picture, +7 to the cutline
What he needs: Show up at Darlington.

That Chastain is fighting for his playoff life right now is a testament to just how much his driving has fallen off since early in the 2022 season, when he was looking like one of the best racers in the sport. He has hit a snag at this stage in each of the past three seasons since joining Trackhouse Racing, but this year’s slump is worse than most; he has zero top 10s and an average finish of 26.5 since late June. To stabilize his postseason hopes, Chastain needs a particularly strong showing at Darlington, where he owns two career top fives in 10 starts. In the simulations where Chastain makes the playoffs, he finishes at an average position of 12.7 in the Southern 500, while he has an average finish of 22.8 in the sims where he misses out.

23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace smiles on pit road ahead of a NASCAR Cup Series race.
James Gilbert | Getty Images

Bubba Wallace

Status: No. 17 in playoff picture, -7 to the cutline
What he needs: Be in the mix to win at Daytona.

Although Wallace is below the postseason cutoff, facing immense pressure with his playoff odds basically being a coin flip, he also has some positive factors going for him. One of them is he tends to do well at intermediate ovals like Michigan: Wallace has a pair of top 10s there in his past five races — and he’s won at Kansas, a sister track to Michigan. He also has an even higher rate of top 10s at Darlington than Michigan. Plate tracks like Daytona are consistently Wallace’s best track type, with a resume that includes his other win at Talladega. Asking anyone to win their way into the playoffs amid the chaos of the Daytona night race is a tall task, but he takes the checkered flag there in 7% of the simulations where he ends up making the playoffs. Moreover, Wallace’s odds of making the playoffs rise to 65% in the simulations where he finishes in the top five at Daytona.

Kyle Busch and Chase Briscoe compete side-by-side in a NASCAR race.
Todd Kirkland | Getty Images

Kyle Busch and Chase Briscoe

Busch’s Status: No. 19 in playoff picture, -112 to the cutline
Briscoe’s Status: No. 18 in playoff picture, -83 to the cutline
What they need: Hope for chaos.

At this point, we’ve reached the tier of drivers where one of their only viable paths to the playoffs is to win. It’s still technically possible that either Busch or Briscoe could get in on points alone, but it’s getting pretty unlikely. In the simulations where Briscoe doesn’t win, he only makes the playoffs 0.7% of the time, and for Busch that number is only 0.1%. (To put it another way: when Briscoe makes the playoffs in our simulations, 88% of the time he does it via winning, while Busch uses a win 98% of the times that he makes it.) And where better might an underdog driver get that playoff-clinching win than at Daytona, where the outcome is less predictable than elsewhere? Briscoe finishes 9.1 spots better at Daytona in the simulations where he makes the playoffs than not, while Busch finishes 10.4 spots better at Daytona in his playoff-bound sims.

Posted on by Staff Report

Car chief Chris Sherwood will serve as the substitute crew chief for the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Christopher Bell as Adam Stevens recovers from a double knee injury sustained while on vacation with family, the team announced Monday.

Stevens, 46, underwent successful surgery to repair both knees and will work from JGR’s headquarters during the upcoming races.

“I hate that I won’t be at the track for a few weeks, but I will be fully engaged remotely,” Stevens said in a team release. “I am very thankful for the depth and strength of this 20 team and don’t anticipate my physical absence having any effect on our performance. The surgery went well, and I will be back at the track in a few weeks.”

RELATED: How to get notified for 2025 schedule release

Stevens joined SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “SiriusXM Speedway” on Tuesday to explain what sidelined him: an errant attempt to leap off a diving board while visiting family in Ohio.

“We were swimming in the pool Sunday afternoon and taking turns jumping off the diving board with the nieces and nephews and my kids, and doing flips and just enjoying ourselves,” Stevens told SiriusXM. “And I felt like my flips weren’t quite as impressive as my 15-year-old son. So, I amped my game up a little bit, and it was fine. And another turn through the line and try a little harder, and they were getting prettier. And my last trip — probably ever now at this point — and I just jumped a little too hard and loaded up a little bit too much on the end of the diving board and ruptured both my patellar tendons at the same time.”

While recalling the story with a hint of humor — “My wife warns everybody I don’t do anything halfway; it’s a character flaw,” he joked — the seriousness of the injury took precedence in the middle of NASCAR’s two-week break for the Olympics.

“Thankfully, I got some good care up there in Ohio and got the ball rolling quickly when I arrived back in North Carolina on Monday and was in surgery on Wednesday morning,” Stevens said. “And the surgery went well. Pretty straightforward. There was no ancillary damage in either knee. It was just that patellar tendon on both sides; no ligaments, no bones, no bone structure issues. So, it was a straightforward fix if you’re an orthopedic surgeon. Wouldn’t be straightforward for any of the rest of us, I guess, and now we’re healing up.”

Stevens, a champion in 2015 and 2019 as crew chief for Kyle Busch, added that if his legs were kept straight, the feeling was more uncomfortable than it was painful. “But any amount of knee bend was extremely painful,” he said. Upon his initial emergency room visit, Stevens was given Velcro leg braces with steel bars to lock his legs out “and I can hobble around with these things on with a walker now,” he said. “And prior to surgery, I just had a cane and these braces, and that was enough to get me around. But my legs have to stay straight at all times for about six weeks.”

Stevens will be relegated to helping the team call races from JGR’s “war room” at the team’s headquarters in Huntersville, North Carolina, while recuperating from his injury. It won’t be his first time there — previously assisting from afar after past at-track suspensions — which removes some of the surprises of working remotely.

“In the heat of battle, you’re not taking in much information visually,” Stevens said of working from the war room. “You don’t have the context of the people around you or the gravity of the situation or how things are layering on top of each other. I just have a couple different data streams, a couple different cameras, all of the scoring, all the SMT, all of the communications. But you’re missing a lot of context. And there’s definitely something to that, which is why we go to the race track.

“But as the years go by, I’ve had the great fortune in my past Cup history to have been suspended numerous times and have experience with this, so we know what we’re up against, and we’ve all gotten a little bit better at it. And technology advances and internet connections get better and every time that you or somebody in your group or in your periphery has to go through something like this, for whatever the reason, you get a little bit smarter.”

RELATED: Cup standings | Cup schedule

With Stevens away from the track, Sherwood will step into the crew-chief role on-site, fulfilling the position like he did when Stevens was suspended after pre-race inspection at Watkins Glen in 2021. Bell drove the No. 20 Toyota to a seventh-place finish that day. Additional support will come from engineers William Hartman and Chris Whitenight.

“Certainly, the people on my team — Sherwood and William and Whitenight and everybody else who’s going to step up — are more than capable,” Stevens said. “And we’ve found it best through the years, too, that the more we can keep it internal to the team, the more the lines of communication and the job titles and the job descriptions don’t have to change. When you bring somebody in from the outside, even if they’re inside your company, they don’t know the flow of your team. They don’t know whose responsibility is what. You spend a lot of time educating and telling a person like that that you don’t have to tell and educate that somebody internal to your team.

“So Sherwood filled in for me at Watkins Glen when I got booted on race morning inspection, and he did a great job. And that’ll leave William and Whitenight to do their normal roles. And I won’t be the voice on the radio, but I’ll have access to almost everything except for the context that being present gives me.”

MORE: Richmond schedule

Bell’s No. 20 Toyota currently sits eighth in points with four regular-season races to go before the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs officially begin. In 22 Cup Series starts this season, Bell has wheeled the No. 20 to three wins, seven top fives and 12 top-10 finishes.

Bell and the Cup Series will race at Richmond Raceway in the Cook Out 400 on Sunday (6 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

Posted on by Brandon White

A healthy field of competitors will invade Berlin Raceway on Wednesday evening for the prestigious Battle at Berlin 250.

Serving as Berlin’s third and final crown jewel event of 2024, the track is increasing the stakes for this year’s Battle at Berlin 250. A total purse of $125,000 is up for grabs, with the winning driver receiving $40,000, up $10,000 from the previous season.

RELATED: Watch the Battle at Berlin 250 live on FloRacing

Local competitors have excelled at the Battle at Berlin during its history, with track champions like Brian Campbell and Evan Shotko among the list of winners. Super Late Model veteran Bubba Pollard took home the checkered flag last year against a field that included Chase Elliott, William Byron, Josh Berry and others.

The hometown heroes of Berlin will look to take back possession of their facility’s most prestigious event on Wednesday against invaders that include short track standouts and a handful of NASCAR stars.

Below is everything you need to know about Wednesday’s Battle at Berlin 250 at Berlin Raceway.

Short track standouts and NASCAR stars will chase $40,000 in the Battle at Berlin 250. (Photo: Eric Bronson/ARCA Racing)

What TV Channel is the Battle at Berlin 250 on in 2024?

All the on-track action for the Battle at Berlin 250 can be viewed live on FloRacing, the official streaming home for all NASCAR Regional properties.

The event will not be shown on a traditional television network.

Below is the complete schedule for FloRacing’s coverage of the Battle at Berlin 250.

Date Start time How to watch
Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024 5:30 p.m. ET FloRacing

Race-day schedule

This year’s Battle at Berlin 250 will take place on Wednesday, Aug. 7. The event is headlined by the 250-lap Super Late Model feature, with a 40-lap Sportsman race also scheduled for Wednesday.

Below is the complete race-day schedule at Berlin Raceway (all times ET).

Time Event
9:30 a.m. Pit pass window opens
10 a.m. Pit area opens
11 a.m. Race tires sold and impounded
12 p.m. Super Late Model Drivers/Spotters meeting
1 p.m. General admission gates open
1-1:40 p.m. First Super Late Model practice
1:50-2:30 p.m. Final Super Late Model practice
3 p.m. Sportsman tech
3:30 p.m. Super Late Model tech
4:10-4:30 p.m. First Sportsman practice
4:40-5 p.m. Final Sportsman practice
5:30 p.m. Super Late Model qualifying
6:27 p.m. Invocation/National Anthem
6:30 p.m. Battle at Berlin 250 Last Chance Race (40 laps)
Immediately following… Sportsman feature (40 laps)
Immediately following… Tekton 250 Battle at Berlin (250 laps)
Bubba Pollard (26) is among the favorites to claim Wednesday’s Battle at Berlin 250. (Photo: Eric Bronson/ARCA Racing)

Battle at Berlin entry list

The current entry list for the 2024 Battle at Berlin 250 includes 33 competitors.

Leading this group is NASCAR Cup Series driver Erik Jones, who found Victory Lane in this event in 2015 and ’16 back when it was known as the Battle at Berlin 251. Only two months removed from a third-place finish in the Money in the Bank 150, Jones enters Wednesday as a strong favorite.

Among the drivers standing in Jones’ way will be fellow Cup Series competitor Carson Hocevar, who led a race-high 69 laps during the Money in the Bank 150 in June. Hocevar has racked up numerous accomplishments at Berlin, his home track including a championship in 2017. He’ll look to finally add a Battle at Berlin trophy to his resume Wednesday.

The driver who won this year’s Money in the Bank 150, Bubba Pollard, has momentum on his side as he seeks to defend his maiden Battle at Berlin 250 triumph from a season ago. Experience paid dividends for Pollard in 2023, as he executed a perfect tire conservation plan before passing Evan Shotko for the win during a late restart.

Shotko is also entered in Wednesday’s Battle at Berlin 250 with the goal of earning redemption from his near miss last year. Joining him in the field are Derek Griffith, Kole Raz, Treyten Lapcevich, Katie Hettinger, Gavan Boschele and Brian Campbell, among others.

Below is the complete entry list for the Battle at Berlin 250.

Car No.  Driver
08 Tony Elrod
4 Erik Jones
4 Tyler Rycenga
12 Brian Bergakker
12 Derek Griffith
14 Michael Atwell
14 Chase Pinsonneault
18 Chase Burda
18 Keith Herp
20 Austin Hull
22 Evan Shotko
24 Gavan Boschele
24 Dylan Stovall
24 Lee Vandyk
26 Bubba Pollard
27 Kole Raz
28 Scott Thomas
32 Treyten Lapcevich
32 Chris Shannon
44 Jeremy Doss
45 Sean Gipson
47 Brian Campbell
66 Nate Walton
71 Katie Hettinger
71 Carson Hocevar
88 Andrew Scheid
90 Kyle Crump
92 Levie Jones
97 Derek Lemke
97 Grant Thormeir
101 Joe Bush
131 Blake Rowe
407 Jason Vail

Race format

The field for Wednesday’s Battle at Berlin will be set by qualifying and a Last Chance Race. Competitors will make two consecutive laps during qualifying, with the quickest of the two serving as the official time.

Any driver who is among the fastest 22 in qualifying will automatically lock into the 250-lap main event. The remaining cars will then compete in the Last Chance Race, with the top four finishers transferring to the main event.

Positions 27-28 are determined by provisionals.

Competition cautions will occur every 50 green flag laps. This does not apply within 15 laps of the finish.

Battle at Berlin 250/251 winners

Year Driver
2010 Kyle Busch
2011 Kyle Busch
2012 Kyle Busch
2013 Johnny VanDoorn
2014 Johnny VanDoorn
2015 Erik Jones
2016 Erik Jones
2017 Brian Campbell
2018 Not held
2019 Boris Jurkovic
2020 Not held
2021 Not held
2022 Evan Shotko
2023 Bubba Pollard

Posted on by Staff Report

The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs entered the elimination era with a thunderous roar in 2014, forever altering the landscape of stock car racing. Like a bold brush stroke on a canvas of tradition, this new format injected a surge of adrenaline into the premier circuit and ignited a fiery new era that redefined how to win a championship.

Over the next decade, the elimination-style format reshaped the way fans engage with the sport and created moments of tangible triumph and heartbreak. We at NASCAR.com thought it would be fun to pit the best moments from the first 10 years of the elimination era against each other in a bracket-style vote to see which moment fans thought was the best.

And now it’s time for Round 4 of voting.

VOTE NOW: Round 4 is open

Two moments remain from the original 16, and fans have until 5 p.m. ET on Aug. 6 to vote to crown the ultimate victor. In Round 3, Ross Chastain’s “Hail Melon” won 80.31% of the vote, while the Denny Hamlin-Joey Logano duo prevailed with 62.11% of all tallies.

And so, these two moments will now face off in the fourth and final round:

— Hail Melon (Ross Chastain’s video-game move at Martinsville) vs. Wrecked out (Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano clash at Martinsville).

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

The summer break could not have come at a better time for Denny Hamlin.

Hamlin remains one of the NASCAR Cup Series’ most dominant drivers, but the problem is he hasn’t reached Victory Lane to prove it in over two months.

No one has led more laps in 2024 than Hamlin’s 772 circuits. The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has also spent the most laps inside the top 15 this season, per NASCAR’s loop data, and holds the second-best average running position this year at 10.75 behind Kyle Larson’s 10.16.

And although his three wins this season are still tied for second-best this year, Hamlin’s most recent victory was way back on April 28 at Dover Motor Speedway, 12 races and over three months ago.

MORE: Cup schedule | Cup standings

These observations prove only that Hamlin and the No. 11 team are victims of their own success, garnering exceedingly high expectations based solely on the elite performance produced over numerous seasons against the sport’s best, where Hamlin has found himself for years.

Hamlin has also been in the mix for at least three wins in the past four races. The 54-time winner appeared primed for a Nashville Superspeedway triumph until an Austin Cindric spin with two laps remaining in regulation triggered what became a five-overtime affair, running Hamlin to pit road for fuel and a 12th-place finish instead of a sure victory.

Two weeks later, Pocono Raceway produced one of the team’s cleanest races in weeks, with Hamlin restarting third behind Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman with 23 laps to go. Blaney escaped with the lead and Bowman second. Hamlin managed to work past Bowman late in the going, but he ultimately ran out of time to catch Blaney, settling instead for a runner-up finish.

That top five marks Hamlin’s only top-10 finish in the past seven races — a stretch in which he has a 23.1 average finish, his worst seven-race stretch since 2013, according to Racing Insights. Yet in four of the past five races, Hamlin has led 21 or more laps. The results just don’t show it.

“It’s been some wonky races,” Hamlin said ahead of Pocono. “I mean … there’s been rain that really changed New Hampshire quite a bit from going to what we think is a race-winning car and leading and feeling like we were going to win to not. And then obviously Chicago just turned out the way it did. We were really good in the dry pace. I felt very good with where I was at there — went to rain. And then Nashville, we all saw what happened there at the end. So just yeah, some different finishes for sure.”

Denny Hamlin races to Turn 2 at Pocono Raceway.
Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images

Then came the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where crew chief Chris Gabehart appeared to have Hamlin and the No. 11 team in prime position to score the elusive crown-jewel victory. That was until untimely cautions upended their strategy, plunged Hamlin back into traffic and ultimately into position to be swept up in an overtime crash en route to a 32nd-place finish.

RELATED: Hamlin’s Brickyard bid falls short

Therefore, the question is not whether Hamlin, Gabehart and the No. 11 team can position themselves to succeed; it’s when they will begin to close out wins again.

Enter Richmond Raceway, where the Cup Series returns from its two-week summer break on Aug. 11 (6 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

Hamlin is the most recent winner at the 0.75-mile oval, scoring the March 31 win after getting the jump on an overtime restart against teammate Martin Truex Jr. Hamlin also leads the series in short-track wins in the Next Gen car with four, including three victories in the last six such races.

His numbers at Richmond — the Chesterfield, Virginia native’s home track — are astounding. Hamlin’s 2,243 laps led are fourth-most all-time, only behind Richard Petty, Rusty Wallace and Bobby Allison and directly ahead of Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon — all of whom are Cup champions and Hall of Famers. (And oh by the way, Hamlin’s next win would be the 55th of his Cup career, tying him with Wallace for 11th all-time in NASCAR history.)

MORE: Richmond schedule

Hamlin has also won at Richmond five times in his career, tied with Martinsville Speedway (another home track) for his second-most wins at one track, behind only Pocono Raceway (seven).

Denny Hamlin celebrates in Victory Lane at Richmond Raceway
Alex Daus | NASCAR.com

The 43-year-old will be quick to remind you past success does not guarantee the same results in the future. But with the No. 11 team’s level of performance — if not luck — in recent weeks, the optimism their results will soon represent their speed is hard to wash away. And make no mistake — Hamlin’s desire to pull into Victory Lane again somewhere soon still burns brightly.

“Where I’ve shifted my goals in the final years of my career is to try to get to a big win number, get inside the top 10 of all-time winners,” Hamlin said. “And so that’s the goal that I can achieve, week in, week out, right? I mean, certainly, you always have goals of trying to win a championship and that goes over a long period of time. But week to week, right, that’s what fuels me to continue to go to the race track and do this grind every week is to try to keep nailing down victories.

“To me, I think that when this is all said and done, all these different formats have changed, cars have changed over time, but the the wins still stand as equal. So I think that those are why I value them so much.”

In Year 19 of his Cup career, Hamlin never thought he would have achieved so much success — 54 wins, three Daytona 500s, three Southern 500 wins at Darlington and a Coca-Cola 600 triumph at Charlotte. But with opportunity at his hands for me, he can’t stand to see any others slip away.

RELATED: Hamlin through the years

“I think certainly four or five years ago, my number would have been 50 — somewhere in that range,” Hamlin said of his final win total. “But as time has changed and you start to pick up your performance, you change your goals and so that certainly has changed. Again, I just feel so much more agitated by the ones that, like, we had one.

“You know, there were three this year leading inside five (laps) to go and a late-race caution just changed everything. So I think that if you want to get to those goals that you want to win, you’ve really got to capitalize on all the moments because you just never know whether our performance will continue to stay at this rate for the years to come — but you do know that you’ve got it now, so you try to capitalize.”

Posted on by Brandon White

LANCASTER, New York — The only two drivers to win a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race at Lancaster Motorplex fittingly placed first and second in Saturday’s Nu-Way Auto Parts 150.

Austin Beers was the one who prevailed, utilizing strategy during a caution-filled race to gain valuable track position and hold off Patrick Emerling to secure the victory. Not only did Beers defend his triumph at Lancaster from 2023, he also secured his first victory of the 2024 season.

RELATED: Complete results from the Nu-Way Auto Parts 150

Although relieved to break a yearlong winless drought, the first thought on Beers’ mind in Victory Lane was Evan Canfield, a motorsports photographer who passed away earlier in the week. Beers dedicated his victory to Canfield.

“This one is for the Canfield family,” Beers said. “Evan Canfield was a great guy and we lost him two days ago. He was just an amazing person and I loved seeing him at the race track. I’m glad to get another victory. It’s been a struggle this year. I’ve been kind of distraught myself, but I’m real happy with how the night went.”

The past year and a half on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour has seen Beers blossom into one of the brightest young stars in the series.

Fresh off a two-win sophomore campaign, Beers has come close to replicating his numbers from 2023. Along with earning a pole at Monadnock Speedway in July, Beers also tallied three consecutive runner-up finishes in May and June, yet had been unable to obtain another victory despite his speed.

Finally returning to Victory Lane required patience from Beers. Cautions plagued the Nu-Way Auto Parts 150, creating opportunities for diverging pit strategies, with Beers choosing to stay out alongside his Mud Lane neighbor Matt Hirschman following a caution on Lap 51.

Beers managed to take the lead from Hirschman immediately after the restart, but would have to enter pit road during the next caution flag. A couple more cautions shifted the strategy back in Beers’ favor after he inherited the top spot when Justin Bonsignore and others came to pit road for tires and adjustments.

A surging Bonsignore was not Beers’ most paramount concern during the closing laps. Emerling, who was on the same strategy, tried vigorously to find a pathway to the lead, which involved fending off Bonsignore after being briefly passed by him.

Emerling’s determination did not yield him an overdue first victory driving for team owner Rich Gautreau. Having a Lancaster NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour win on his resume gave Emerling confidence, but he commended Beers for driving efficiently enough to keep him in his rearview mirror.

“[Beers] was rotating a little bit better,” Emerling said. “There were a couple of little mistakes we could almost capitalize on, but the whole Fleetworks team did an excellent job today. This was our first time here as a team and we were second-best. We’ve been having opportunities to win week-in and week-out lately.”

Beers admitted it was difficult to play defense against Emerling. A line of rain showers that impacted Lancaster earlier in the day left behind several treacherous spots on the track, which forced Beers to stay vigilant while trying to maintain the lead.

“It was really tricky down in turns one and two with the weepers and the water,” Beers said. “I’d get free there and have to gather it in. That’s where Patrick would catch up to me, but he ran me really well. It was a really fun race.”

Justin Bonsignore trimmed the margin between himself and Ron Silk in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour point standings to a single point with a third-place finish. Following him in the top five were Hirschman and Tommy Catalano.

Craig Lutz, Andy Jankowiak, Jacob Lutz, Jake Johnson and Silk made up the rest of the top 10 finishers. Silk, who entered the Nu-Way Auto Parts 150 as the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour points leader, lost track position following a late spin.

The next stop on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour calendar is at the prestigious Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park, which will take place on Wednesday, Aug. 14 at 8 p.m. ET. FloRacing is set to provide live coverage of all the on-track action.

Posted on by Brandon White

Nu-Way Auto Parts 150

Lancaster Motorplex

  • Race results
Pos No. Name Sponsor Laps Diff
1 64 Austin Beers G&G Electrical Supply/Dell Electric 150
2 1 Patrick Emerling Fleetworks Inc 150 0.326
3 51 Justin Bonsignore Phoenix Communications, Inc. 150 0.791
4 60 Matt Hirschmann Elite 150 1.113
5 54 Tommy Catalano Catalano Motorsports 150 1.713
6 46 Craig Lutz Riverhead Building Supply 150 2.147
7 00 Andy Jankowiak KLAS Motorsports/Florida Safety Systems 150 3.169
8 14 Jacob Lutz* Advantage Trucks/Anastasi Trucking/Anastasi Trucking 150 3.34
9 3 Jake Johnson Propane Plus/Lin’s Propane Trucks 150 4.189
10 16 Ron Silk Blue Mountain Machine/Future Homes 150 4.428
11 4 Tim Connolly Connolly Companies, LLC 150 4.804
12 18 Ken Heagy Buoy One Seafood & Restaurant 150 5.882
13 56 Trevor Catalano* Catalano Motorsports 150 10.614
14 72 Andrew Spurback* ProformParts.com/Spurback Motorsports 140 10 Laps
15 01 Melissa Fifield Farm Fueled Nutrition 132 18 Laps
16 22 Kyle Bonsignore Chalew Performance/MTT/Munns Auto 118 32 Laps
17 32 Tyler Rypkema Musco Lighting/Northeast Drilling 96 54 Laps
18 10 Bob Reis* IronListing.com/B.R. Machineworks 82 68 Laps
19 84 Tyler Catalano* Catalano Motorsports 77 73 Laps

 

Posted on by Staff Report

Nu-Way Auto Parts 150

Lancaster Motorplex

  • Practice results
Pos No. Name Sponsor Best Tm Best Speed In Lap Laps Diff
1 54 Tommy Catalano Catalano Motorsports 17.755 101.38 11 12
2 51 Justin Bonsignore Phoenix Communications, Inc. 17.768 101.306 16 18 0.013
3 14 Jacob Lutz* Advantage Trucks/Anastasi Trucking/Anastasi Trucking 17.778 101.249 19 22 0.023
4 32 Tyler Rypkema Musco Lighting/Northeast Drilling 17.825 100.982 12 19 0.07
5 1 Patrick Emerling Fleetworks Inc 17.896 100.581 18 20 0.141
6 16 Ron Silk Blue Mountain Machine/Future Homes 17.916 100.469 19 21 0.161
7 64 Austin Beers G&G Electrical Supply/Dell Electric 17.947 100.295 17 20 0.192
8 22 Kyle Bonsignore Chalew Performance/MTT/Munns Auto 17.952 100.267 8 18 0.197
9 00 Andy Jankowiak KLAS Motorsports/Florida Safety Systems 17.998 100.011 17 29 0.243
10 46 Craig Lutz Riverhead Building Supply 18.022 99.878 18 20 0.267
11 56 Trevor Catalano* Catalano Motorsports 18.027 99.85 16 21 0.272
12 84 Tyler Catalano* Catalano Motorsports 18.084 99.536 18 20 0.329
13 60 Matt Hirschmann Elite 18.104 99.426 15 19 0.349
14 3 Jake Johnson Propane Plus/Lin’s Propane Trucks 18.394 97.858 9 22 0.639
15 4 Tim Connolly Connolly Companies, LLC 18.409 97.778 6 10 0.654
16 10 Bob Reis* IronListing.com/B.R. Machineworks 18.461 97.503 18 19 0.706
17 18 Ken Heagy Buoy One Seafood & Restaurant 18.875 95.364 5 6 1.12
18 72 Andrew Spurback* ProformParts.com/Spurback Motorsports 19.303 93.25 5 9 1.548
19 01 Melissa Fifield Farm Fueled Nutrition 19.979 90.095 6 8 2.224

 

Posted on by Staff Report

Nu-Way Auto Parts 150

Lancaster Motorplex

  • Qualifying results
Pos No. Name Sponsor
1 16 Ron Silk Blue Mountain Machine and Future Homes
2 51 Justin Bonsignore Phoenix Communications Inc.
3 3 Jake Johnson Propane Plus/Lins Propane Trucks
4 1 Patrick Emerling Fleetworks Inc.
5 64 Austin Beers G&G Electric Supply/Dell Electric
6 22 Kyle Bonsignore Chalew Performance/MTT/Munns Auto
7 46 Craig Lutz Riverhead Building Supply
8 56 Trevor Catalano Catalano Motorsports
9 54 Tommy Catalano Catalano Motorsports
10 60 Matt Hirschman Pee Dee Motorsports
11 84 Tyler Catalano Catalano Motorsports
12 18 Ken Heagy Buoy One Seafood and Restaurant
13 4 Tim Connolly Connolly Companies, LLC
14 32 Tyler Rypkema Musco Lighting/Northeast Drilling/Make A Wish
15 01 Melissa Fifield Farm Fueled Nutrition
16 14 Jacob Lutz Advantage Trucks/Anastasi Trucking/Washtronics
17 00 Andy Jankowiak Spafco Race Chassis/BNP Machine
18 72 Andrew Spurback ProformParts.com/Spurback Motorsports
19 10 Bob Reis IronListing.com/B.R. Machineworks

 

Posted on by Staff Report

23XI Racing announced Friday that Juan Pablo Montoya will make his return to the NASCAR Cup Series at Watkins Glen International.

He will drive the No. 50 Toyota for 23XI, becoming the 11th different driver to compete for the fourth-year organization.

Mobil 1 continues its 50th-anniversary celebration as the title sponsor for Montoya, the same as the brand did for Kamui Kobayashi at Circuit of The Americas and Corey Heim at Nashville Superspeedway.

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“I’m looking forward to getting back in a Cup car and racing at Watkins Glen — a track I really enjoy and had the chance to experience earlier in my career,” Montoya said in a statement. “It’s an honor to celebrate the Mobil 1 team’s remarkable legacy in racing and be recognized for my contributions to motorsports. The Mobil 1 brand was one of my first sponsors when I started racing, so to represent the brand again as they celebrate this milestone will be so special. I’m also excited to work with 23XI and experience what the team is building.”

Montoya, 48, last competed in the sport’s premier series in 2014 with Team Penske.

He’s a two-time winner at the Cup level with wins at road courses Sonoma Raceway and Watkins Glen. Montoya reached the NASCAR postseason in 2009, finishing eighth in the final standings.

Montoya also has a win in the Xfinity Series, along with being a 15-time winner in IndyCar and seven-time winner in Formula One.

“Juan Pablo Montoya is a world-class driver who has won in everything he’s driven, and he will be a great closer to the 50th-anniversary celebration we’ve had in NASCAR with the No. 50 Mobil 1 Toyota,” said Steve Lauletta, president of 23XI Racing. “The events have highlighted racing legends as well as what’s next in motorsports, and 23XI has been honored to have been a part of adding to the Mobil 1 legacy and celebrating such a momentous occasion.”

Watkins Glen is the second race in the Cup Series Playoffs and will take place Sept. 15 (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).