Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

When Chase Elliott broke his leg in a snowboarding accident in March 2023, he knew the journey back to Victory Lane would be arduous. But no one knew exactly how long that gap between visits would be.

On Sunday, 409 days after suffering his injury, Elliott finally reached the top of the mountain once more, winning at Texas Motor Speedway to snap a 42-race winless streak that dates back to October 2022 at Talladega Superspeedway.

MORE: Race results | Buy Chase Elliott winner gear

The results between his mid-spring absence and Sunday’s return to prominence were far from dismal — Elliott had scored top 10s in three of the past four races entering Texas, including consecutive top fives at Richmond Raceway and Martinsville Speedway in the two weeks prior.

But they didn’t match the previous standard of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports team that claimed the Cup Series championship in 2020, won multiple races per year from 2018 through 2022 and matched a career-best five wins in 2022, the debut year of the Next Gen car. In fact, Elliott’s victory at Texas marked his first top-five finish on an intermediate oval in the Next Gen car.

But the fans who have voted him winner of the Most Popular Driver Award for six consecutive seasons can worry no longer — Elliott is victorious again and soaking in every second.

“I’ve just been really proud of our group for sticking together,” Elliott said, “because I’m sure a lot of you guys have been around the sport long enough to understand and know that when you have a couple bad years, a period of time that things aren’t going well, it is so easy to jump ship and to start bailing out on one another.

“I think that the win’s great, all that stuff is fantastic, but I’m truthfully most proud of the journey and the group of people that we have climbed back up together with. We’ve made each other better. They push me to be a better driver and a better person.”

That starts, Elliott added, with crew chief Alan Gustafson. When the lows added up for Elliott, a driver who has admitted some growing pains in adapting to the required driving style of the Next Gen car, Gustafson was there to keep Elliott focused on the tasks at hand and avoid the pitfalls of self-doubt.

“I think the longer it goes, the more ways you find to either not run good or lose races, it can make it tougher,” Elliott said. “To me, honestly, this journey and everything about today is really a credit to the guys that sit in our meetings on Monday mornings in the 9 room. That starts with Alan.”

Chase Elliott is congratulated in Texas Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series race.
Patrick Vallely | For NASCAR.com

It is resilience and self-admitted stubbornness that drives the No. 9 team toward its goals. That perseverance carried Elliott to his first Texas win.

WATCH: Gustafson discusses No. 9 team’s grit | No. 9 jackman on memorable victory

“You just have to trust in the process, trust each other,” Gustafson said. “Focus on improving, not getting caught up on what you don’t have, focus on what you do have. We have everything we need to win with Mr. Hendrick, how he supports us, how everybody at Hendrick Motorsports supports us. We have a great race team. This is a really great race team, a great pit crew.

“We just knew you had to stay committed to that and each other. That’s all I do. It’s not anything special besides just being super, super stubborn and resilient.”

Success has been frequent lately at Hendrick Motorsports, where William Byron has won three of the first nine races of 2024, and Kyle Larson has won three consecutive pole positions, coupled with a race win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Elliott and the No. 9 team were once the program’s dominant fleet. Sunday offered a glimpse at what Elliott’s long-term return to the sport’s uppermost echelon could look like.

“William Byron, as much as I love him and Rudy (Fugle, crew chief), they’re not always going to be at the top, right?” Gustafson said. “It’s just not going to happen. Everybody goes through ebbs and flows. Whoever you want to call successful: (Martin) Truex (Jr.), Denny (Hamlin), Kyle, Kyle Busch, everybody has those ups and downs. I think just having the strength to battle through it and persevere is key, and he’s done that.”

RELATED: Byron content with third after Chastain contact

Elliott has long been a believer that to reach Victory Lane, a driver must first put himself at the front of the field often. He’s done exactly that lately, entering Sunday’s race with the series’ fourth-best average running position at 11.096, per NASCAR’s loop data.

“You have to be in the mix. You got to be up front to even have things go your way,” Elliott said. “We were close enough to do that. We still want to be better. I think we have room for improvement. Just proud of the way everything worked out. It’s a lot more fun when you’re fighting for wins and up front battling, whether it goes your way or doesn’t go your way. Just to have a shot is enjoyable.”

The journey back to Victory Lane was far from easy for Elliott, something Gustafson has seen firsthand. But he also understands the work his driver has put into getting back to the peak of the mountain.

“He’s a human being just like everybody else,” Gustafson said. “He has his life going on. He has trials and tribulations that he has to work through. Yeah, being out with an injury, then having to go through all that. Yeah, maybe not performing to some people’s expectations.

“It’s not something that I believe. I feel like he’s performed really well. I think it’s just, yeah, sometimes you can get in a little bit of a hole. You just have to fight, right? That’s the biggest thing I’m most proud of him and the team for, is just continuing to fight through it, make it happen. It’s super cliché and cheesy, but you just never give up. You learn that if you don’t give up, eventually, things are going to turn around. I think that’s probably going to be the biggest lesson he takes out of that.”

Isn’t it convenient, then, that the series shifts to Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — site of Elliott’s last win before Texas?

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

FORT WORTH, Texas — For just the third time in three years as the driver/co-owner at RFK Racing, Brad Keselowski took the checkered flag in second place.

It came amid a day full of twists and turns underneath the Lone Star sun as Keselowski wheeled his No. 6 Ford from a middling 22nd starting position to the runner-up result.

Sixteen cautions filled the 276-lap affair inside Texas Motor Speedway, allowing for split strategies across the field and opening the door for Keselowski to move his way to the front.

RELATED: Race results | Best photos from Texas weekend

“Towards the end of Stage 2, we had a pretty good long run car, so we stayed out and we were able to hold some track position and then we nailed the pitstops the next two times and just all those kind of came together for us because we executed them,” Keselowski said.

Keselowski’s path toward the front of the field was one of patience. He hung outside the top 15 after the first 100 laps, but one caution after another in Stage 2 put track position in the hands of the crew chiefs. The No. 6 team, headed by crew chief Matt McCall, was among those that came down pit road only once at the halfway point and was able to hold position to score five points at the Stage 2 checkered flag.

Two more yellows flew early in the final stage, forcing Keselowski to pit road and giving him a tire advantage over the leaders.

As the laps wound down, Keselowski continued to pick off drivers and enter the top five. With 30 laps to go, he could taste a potential end to his 106-race winless drought, battling Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin inside the top three. But a Ricky Stenhouse Jr. caution with 12 to go eliminated Keselowski’s tire advantage, and he was stuck behind the front row on each of the following restarts until Elliott came out as the victor after a Ross Chastain crash on the final lap brought the race to an official halt.

Brad Keselowski drives in a NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas.
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images

If the race had remained green through the final 30 laps, Keselowski thought he “possibly” could have passed Elliott and caught Hamlin for the lead.

“Those guys were falling off, but they had so much speed down the straightaway. I don’t know,” Keselowski added.

“Needed a lot more speed. We had newer tires behind them there with about 20 to go. I ran them down, and I mean, [Elliott] just drove away from me down the straightaway, so there’s nothing I can do about that.”

Pit stops played a massive role in the closing moments of the race as Tyler Reddick, who led 37 laps Sunday, had a sluggish stop on the final green-flag cycle and found himself out of the lead and eventually finished fourth, allowing the No. 6 team to pass the No. 45 late in the race.

Keselowski doesn’t take the performance from his crew for granted and didn’t want to speculate on why others suffered setbacks.

“Knock on wood, we had great pit stops today and most of the year,” Keselowski said. “I’ve got a great pit crew, so we only speak from our vantage point. I don’t know what’s going on with everybody else.”

MORE: 2024 Cup standings | 2024 Cup schedule

Despite not having the best of starts to the 2024 season, Keselowski says RFK as a whole is in a healthy spot right now, and while the speed may not be there yet, there is momentum going into one of their best tracks at Talladega Superspeedway next Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“It just shows that we have good spirit. Culture is good,” Keselowski said. “Putting ourselves in position. We’re not as fast as we want to be, and it’s really frustrating to not have that speed. But that doesn’t mean we’re giving up. This was a great example of that, you know? We were a 15th-place car most of the day, maybe a little worse than that, and we just kept putting ourselves in position and racing hard and racing smart and making good calls on pit road, executing on pit road. We’re able to put ourselves in a top five and a top-two finish of it. I’m really proud of that.”

Posted on by Tadd Haislop

FORT WORTH, Texas — There were no smiles for William Byron in Sunday’s AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. Despite the fact that a third-place finish continued Byron’s hot streak with his third top-five finish in the last four NASCAR Cup Series races, two of which were wins, Byron couldn’t muster it.

The 24-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina, face red from an exhausting, 276-lap race including a pair of overtime restarts, was all business as he climbed out of his No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet. He took a few sips of water and immediately turned to answer the question he knew was coming.

RELATED: Race results

What happened on the backstretch of the white-flag lap, when his bump of Ross Chastain sent the No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet spinning and brought out the race-ending caution?

“I don’t want to do that to anyone,” Byron said. “But I was just far enough inside that that I was there. I had a run, and it’s the last lap. We always race really well, so I don’t want to do that to him. Unfortunately just kind of came together there.

“Nothing you can really do about that. It’s just racing. I had a run, and I was there, and it happened.”

Chastain finished 32nd and declined to comment on the incident with Byron after he was cleared and released from Texas’ infield care center.

William Byron climbs out of his car after the NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas.
Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR.com

The incident with Chastain spoiled what otherwise might have been a relieving finish for Byron, who leaves Texas as the Cup Series playoff points leader. He started sixth and ran inside the top 10 for much of the event, but he and his team battled both a poor-handling race car and a treacherous track that sent multiple others spinning into the outside wall.

Still, Byron gained 36 points Sunday, the sixth-most in the field.

“We didn’t have a great car,” he said. “But we’ll keep working and improve and get better. Just didn’t have what we needed. But we grinded and made something of it.”

Byron’s third-place run at Texas contributed to what’s become an impressive stretch for Hendrick Motorsports. Chase Elliott won the race, marking his first top-five finish at a 1.5-mile oval in the Next Gen car. Pole-sitter Kyle Larson was the driver to beat most of Sunday; he led a race-high 77 laps before a penalty for a detached wheel cost him two laps and ultimately pushed him to a 21st-place finish. Larson remains the Cup Series points leader despite his misfortune.

This all happened on the heels of Byron’s monumental win last week at Martinsville Speedway, his third victory over the first eight races of the season.

Byron acknowledged the overall positives he and his team will take from Texas, but his mind in the moments after climbing from his car left little room for joy.

He’ll save that for the next high point in what’s already been a memorable season for the No. 24 crew and Hendrick Motorsports.

Posted on by Staff Report

Denny Hamlin’s bid for a third NASCAR Cup Series win this season went up in smoke in overtime.

On the first of two attempts at NASCAR Overtime, Hamlin restarted alongside race leader Chase Elliott for a green-white-checkered finish in Sunday’s Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. Hamlin raced door-to-door with Elliott into Turns 3 and 4, but his No. 11 Toyota snapped sideways at the midpoint of the corner, sending the car spinning into the outside wall exiting Turn 4.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos 

“Yeah, just got loose in Turn 3,” Hamlin said. “It’s something that I had been fighting all day. When you have to push it most — on a green-white checkered — I knew that the likely scenario was that I wasn’t going to make it out of the corner with how much speed that I was carrying. Trying to go for the win with our Yahoo Camry — got loose and spun out.”

The accident derailed what looked to be a sure top-two finish for Hamlin, who already owns wins this season at Bristol Motor Speedway and Richmond Raceway. Hamlin led 37 laps Sunday, including a 15-lap stint in the closing 21 laps.

Ultimately, Hamlin was left to finish 30th, marking the third time in the past five races Hamlin has finished outside the top 10 despite leading laps in each of the season’s first nine races. However, the two times Hamlin has scored top 10s in the past five events have resulted in victories.

Posted on by Holly Cain

Chase Elliott held off the field in a thrilling, wildly popular double-overtime victory in the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway Sunday evening to earn his first victory in 42 starts — dating back to the 2022 season.

By no means was it an easy win for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion and the sport’s six-time-defending Most Popular Driver, but that’s part of what made it so special to the 28-year-old Georgia native. The driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet prevailed in three late-race restarts — including two in overtime — to claim his first NASCAR Cup Series win on the 1.5-mile Texas high banks and first trophy since a playoff victory at Talladega Superspeedway in October 2022.

“Oh man, it couldn’t feel any better,” said a smiling Elliott, who did a “reverse” victory lap around the track in homage to the late series champion Alan Kulwicki, whose car was also sponsored by the Hooters restaurant chain that Elliott’s car carried on Sunday.

MORE: Race results | At-track photos

“Couldn’t be any more grateful for this journey and the fact it hasn’t always been fun, but certainly, I have enjoyed working with our guys,” he continued. “We’ve been working really hard and really well together and that’s always been fun. We’ve enjoyed the fight together.”

RFK Racing co-owner/driver Brad Keselowski finished a season-best runner-up in a race that lasted more than three and a half hours and had a track-record 16 caution periods.

On a restart with two laps to go in regulation, Elliott and Denny Hamlin were vying for the lead side-by-side when Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota got loose and into the wall, putting the race into a two-lap overtime shootout. Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain started alongside Elliott but couldn’t pass him before another caution came out a lap into overtime, forcing another restart.

On that restart, Elliott got ahead of Chastain again and took the white flag signaling one lap to go, when Chastain was tagged from behind by Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron — officially ending the race. Chastain, who led 33 laps on the day, was credited with a 32nd-place finish. Hamlin, who led 37 laps, ended up 30th.

WATCH: Elliott reacts to memorable Texas victory

Elliott conceded the afternoon was a full-on day of drama and high competition. There were 23 lead changes among 13 drivers — seven of whom led double-digit laps.

“It was crazy,” he said. “And I couldn’t be more proud of our team.”

Chase Elliott celebrates his NASCAR Cup Series win at Texas in Victory Lane.
Sean Gardner | Getty Images

Byron, a three-race winner this season, was third, followed by 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick and Chastain’s Trackhouse Racing teammate Daniel Suárez.

“We didn’t have a ton of speed, I was more frustrated than anything because I feel like we have a great team and we don’t have the speed to go with it and we’re doing all we can do to overcome that,” Keselowski said, adding: “So proud of the team for the pit stops, the strategy and the execution [Sunday].”

Differing pit strategies and plenty of pit-road issues played into the late race push to the checkered flag.

With 60 laps remaining, Reddick pulled away to the biggest lead of the race — more than six seconds on the field. But a slow pit stop — trouble with the left-rear tire — forced him into a game of catch-up. His top five was impressive, considering the setback.

Similarly, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr., who had led the championship standings earlier this year, was running up front when he had trouble on pit road — forced to make two stops on the final pit cycle to correct a loose wheel. He finished 14th despite the woes.

SHOP: Buy Chase Elliott winner gear

The day’s most dominant driver, Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, also had to rally from a setback. He started his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet from the pole position for the third consecutive week and led a race-best 77 of the 276 laps early and won the opening stage, only to have a right-rear tire fall off his car during an early caution period.

He was penalized two laps for the situation per the rulebook and spent much of the remainder of the race trying to make up ground. He got back on the lead lap by the end of Stage 2 and was moving forward when he was caught in an accident with only eight laps remaining.

Larson ultimately finished 21st but holds a 17-point edge over Truex atop the NASCAR Cup Series championship.

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe finished sixth. Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon earned his best finish of the season with a seventh-place run. 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, RCR’s Kyle Busch and Spire Motorsports rookie Carson Hocevar rounded out the top 10.

Seven-time Cup champion and Hall-of-Famer Jimmie Johnson returned to action Sunday but spun at Lap 50 to bring out the first caution period of Sunday’s race. Some 50 laps later, Christopher Bell lost control of his No. 20 Toyota and backed hard into the outside wall. Alex Bowman and John Hunter Nemechek collided further back when Bowman attempted to slow to avoid Bell’s incident.

A Lap 142 restart pinned Ross Chastain and Michael McDowell on the front row together, and the duo stayed side-by-side all the way to Turn 4. But that’s where McDowell’s race ended. McDowell’s No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford snapped loose through the bumps in Turn 4 and crashed hard into the retaining barrier left-rear corner first, ending McDowell’s day.

The NASCAR Cup Series moves east for next Sunday’s GEICO 500 at the famed Talladega Superspeedway (3 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Kyle Busch is the defending race winner.

NOTE: Post-race technical inspection concluded without issue, confirming Elliott as the race winner. No vehicles will be taken back to the NASCAR R&D Center.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Staff Report

FORT WORTH, Texas — “I think I have a flat tire.”

Just seconds after Kyle Larson uttered those words over the No. 5 team communications, the right-rear wheel fell off the then-race leader’s car under caution following a Carson Hocevar spin on Lap 115 at Texas Motor Speedway.

RELATED: Race results | Texas photos

Larson was able to nurse his Chevrolet back to pit road without issue but was penalized two laps because the wheel fell off the vehicle while on the track.

Larson, the pole winner for Sunday’s race, was the early frontrunner for his second victory of 2024 after leading 77 laps and grabbing the Stage 1 green-checkered flag.

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion received the free pass to earn one of his two laps back after a Lap 143 crash by Michael McDowell brought out the seventh caution of the afternoon and got back onto the lead lap at the conclusion of Stage 2.

Larson charged his way back into the top 20 but was collected in an accident in Turn 1 with Zane Smith with just seven laps remaining in regulation. Larson’s rally ultimately ended with a 21st-place finish but left with the series points lead intact, maintaining a 17-point gap to Martin Truex Jr. in the hunt for the regular-season championship.

Posted on by Staff Report

Multiple cars were involved in a crash at Lap 101 of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Christopher Bell spun from the 10th position during the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 (FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) while exiting Turn 4. Bell’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota careened rear-end first into the outside SAFER barrier, imposing significant damage to this spring’s Phoenix Raceway winner.

RELATED: Race results | Texas photos

Alex Bowman spun further back in an attempt to avoid, spinning toward the entry to pit road. His No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was struck by John Hunter Nemechek in the left-front corner, sending both cars farther sideways.

John Hunter Nemechek and Alex Bowman crash during the NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas.
Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images

Bowman’s team attempted to fix the No. 48 car but ran out of the allotted time on the damaged vehicle policy, resulting in a DNF for Bowman, his first of 2024.

“I was in a really bad spot to have a guy crash [in front of me] and have to climb in the brake pedal,” Bowman said. “[Joey Logano] saw it before I did just because of how we were all stacked up. I had to climb in the brake pedal a little harder than I wanted to, and it just spun out as soon as I did.”

Bell charged back to a 13th-place finish and moved into the top 10 of the driver standings after the race.

Unfortunately for Nemechek, the No. 42 Legacy M.C. driver got into the wall exiting Turn 4 and was not able to continue, ending the night with a 34th-place finish.

Posted on by Staff Report

After short-track action on the East Coast, the Cup Series now shifts to high speeds at Texas Motor Speedway for the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 this Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Set your Fantasy Live roster | Weekend schedule

After a stor ybook 1-2-3 Hendrick Motorsports finish at Martinsville last weekend, Racing Insights expects the powerhouse organization to follow up that act with a 1-2 finish on Sunday, this time with Kyle Larson leading the charge.

The No. 5 Chevrolet driver has been known to put on a clinic at 1.5-mile tracks — see his Las Vegas victory earlier this year for recent proof. Since joining Hendrick, he’s led 2,399 out of a possible 7,017 laps on 1.5-milers. In the Next Gen era, Larson not only has the most wins on 1.5-mile tracks (three), but he has won 31% of all stages on intermediates (10 out of 32 stages). When it comes to the Texas circuit in particular, Larson ranks first in most lap runs in the top 10 (438) and second when running in the top five (262).

Following Larson in the projections is his teammate and current three-time winner this season William Byron, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney and JGR’s Martin Truex Jr. to round out the top five. Tyler Reddick, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, Brad Keselowski and Bubba Wallace complete the projected top 10.

With the last three races at Texas Motor Speedway each bringing out more than 10 cautions, expect it to be another action-packed weekend deep in the heart of Texas. 

OTHER DRIVERS TO WATCH

TYLER REDDICK: While it’s been mostly the Hendrick and JGR show in 2024, don’t overlook the speed of 23XI Racing this weekend. For Reddick, he was a winner at Texas back in the fall of ’22 and has finished in the top 10 at the circuit in two of the last three races. Additionally, in Reddick’s last seven starts on 1.5-mile tracks, he has four top-five finishes and six top-10s, which is the best of all drivers across that span. 

BUBBA WALLACE: Wallace put his No. 23 Toyota on the pole and led 111 laps before ultimately finishing third at Texas last fall. Intermediate tracks have also been Wallace’s specialty. In the last 11 races on 1.5-mile tracks, he has five top-five finishes, which is tied for third during that span. After a fourth-place finish at Martinsville last week, Sunday provides a good opportunity for the 23XI driver to build more momentum.

BRAD KESELOWSKI: Keselowski has been able to string together only a handful of respectable finishes so far this season. While the No. 6 Ford somewhat struggled at Martinsville, the intermediate at Texas presents a good opportunity for the 2012 champ to bounce back on Sunday. Keselowski is a 14-time winner on 1.5-mile tracks and currently has five consecutive top-10 finishes at Texas Motor Speedway — best in the series.

ERIK JONES: Since the reconfiguration of the track at Texas, Jones has piled up seven top-10 finishes at the circuit. Jones also ranks fourth in laps run inside the top five in the Next Gen car with 207. Finally, Jones owns a 10.7 average finish in the last 10 Texas races, which is fifth best among the current Cup Series field.

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Johnson’s last start at Texas Motor Speedway was back in 2020, and it’s rare to see a part-time driver in contention for a win on a non-road course. However, when the part-time driver is a seven-time champion and a newly inducted Hall of Famer who used to dominate the track, it’s hard to count him out. Plus, given the speed the Toyotas have shown this season, it’s worth keeping an eye on Johnson and seeing how he progresses this weekend.

RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR THE AUTOTRADER ECHOPARK AUTOMOTIVE 400

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

FinishCar NumberDriver
15Kyle Larson
224William Byron
311Denny Hamlin
412Ryan Blaney
545Tyler Reddick
619Martin Truex Jr.
720Christopher Bell
81Ross Chastain
923Bubba Wallace
1022Joey Logano
1154Ty Gibbs
129Chase Elliott
136Brad Keselowski
1414Chase Briscoe
1548Alex Bowman
1699Daniel Suárez
1717Chris Buescher
1810Noah Gragson
198Kyle Busch
2034Michael McDowell
2143Erik Jones
223Austin Dillon
2377Carson Hocevar
242Austin Cindric
257Corey LaJoie
264Josh Berry
2741Ryan Preece
2847Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2942John Hunter Nemechek
3051Justin Haley
3171Zane Smith
3284Jimmie Johnson
3321Harrison Burton
3438Todd Gilliland
3516Ty Dillon
3631Daniel Hemric
3715Kaz Grala
3833Austin Hill
Posted on by Cameron Richardson

FORT WORTH, Texas — Ryan Sieg was one-half of one of the closest finishes in NASCAR Xfinity Series history.

However, he was on the losing end, coming short by just 0.002 seconds to Sam Mayer as the two rubbed fenders down the frontstretch to the finish line under the Texas sunshine. That margin of victory tied for the second-closest result in series joining finishes at the Milwaukee Mile in 1996 and Talladega Superspeedway in 1999.

Despite making the highlight reel and getting pats on the back from his team and fellow competitors, there was no hiding the disappointment once Sieg climbed from his No. 39 RSS Racing Ford.

RELATED: Race results | Best photos from Lone Star State

“Just tough. I was doing all that I could do,” Sieg said. “I wish we were on the other side of that 0.002. It is what it is. We ran up front where we needed to be. We were able to make gains on it. I feel like there is more to come. We just have to put a full race together. Ugh, we were so close. That just sucks.”

Sieg led 17 of the final 18 laps of the race. He took the lead after a wild second-to-last restart that put five cars under a blanket for the lead between Sieg, Brandon Jones, Riley Herbst, AJ Allmendinger and Mayer.

The final restart with 11 to go put Sieg as the control car and he shot out of a cannon and was in full command eyeing his first career victory.

However, as the laps wound down — seven, six, five, four — Mayer got bigger and bigger in Sieg’s mirror. When the white flag flew, Mayer was to the side of Sieg and the battle was on from there until the two drivers crossed the finish line.

“I should’ve ran him into the wall harder I guess, but I was trying to win the race,” Sieg said. “Just so close but so far away. Disappointing because we’re not in Victory Lane for sure. You know that’s what we all want. That’s what I want.”

Ryan Sieg and Sam Mayer cross the start/finish line nearly simultaneously in a photo finish in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Texas. Mayer won.
Chris Graythen | Getty Images

Sieg added that his car was strongest right off the restart and on longer runs, which is why he was able to storm out to a healthy gap before the field would catch him just laps later.

“It did fall off and I was doing all I could do to adjust inside the car with what I do with my lines but it just got tight,” Sieg said. “I knew the more we went, the tighter our car got. We restarted pretty good and it would go tight. I kind of knew that. That’s why I started moving up but it took our car longer to start getting better. It’s like it was good at the beginning, kind of OK in the middle of a run and then better at the end. I was hoping I would get a big enough gap to stay out (front) but he was able to reel me in the closing laps there.”

The finish will sting for Sieg and the No. 39 team. One of the smaller organizations in the series and family-owned, Sieg was able to show what he could do when his car was firing on all cylinders and pulling away from the perennial title-contending cars in the series. He did it on two different occasions in the race, which left him feeling proud.

“That’s definitely rewarding watching them get smaller in the mirror but not so good when they’re coming back toward us,” Sieg said. “But it’s a start. It sucks right now but it’s a start to more success so this is going to be a pretty good year with everything we’ve got going.”

There’s still plenty of reasons for the No. 39 collective to hold their heads high leaving Texas as Sieg has qualified for the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus when the series heads to Talladega next Saturday. Sieg also matched a career-best second-place result for the third time in his career, the first of which came at Iowa Speedway in 2017 where the Xfinity Series will return to later this season.

“No regrets. I could have turned right harder just to keep him behind us but it was just a smidge too late,” Sieg said.

Posted on by Holly Cain

In a race decided by less than the length of a Texas hot chili pepper, JR Motorsports driver Sam Mayer pulled off a last-lap pass on veteran Ryan Sieg to claim his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the season Saturday in the Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Officially, the margin of victory was 0.002 seconds as Mayer’s No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet and Sieg’s No. 39 RSS Racing Ford crossed the finish line door-to-door, bumper-to-bumper — the cars were so close officials took a brief extra look to formally declare Mayer the winner. The triumph marks Mayer’s first of the year and fifth of his career.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

It would have been Sieg’s first win in 342 career starts in the series.

“That’s absolutely unreal,” the 20-year-old Mayer said, shaking his head after climbing out of his car. This team, the amount of adversity we’ve had to fight this entire year so far and to come to a mile-and-a-half that I want to say I’m good at, but it took a lot.

“It took every ounce of me for me to do that today.”

Sieg led 17 of the final 18 laps and raced off to the front on a pair of late-race restarts in the closing 20 laps of the 200-lap race on the 1.5-mile Texas high banks. With nine laps remaining, Sieg held a 1.2-second advantage over Mayer. But Mayer cut into that margin with each lap, trailing by only 0.25 seconds with two laps remaining and then catching Sieg’s car on the back stretch on the final lap. They exchanged the lead briefly, racing door-to-door, and then Sieg pulled alongside as they took the checkered flag in a photo finish — the closest ever for an Xfinity Series race at Texas.

WATCH: Final lap results in photo finish | Sieg on runner-up

“Awe, it sucks,” said an obviously disappointed Sieg, who has two other career runner-up finishes. “We had a really good car. I just got tight, so tried to change my lines, do everything. I saw him coming, and I did all I could do, and at the end, I was just trying to run him up into the wall to try to win the race. We were so close. This sucks.

“I’ve been second before. Too many times. But this is a good thing, means we’re running where we need to be in the top-five.

“Just got to keep fighting, we’re right there, just got to keep it up,” he added. “We’ll have it in Victory Lane here shortly.”

All the late race drama came at the expense of veteran Justin Allgaier, who led a race-best 117 laps and swept both stage victories but ultimately finished third in the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. It was disappointing deja vu for Allgaier, who a year ago led a dominating 133 of the 200 laps only to finish fifth.

AJ Allmendinger finished fourth in the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet — a huge rally for the perennial championship contender after he missed his pit stall during the Stage 1 caution, which put him back in the field and forced him to race through the field — again.

Reigning Xfinity Series champion Cole Custer, who started from outside the front row, was a top-five car all day and finished fifth in the No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. Custer now trails championship leader Chandler Smith — who finished 15th — by 19 points in the standings.

Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill finished sixth, followed by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ryan Truex, JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith, polesitter Jesse Love and Anthony Alfredo, who earned his third top-10 of the season in the Our Motorsports No. 5 Chevrolet.

With the win, Mayer not only course-corrects a rough start to the 2024 season – he suffered DNFs in three of the first four races – but he earns the coveted $100,000 prize from Xfinity as the Dash 4 Cash winning driver.

He’ll compete against Sieg, Allgaier and Allmendinger for the big Dash 4 Cash check again next week at Talladega Superspeedway.

MORE: 2024 Xfinity Series schedule | 2024 Xfinity Series standings

It was a rally not just for the driver but for his JR Motorsports team. The perennial championship favorite has struggled early in the 2024 season — its four talented drivers did not earn a top-five until last week at Martinsville. On Saturday, not only did the team — co-owned by Kelley Earnhardt Miller and her brother Dale Earnhardt Jr. — win the race, but all four cars finished in the top 13 and three of the four drivers (also Brandon Jones) led laps.

The Xfinity Series shifts to Talladega for the Ag-Pro 300 on Saturday, April 20 (4 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NOTE: Post-race inspection in the Texas garage concluded without issue, confirming Mayer as the race winner. The Nos. 9 and 48 each had one lug nut loose, which will result in a monetary fine.