HAMPTON, Ga. — Still freshly minted to the NASCAR scene, multi-time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen added yet another significant highlight to his stock-car racing career Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The New Zealand native snagged a third-place finish in his second career NASCAR Xfinity Series start, improving upon a 12th-place finish in his debut race a week ago at Daytona International Speedway.
The turn to stock cars has been rapid for van Gisbergen, who scored an electric victory in the inaugural Chicago Street Race last year in his NASCAR Cup Series debut with Trackhouse Racing. After signing full-time with Trackhouse in the offseason and being leased to Kaulig Racing for a full Xfinity Series campaign this year, the 34-year-old is off to a dream start in 2024.
Five days after rallying from his fair share of setbacks at Daytona, he turned a clean day around Atlanta Motor Speedway for a gutsy third-place result.
“It was pretty wild,” van Gisbergen said. “We come in to pit and I thought we had saved a bit of fuel but we still come anyway and obviously it was the right call but yeah, what an awesome feeling just running and then trying to block and follow those guys up front. I was just smiling the whole time. It was really cool.”
Before a late caution with two laps to go Saturday evening, van Gisbergen ran 12th, on a clear path to match his Daytona result. However, fuel management came at a premium in the closing stages and a horde of drivers ran out of gas, including race dominator Jesse Love, who led a whopping 157 of 169 laps, including a sweep of the first two stages.
While Atlanta’s current configuration falls under a new subgenre of superspeedway racing, van Gisbergen still had to race in a pack and use drafting-style techniques to stay toward the front of the field for the full event. He even described the race as “pretty crazy. This is like Daytona on steroids.”
During the race, van Gisbergen’s former Supercars team Red Bull Ampol Racing shouted out the Kiwi as they were partaking in their own race on the other side of the world.
Van Gisbergen returned the love to his old team as he also continues to support them.
“Well I was up until 12:30 [a.m.] last night watching them get a 1-2. Yeah, pretty special,” van Gisbergen said. “I’ve still got a lot of mates back home so yeah, pretty awesome.”
Coming up for van Gisbergen will be his first test on a non-drafting style, 1.5-mile oval at Las Vegas Motor Speedway next Saturday (5 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). He has competed on an asphalt oval before at Lucas Oil Raceway Park last year in the Craftsman Truck Series, but van Gisbergen says he’s more than ready for his next challenge.
“They look pretty loose on a track like that so just want to get out there and feel it,” van Gisbergen said.
Though not unheard of, it is not often that rookies in NASCAR start their seasons in the way van Gisbergen has, and there may be no one that has had a more dramatic transition to NASCAR than van Gisbergen. But so far, he has passed his first few tests with flying colors.
“Since Chicago, my life has changed completely, but yeah, I’m so stoked how this is going,” van Gisbergen said. “We’ve got some great companies onboard and just supporting me having a crack.”
HAMPTON, Ga. — Since its inception in 1960, the 1.54-mile racing surface around Atlanta Motor Speedway has experienced plenty of changes.
From its original layout featuring symmetrical straightaways for both the frontstretch and backstretch to the first reconfiguration in 1997, which introduced the “quad-oval” and moved the start/finish line to the new curve on the flipped frontstretch, Atlanta has been an evolving loop of asphalt.
With its latest reconfiguration in between the 2021 and 2022 NASCAR seasons, Atlanta underwent a facelift that saw the banking increase from 24 to 28 degrees in the turns and the width of the racing surface consolidated from 55 to 40 feet. The changes made Atlanta a third drafting-style track on the circuit, producing similar racing to what has been the staple at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.
While driver opinions vary on the style of racing itself, a handful of Cup Series veterans have been surprised about how Atlanta’s surface has aged as it approaches its third year of action with Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Ross Chastain, a two-time runner-up on the current Atlanta configuration, is very optimistic about how Atlanta’s racing evolves as the track surface continues to get older, describing it as “one-of-one.”
“I mean, it’s already one-of-one with it being a superspeedway, drafting mile-and-a-half,” Chastain said. “The corners are so much tighter than Daytona (and) Talladega, but we’re drafting, and as it changes, it’s going to be one-of-one with the steep banking and still a double-white-line rule. You will still draft a bit, but four years from now, no telling how strung out we get, how much off-throttle we have. It’s pretty exciting.”
Chastain also likened Atlanta to that of Daytona before it was repaved ahead of the 2011 season and already sees comparisons between the two.
“I never got to race on Daytona before it got repaved,” Chastain said. “I raced there in 2012 for the first time on the repave. When I look back to the mid-2000s, they were off the throttle when they were tucked up with each other. Then, at the end, they all push, and they are spinning out off of [Turn] 4 without even touching each other. You’ll probably see that, and we’re already spinning out here without touching each other, and it’s pretty dang new.”
Chase Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion, won the second race on the current Atlanta configuration in the summer of 2022. He wasn’t ready to give it the stark uniqueness that Chastain gave the track but said he’s been surprised by certain elements of the 1.54-mile oval.
“It surprised me just the amount of color it’s lost over the last year and a half or so,” Elliott said. “But it’s cold out, right? So the grip level’s kind of high and curious to see if the race feels any different, but it still seems like it has a lot of grip so I think it’ll probably be a little while.
“Seems like the asphalt gets better over like pavement jobs that were done in the mid-2000s (that) didn’t last as long as the ones that they do now. So I’m not sure if the process has gotten better, more efficient for highways and roads and that kind of transitions into this stuff. But it seems like this stuff like Texas, Michigan, like those places, just they look like they’re aging, but they kind of aren’t, at the same time. So we’ll have to wait and see what this one does.”
Kyle Larson, the 2021 titleholder, said Atlanta already stands out from Daytona and Talladega based on its size, but the racing itself is still relatable to the two behemoth facilities.
“The racing, I think, is like Daytona last week. We’re two-wide the whole race basically,” Larson said. “Where I mean it could be that way tomorrow, but based off the other Atlanta races, it kind of gets more like you’re just trying to manage the top lane, middle-to-top lane. It’s harder to be three-wide here because you need more race track because your car’s not driving as good. So yeah, I don’t know. I think it already stands out, and I think with age, honestly, it could get a little bit easier to get around here.”
HAMPTON, Ga. — Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Jesse Love led almost all the laps, but in the end, it was his Richard Childress Racing teammate, Austin Hill, who had Saturday’s RAPTOR King of Tough 250 fall into his lap.
For Hill, who won last week’s NASCAR Xfinity Series season-opener at Daytona International Speedway, it was the continuation of a serendipitous start to 2024. Hill is the first driver since Tony Stewart in 2008 to win the first two events of an Xfinity season.
The victory was Hill’s third in the last four races at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the eighth of his career.
But victory for the driver of the No. 21 Chevrolet came at the expense of Love, who started from the pole, swept the first two stages and led 157 of 169 laps. Love ran out of fuel at the start of a two-lap overtime, as Hill grabbed the lead for the first time and held off eventual runner-up Chandler Smith by 0.106 seconds.
The bottom line? Running behind the leaders in a single-file line, Hill was able to save more fuel than his teammate at the front of the pack. Hill had enough in his tank to stave off Smith, who pitted for fuel under caution on Lap 164.
“I was really thinking we were down and out,” Hill said. “I was thinking the 2 (Love) was going to go get ’em, and hey, if I can’t win, let my teammate win. We were riding there in fourth or fifth — whatever it was — I was saving fuel.”
On the overtime restart on Lap 168, Hill’s car stumbled when he shifted from third to fourth gear.
“The 81 (Smith) hit me really hard, and that woke it back up, and I had enough fuel to complete the lap,” Hill added. “But I’ve got to take this moment to congratulate Jesse Love, my teammate. He ran an awesome race. To be a rookie and to lead that many laps, he should be sitting in Victory Lane right now.”
The coup de grace for Love came when the Ford of Ryan Sieg ran out of fuel on Lap 161 of a scheduled 163 and stopped on the track in Turn 4. The caution extended the race by six laps and allowed a dozen cars to pit before the overtime restart.
Among those who took advantage of the fuel stop was New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen, who finished third in his second Xfinity Series start.
“It’s almost comical,” Love said. “Man, I’m just so damn proud of everybody on this Whelen car. It just wasn’t meant to be. …
“I always try to take responsibility for everything, so as a driver I should have saved more fuel. Man, I just didn’t want anybody to catch me off-guard. I thought I saved a ton. Man, that overtime or that caution just lasted forever.
“No matter what, I’m really proud of our guys. We had a great showing. Led a lot of laps man. It just wasn’t in store for us today.”
Van Gisbergen was delighted to be on the other side of the fuel equation.
“Pretty awesome,” he said. “Great job by (crew chief) Bruce (Schlicker) on the box there to pit us. I had so much fun. Just learning about it and running in the pack. Yeah, to be P3 in the second race in the WeatherTech Chevy is pretty awesome. I’m stoked.
“It’s just good to get a result and have a clean car, especially after last week (at Daytona) when I got involved in so much stuff. So, to have a clean race, not make too many mistakes, and complete every lap, we learned a lot. It was awesome.”
Riley Herbst, Love’s foremost challenger over the closing laps was among the first to run out of fuel — from the second position on Lap 160. Cole Custer hit empty almost simultaneously, then Sieg, causing the fateful caution.
The gas shortage throughout the field scrambled the finishing order, leaving Sheldon Creed fourth and Parker Retzlaff fifth. Jeremy Clements, Anthony Alfredo, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Ryan Truex and Sammy Smith completed the top 10.
The Xfinity Series will next race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 2 (5 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Note: Post-race inspection in the NASCAR Xfinity Series garage concluded without significant issue, confirming Hill and the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing team as the winner. One lug nut was not secured properly on the No. 19 Toyota driven by Ryan Truex, which will result in a monetary fine. … Love is the first driver since Christopher Bell in 2017 to lead more than 100 laps in his first two Xfinity Series starts combined. Bell led 152 of 250 laps in his second start at Iowa. Love led 34 laps in his series debut last Monday at Daytona, giving him a total of 191 over the two races.
HAMPTON, Ga. — When Kyle Busch sold his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team to Spire Motorsports, he didn’t surrender his prowess behind the wheel.
Driving the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet in his first start of 2024, Busch inherited the lead from Grant Enfinger on Lap 129 of 135 and held off Ty Majeski and Corey Heim over the final five laps to win his seventh race at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the 65th of his career, extending his own series record.
Enfinger was out front for 21 consecutive laps before one of his tires began losing pressure, forcing him to the pits after Busch, Majeski, Heim, Taylor Gray and Nick Sanchez, last week’s winner at Daytona, sped past.
Busch crossed the finish line 0.187 seconds ahead of Majeski, who edged Heim for the runner-up position by 0.009 seconds. Gray and Sanchez came home fourth and fifth, respectively.
“I actually got a run on the 9 truck (Enfinger) down the backstretch,” Busch said of the pass for the win. “He must have been going flat down the backstretch and slowing down because it gave me — it sucked me up right to him. Then he got loose in the corner. I got loose in the corner. We all checked up trying not to crash.
“Thankfully, we didn’t. I thought that was a big moment. But then we got the lead right there, and after that, it was about trying to protect it. Majeski was a bit of a wing man today. Appreciate him — and the history we’ve had together growing up racing late models with him a lot in Wisconsin and around those parts.
“That was a lot of fun. Great to get Chevrolet to Victory Lane.”
The race was the first of five events Busch will run for Spire Motorsports this year, after selling Kyle Busch Motorsports to the organization late in the 2023 season. Busch now has 230 victories across all three of NASCAR’s national series (63 NASCAR Cup, 102 Xfinity and 65 Craftsman Truck).
Coming through the final corner, Busch effectively blocked Majeski’s only potential path to victory.
“I had a run, and I got to Kyle’s bumper,” Majeski said. “I knew he was going to cover the bottom. My only shot was to try and fade right, get to his quarter panel. That was the only shot that I had.
“Overall, super proud of the day. The truck was a little ill-handling in the beginning. (Crew chief) Joe Shear made some great calls, tightened me up a little bit so we could go racing.”
Tyler Ankrum led a race-high 46 laps but got shuffled back in the bottom lane after Enfinger passed him for the top spot in Lap 108. Busch, who won Stage 2, was out front for 33 laps and Enfinger 23. Ankrum finished seventh behind Kaden Honeycutt in sixth.
Christian Eckes led 20 laps and won the first stage but suffered brake issues that prevented him from stopping in his pit box during the Stage 1 break. Eckes retired after 50 laps in 33rd place.
There were 20 lead changes among seven drivers and seven cautions for 37 laps.
A bizarre caution period slowed the event’s final stage when a portion of the roof flew off the No. 41 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet driven by Bayley Currey. The team indicated that the top area of the truck was compromised when it hit a piece of debris earlier in the event, and the roof eventually gave way.
The Craftsman Truck Series’ next race is scheduled for Friday, March 1, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (9 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Note: NASCAR officials disqualified the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford because of missing windshield fasteners discovered in post-race technical inspection. Layne Riggs had driven the No. 38 truck to an apparent 24th-place result, but the penalty for violating Rule 14.4.10.1.G (“Windshield fasteners must remain tight and stationary for the entire event”) in the NASCAR Rule Book knocked the team to last in the finishing order. No other issues were found in post-race inspection, confirming Busch’s victory in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
Everything you need to know for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the second points-paying event of the 2024 Cup Series season.
Michael McDowell is certainly helping Front Row Motorsports live up to its name in 2024. The Arizona native stormed to his first career Busch Light Pole Award Saturday, backing up last week’s second-place qualifying effort at Daytona. Ford’s new Dark Horse Mustang dominated time trials, snagging seven of the top 10 starting positions. Joey Logano, defending race winner and polesitter one week ago, shares the front row with McDowell again, while McDowell’s teammate, Todd Gilliand, earned his best career starting position with a fourth-place effort. | Read qualifying recap
Big story line
Can William Byron start the year with back-to-back wins?
William Byron enters with a chance to make history rarely made — winning the opening two races of the NASCAR Cup Series season. No one has accomplished the feat since 2009, when Matt Kenseth was victorious at Daytona International Speedway and Auto Club Speedway. Only four others have ever done it: Jeff Gordon (1997), David Pearson (1976), Bob Welborn (1959) and Marvin Panch (1957).
Byron seems as likely a candidate to pull off the historic start. The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has won two of the four races on Atlanta Motor Speedway’s new high-banked configuration dating back to (and including) its debut in 2022. The 26-year-old led the series with six victories in 2023 and advanced to the Championship 4. Perhaps that momentum rolls into Hampton, Georgia on Sunday.
History tells us…
Not a ton, actually. Atlanta Motor Speedway has hosted 119 Cup Series races since it opened for business in 1960, but only the last four have been held with its current configuration. When the track was reprofiled with steeper banking (from 24 to 28 degrees) before the 2022 season, it was reimagined as a NASCAR hybrid – packing a superspeedway style into an intermediate-sized 1.54-mile oval.
In those four newfangled Atlanta races, Byron has been boom or bust, winning two and crashing out of the other pair. But there’s also some historic indication that a pole starter might fare well, with Chase Elliott (2022) and Joey Logano (in this race last year) visiting Victory Lane from the No. 1 starting spot. If so, that bodes especially well for Michael McDowell, who steamed to his first Cup Series pole in Saturday’s qualifying after 466 career races without one.
He may not be the betting favorite to win, but watch out for…
Corey LaJoie. At 40-1 odds this week, LaJoie’s name comes to the forefront just about every time the circuit reaches at Atlanta since its reconfiguration, and with good reason. While the Spire Motorsports driver is still seeking his first career Cup win, Atlanta is the sight of two of his four career top fives — fifth in March 2022 and fourth in this race a year ago. He also led 19 laps here in the 2022 summer race, in which he ran second at the white flag and crashed trying to make the winning pass on Chase Elliott. | Atlanta odds
Speed reads
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• Parts confiscated from SHR: Nos. 10, 41 teams have roof rail deflectors taken for further evaluation | Read article
• 36 for 36: NASCAR survivor pool makes selections for Atlanta | Read article • Home game: Chase Elliott returns to home track | Watch video
• Behind the scenes: In-depth access to No. 8 team, Kyle Busch’s pursuit at Daytona | Read article
• Double duty: No. 24 team’s pit crew wins Daytona 500, pulls double in Xfinity race | Read article
• Memory lane: Relive the most memorable moments from Atlanta | See the photos • Per the numbers: Racing Insights projects the final race results | Read article • At-track photos: Sights and scenes straight out of Georgia | Photo gallery • Fantasy Fastlane: Setting your lineup for Atlanta | See fantasy tips • Paint Scheme Preview: Pretty paint to shine in the Peach State | Pick a favorite • Power Rankings: Byron begins in the best way possible | Latest driver rankings
Fast facts ⏩
Race-relevant statistics, brought to you by the experts at Racing Insights.
• Toyota is winless on drafting tracks in the Next Gen car. The manufacturer’s last win on a drafting track came in the Gen 6 car with Bubba Wallace at Talladega. • Joey Logano has led more laps on drafting tracks since 2022 than anyone else (296 laps).
• Ford drivers led 366 of the 445 laps raced at Atlanta in 2023 (82%).
HAMPTON, Ga. — Ahead of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Kyle Busch and the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team will have a new jackman in Garrett Crall as he takes over for Josh Sobecki.
The change comes after a loose wheel suffered by the team after a pit stop during the Stage 2 break of last Sunday’s Daytona 500. Busch limped his No. 8 Chevrolet around the 2.5-mile superspeedway back to pit road without further damage and rallied to finish 12th while leading 12 laps in the “Great American Race.”
Busch said on Saturday that RCR attempted to make pit crew changes during the offseason, this latest shake-up coming after the team shifted several key personnel between the Nos. 3 and 8 teams early on in last year’s playoffs.
“We were trying to redo a few different positions over the offseason, and some of the talent we were scouting, talking to and giving offers to, they declined them and went somewhere else,” Busch said. “We kind of just had what we had, and we’ve been working through that. It’s tough out there. It’s really hard to recruit and get guys. Especially with where RCR is based and where they’re at, it’s a long drive to get up to Welcome (North Carolina) to pit-stop practice sometimes three and four times a week, whatever it might be.
“I know that [pit-crew coach] Ray [Wright] and all the guys there in the pit crew department are working super hard. Trust me, they’ve heard it – not from me, but from Richard week in and week out. Their ears are bleeding, but I know they’re trying and I know they’re working hard. Trust me, there were plenty of offers over the offseason to try and get different talent up there, and we just weren’t able to secure it.”
After the pit stop at Daytona, RCR owner Richard Childress had fiery words for the No. 8 pit crew, telling the team to straighten up for the final stage.
Over the years, Busch has been the one to voice his displeasure after a mistake but with Childress being hands-on with his Cup teams and actively engaged during races, Busch has taken a step back from being the lead vocalist over team communications.
“Richard is very involved and wants any situation to get better,” Busch said. “If we’re not winning every single race out of the year, then how did we lose that one race? What can we do to make it better? That’s a racer’s mentality … that’s what we all try to strive for and try to be better at. It’s tough sometimes when you have the human element. We all make mistakes. I made tons of them last year and my crew stuck behind me – was passionate that I was their driver and wanted to go to the next week and figure out how to win the next one. I know where Richard is coming from, and I appreciate that – the emphasis he puts on greatness and wanting to be better. It’s what we all strive for.”
See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series driver will pit for the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
HAMPTON, Ga. – Michael McDowell and Joey Logano performed their own version of “Trading Places” during NASCAR Cup Series time trials on Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
After finishing second to Logano in qualifying for the season-opening Daytona 500, McDowell will start his 467th Cup race from a position he has never occupied before — first on the grid — with Logano beside him in second.
Having won the first Busch Light Pole Award of his career, McDowell will lead the field to green in Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 at the 1.54-mile track (3 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
All told, seven Fords and three Chevrolets comprised the top 10 in the qualifying session.
The only driver to break the 31-second mark, McDowell posted a time of 30.999 seconds (178.844 mph) in the final round of time trials, beating second-place Logano (178.424 mph) by 0.073 seconds.
Kyle Busch (178.235 mph) earned the third starting position, with Todd Gilliland, McDowell’s teammate at Front Row Motorsports, claiming the fourth spot at 178.080 mph.
“That’s awesome,” McDowell said after topping the session. “Two weeks in a row, we sat on the front row. We need to back that up with a good result (on Sunday). We’ve got both cars in the top five, so that’s awesome.”
Kyle Larson, defending series champion Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher, Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe and Austin Dillon will start the Ambetter Health 400 from fifth through 10th, respectively.
For the second straight race, no Toyotas advanced to the top 10 in qualifying, though Martin Truex’s 12th-place effort on Saturday was an improvement from Daytona, where Erik Jones was the fastest Camry driver in time trials at 22nd.
Daytona 500 winner William Byron missed the final round by 0.002 seconds (behind Hendrick teammate Larson.
The 400-miler (260 laps) is the second race of the Cup Series season.
A pair of Stewart-Haas Racing Fords in the NASCAR Cup Series had parts confiscated for further evaluation during inspection Friday evening at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The No. 10 and 41 machines, driven by Noah Gragson and Ryan Preece, respectively, had roof rail deflectors seized at the track before Saturday’s qualifying session and Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Any potential penalties will be announced next week.
Per the NASCAR Rule Book, roof air deflectors must consist of parts outlined in the below diagram. Additionally, they must meet the following criteria: be constructed of 0.05-inch thick aluminum; be installed perpendicular in the applicable slots; must not interfere with the functioning of the roof flaps; and must be painted.
NASCAR
While the roof rail deflectors do create drag, the most important function involves their aero properties and how they react specifically for cars spinning.
Roof deflectors also are a team part and not a single-source supplier part.
Additionally, the No. 47 JTG Daugherty Chevrolet of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. failed pre-qualifying inspection twice, resulting in loss of pit selection and ejection of their engineer.
CONCORD, N.C. – Ryan Patton has a recurring nightmare about his job that has awoken him in a cold sweat and clutching for a phantom tire.
“Usually it’s at Martinsville, and I’m outside the track trying to get in,” the Hendrick Motorsports tire carrier said. “And I’m not ready at all for a pit stop.”
That terrifying feeling hit him again Monday night at Daytona International Speedway – and somehow it happened during the biggest waking dream of his life. After pitting the No. 24 Chevrolet that William Byron drove to victory in the 66th Daytona 500, Patton, rear tire changer Orane Ossowski, front tire changer Jeff Cordero and jackman Spencer Bishop got barely an hour to celebrate the most sought-after prize in NASCAR.
The confetti hardly had settled on the Harley J. Early Trophy when the foursome suddenly was dashing off to 300 more miles of work on the pit crew for Sammy Smith’s No. 8 Chevrolet in the Xfinity Series race – the nightcap of the first Monday doubleheader in Daytona history. As Patton sprinted the length of pit road with a fresh set of radios while his teammates scrambled to grab new pit guns and equipment, the reality set in quickly.
“I’m like, ‘Holy (crap), I’m living my nightmare right now,’ ” he said with a laugh. “One of the guys on our team was trying to congratulate me, and he’s like, ‘Why are you running?’ Because I’ve got to go pit the next race!
“It was a lot of excitement, emotion and panic.”
Duty called at Daytona amidst the chaos of playing catch up. Though it was roughly 10 laps into the Xfinity race before they actually were ready to service Smith’s car (and another 10 laps before the pit box was complete), the crew members answered the bell and nearly swept the day (Smith led six laps and was contending for the top five before a last-lap incident) – a feat that left Dale Earnhardt Jr. stunned on social media.
While frustrated with the final results for @JRMotorsports, I spent a lot of yesterday evening in awe of the fact our #8 team was crewed by the Daytona 500 champions from @TeamHendrick who came straight from victory lane just as our race was going green. pic.twitter.com/kp9ntmMyjr
Though jokes were made in a pre-race meeting about skipping the Xfinity race if the No. 24 won the Daytona 500, there was no recourse for finding replacements. Plus, the challenge of possibly being crowned 800-mile Daytona champions immediately was accepted, as the crew explained Thursday during a group interview on the Hendrick campus to recount their wild adventure.
“With this group, whatever we do, we want to do our best,” Bishop said. “Even though we just won the 500, we can’t just half-ass it. So yeah, you’re on an emotional high, but we’ve got to refocus, lock in and do a good job for Sammy Smith as well. We can’t just phone it in and say, ‘Oh yeah, we won the 500, so sorry about that loose wheel.’ You still want to do a good job because that’s your reputation and your job.”
But there also still needed to be time to soak in the aftermath of winning The Great American Race, which was a first for Ossowski, Cordero, Bishop and fueler Landon Walker. As the party began with Byron on the frontstretch grass, there was an understanding that every last second of exultation would be used. Told no after asking half in jest if any substitutes had been found for the Xfinity race, Ossowski replied, “All right then. We’re going to be late!”
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
“When we went to Victory Lane, I wasn’t going to take one or two pictures and then bounce to pit the Xfinity race,” Cordero said. “I wanted to enjoy all of it. We got done taking pictures and were just hanging out after we sprayed the champagne. Then the Xfinity cars fired up, and I said, ‘This is fun. But we’ve got to go!’ ”
Walker tried to hustle his teammates to their next gig while also thrashing with a hodgepodge of Hendrick team members to get the No. 24’s pit disassembled and reorganized for transport to Atlanta Motor Speedway (a task normally handled by the full pit crew).
“I didn’t know if they were going to make it to the Xfinity race because Patton still was in the 24 hauler as the cars were literally about to take the green,” Walker said. “Obviously, I wanted to celebrate longer with those guys, but that was the only downside. It was funny how it all worked out.”
Between races, there were moments of absolute frenzy for every crew member.
After realizing he didn’t have their Xfinity pit guns (usually obtained an hour before the race), Ossowski made a mad dash to the supplier’s hauler in the garage and ran into Cordero, who was rolling back their equipment cart. While dropping off the Cup radios at the No. 24 hauler, Patton tore through every locker to ensure nothing was missing. Bishop scrambled to confirm he had the proper jack for the Xfinity car, and everyone hunted headsocks that went missing in the Daytona 500 celebration.
But the scene was relatively calm upon reaching the No. 8 Xfinity pit. JR Motorsports road crew members had done the heavy lifting of assembling the pit box with tires at the ready. Aside from a few personal touches and hooking up their pit guns, the setup work mostly was done.
“They did a really good exponentially helping us get all the basic stuff ready,” Cordero said. “It really took the pressure off us.”
Those orders enthusiastically came from the top down. When he arrived with a champagne bottle in one hand and a bag of Victory Lane hats in the other, Cordero immediately was greeted warmly by Earnhardt Jr. “Dale Jr.’s won that race, and he understands,” Cordero said. “Everyone at JRM knows how important that race is. They gave us a lot of grace when we got there, and they all congratulated us, too.”
Patton never will forget Earnhardt Jr. proclaiming, “Damn, man, I’ve got the Daytona 500 champs pitting my race car!” and Ossowski got a big hug from the Hall of Famer. “That was awesome,” he said. “I looked up before one of our stops, and Dale Jr.’s just standing there on his phone, taking pictures of tires on the wall. In Daytona history, Dale Jr.’s pretty high up, and he’s there with his headset just like ‘Hey man!’ ”
In another massive time-saver, JRM allowed the pit crew to stay in their Cup fire suits instead of changing into their Xfinity sponsor-branded gear.
“It hit me after the first pit stop when Sammy came on the radio and was like, ‘Great stop, boys. It’s good to see you made it,’ ” Patton said. “Kudos to him, because he’s looking for a Pilot Flying J red fire suit, and we’re out there in white Axalta suits. Pulling in with guys wearing different logos and fire suits running in front of him, it was a good heads up on his part not to think he was coming into the wrong stall and clipping one of us.”
Courtesy of Hendrick Motorsports
Monday marked only the second time since the Next Gen era began in 2022 that Cup and Xfinity races were held on the same day (May 29, 2023 at Charlotte Motor Speedway was the first). Cup switched to a single lug nut with Next Gen while Xfinity remained at five lug nuts, and there are distinctions in choreography, processes and speed.
On their first Xfinity pit stop, Cordero and Spencer slightly got crossed up because the jack man follows the tire changer in Xfinity and leads in Cup (where stops are much faster).
Bishop views the series’ pit stops contrasts “as two different sports. It’s almost like a heptathlete where one is shot put and one is discus. They’re similar but different enough. And whenever the car hits pit road, it really doesn’t matter what’s going on around you. You’re singularly focused. It’s just the nature of doing pit stops. If your mind is elsewhere wandering around, you’re not going to be great at your job.”
That includes distractions such as the bone-rattling mid-February chill of Daytona as midnight approaches. As the temperatures plummeted into the mid-40s for the final 20 or so laps, the No. 8 crew was left to shiver inside firesuits still damp with Gatorade and champagne from Victory Lane three hours earlier.
“That’s when it kicked in that the adrenaline was starting to tail off,” Patton said. “Because we hadn’t eaten since before the Daytona 500. We’d been there since 9 a.m. when the garage opened.”
The full wait actually was much longer. The pit crew arrived Saturday morning for Xfinity’s original afternoon start time. After a Sunday morning postponement of Xfinity and Cup, the team fruitlessly tried to pass the time with fun activities that never came to fruition — with everyone idling in Daytona, there were three-hour waits for go-karts and escape rooms. After another long wait to switch to unplanned hotel rooms Sunday night, they at least got a nice steak dinner at Firebirds (where they ran into No. 24 crew chief Rudy Fugle, who picked up their check).
There still was hope of the Xfinity race as a nice warmup before Monday morning rain pushed its start time from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
“We’d been there since Saturday morning, and now it’s Monday morning, and we haven’t done anything,” Ossowski said. “You’re anxious. We’ve been here three days. Can we pit a race car?”
Aside from a nervous moment on the first stop for Byron — who missed his stall after a near-collision with teammate Alex Bowman, whom he later would outduel for his 11th career win — the Daytona 500 went off without a hitch with most of the pressure on Walker, who made four fuel-only stops among the team’s seven.
“I am used to it, but it doesn’t ever get easier,” Walker said. “When it gets down to that moment of a fuel-only stop to potentially put yourself in position to win the race, it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve done it. It feels like the first time.”
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
The No. 24 pit crew got home at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday and had the day off. They were back at it Wednesday. Their Thursday morning pit practice ended with a red Cadillac Escalade V-Series driving the opposite way through the concrete launch pad. Team owner Rick Hendrick was behind the wheel, personally congratulating each team member who has made its share of history.
After delivering Hendrick Motorsports’ 300th victory last year, Byron gave the team a record-tying ninth Daytona 500 win (matching Petty Enterprises) on the 40th anniversary to the day of Hendrick’s first Cup start.
With so much to celebrate, the team threw another party Thursday night in Charlotte for a proper fete of the Daytona 500 triumph without time constraints.
“There are pit crew guys that go 10 or 12 years in a career and never win a race in all three divisions,” Ossowski said. “Every single one we celebrate like it’s our last because you owe it to yourself to be in the moment.”
MEET THE PIT CREW WHO PULLED THE DOUBLE
Ryan Patton: Tire Carrier
Hometown: Delphos, Ohio
Ohio Northern University
Has been at Hendrick Motorsports since August 2011 and was part of Jimmie Johnson’s championship teams.
Spencer Bishop: Jack Man
Hometown: Pine Hurst, North Carolina
Wake Forest University tight end from 2009-12.
Jeff Cordero: Front Tire Changer
Hometown: Salem, Connecticut
Was formerly at Joe Gibbs Racing from 2018-21 and won a championship with Kyle Busch.
Orane Ossowski: Rear Tire Changer
Hometown: Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada
Attended UNC Charlotte, interning with the chassis and composite shop at Hendrick before transferring to the pit department four years later.
One of a very small group of left-handed tire changers on pit road.
