Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team flashed their greatness in last weekend’s win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and with the way he won last year’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway (leading 199 of 267 laps), the 2021 champion is the favorite to take the checkered flag this week, too. But one driver who could stop him is Denny Hamlin, who has three career wins at this 1.5-mile track in Florida.
Hamlin bounced back from a 37th-place finish at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course with a 10th-place finish last weekend at Las Vegas. The Charlotte finish ended a run of four straight top fives for the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Hamlin is tops in average running position in 2023 (9.44) and second only to Larson in average running position in the playoffs (8.89 to Larson’s 6.81). Hamlin also leads all Round of 8 drivers with eight career wins in this playoff round.
Hamlin is just two points above the elimination line and has plenty to play for this week, including trying to stay ahead of JGR teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Christopher Bell, who are even and four points behind him in the standings, respectively. Hamlin has started first in five of the last six Homestead races, so if he’s dialed in early, expect him to be on course to have another solid weekend in South Beach.
PLAYOFF PICTURE
KYLE LARSON: As the only driver guaranteed a spot in the Championship 4 thus far, Larson theoretically could take it easy this week, but one has to wonder whether he has anything other than high gear given his competitive nature. He’s led more than 100 laps in three of his last six Homestead starts and figures to be a factor in running that high line up by the wall.
CHRISTOPHER BELL: Bell was the only other car that really gave Larson a run for his money last week in Las Vegas, and crew chief Adam Stevens and the driver of the No. 20 JGR Toyota lamented finishing second. They are plenty motivated and seem to have the right setup on 1.5-mile tracks (three straight top-10 finishes) to continue to gain ground on the other playoff drivers. At just two points back, Bell can probably taste a return trip to the Champ 4.
CHRIS BUESCHER: Buescher took a big step back last week by losing 20 points in the standings to drop to 23 points below the elimination line. It’s going to be tough to make up all that ground without a win or something catastrophic happening to another playoff driver. The problem is Buescher’s best finish at Homestead in seven starts is 13th place, so at least for this week the game might be not to lose any ground rather than to expect a big gain.
TYLER REDDICK: Reddick has the reputation of being able to ride the high line like Larson does and be successful at Homestead, and he has two top-five finishes in three career Cup races there. There’s a good deal of pressure on the driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota to perform this week because his history at Martinsville Speedway (one top-10 finish in seven starts) hasn’t been as strong as it is at Homestead.
RYAN BLANEY: When NASCAR rescinded the post-race penalty from the No. 12 Team Penske team, it improved Blaney’s circumstances from 56 points below the elimination line to a deficit of 17 points. That means Blaney’s chance for his first Champ 4 trip isn’t gone, but to make up ground this week he will have to buck the statistical trends at Homestead, where he has only one top-10 finish in eight starts.
Projections as of Sunday, Oct. 22:
RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR THE 4EVER 400 PRESENTED BY MOBIL 1
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.
Smith, a 2023 Xfinity Series Playoffs contender, has earned one win, three pole awards, eight top fives and 12 top-10 finishes this season with two races remaining. The season finale at Phoenix Raceway will serve as Smith’s final race with Kaulig. Smith enters next week’s race at Martinsville Speedway (Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET, USA, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) 54 points beneath the provisional elimination line to advance to the Championship 4.
Kaulig’s 2024 driver lineup will be announced in the coming weeks, while Smith’s landing spot is yet to be announced as well.
Smith owns six total national series wins, with five split between 2021-22 while racing a Toyota in the Craftsman Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports. He made three NASCAR Cup Series starts for Kaulig in 2023 as well, finishing no worse than 17th in any of them with a best finish of 11th at Talladega Superspeedway earlier this month.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Cole Custer qualified on the pole position and stomped the competition to lead a race-high 114 of 200 laps. But his day ended up outside of Victory Lane at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Custer’s No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford leaned against the outside SAFER barrier in Turns 3 and 4 with 50 laps to go in the penultimate race of the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ Round of 8, cutting a right-front tire, sending him to pit road and derailing an otherwise magnificent day for the veteran racer.
“Just got in too deep I guess,” Custer said. “You know, had a big lead and I didn’t feel like I was pushing it, but just carried a little too much speed. I think I got by a couple of lappers and just missed it a little bit. I think that was the only time I hit the wall all day. So it’s just sucks. I mean I’m so frustrated. The guys brought me such a fast car. I mean, I think we definitely had the dominant car today.”
The damage sent Custer to pit road and resulted in numerous lost laps — worsened by a pit-road penalty for too many men over the wall. Custer ultimately finished 13th, the first car one lap down.
Failing to execute the win left a sting for Custer, but he tried to find the bright side: Teammate Riley Herbst crushed the field to win last week’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway by over 15 seconds and nearly caught Sam Mayer for the victory Saturday at Homestead. Custer came with similar, if not better, speed and credited crew chief Jonathan Toney for the inroads the No. 00 team has made specifically.
“JT and all the guys, it’s just a testament to what they’re doing,” Custer said. “And I think we can go to Martinsville and really have a good shot at it. And even with all that happened, I think we’re still in the good, so just gotta move on to the next one. But I’m definitely disappointed in myself today. Just hate that that happened.”
Custer is above the provisional elimination line heading to the 0.526-mile short track Martinsville Speedway, the final race to secure a spot in this year’s Championship 4. Because of his Saturday win, Mayer is the only driver currently locked in. Custer sits tied with Austin Hill for the final spot in the bracket for now, both only three points above Justin Allgaier.
Further behind Allgaier is a steep cliff — Sammy Smith sits 49 points beneath the line, with Chandler Smith out by 54 markers and Sheldon Creed by 65.
“I think we’re in a solid spot,” Custer said. “Martinsville was a good track for us in the spring, so I’m looking forward to it. I think we should have a great shot at advancing. But in the playoffs, you never know what to expect. But overall, we’ve just got to move on from today and go onto next week.”
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Sam Mayer claimed his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series oval-race victory in the second half of a NASCAR doubleheader at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday in the Contender Boats 300 after holding off last week’s race winner Riley Herbst by a mere 0.227 seconds.
It marks the JR Motorsports driver Mayer’s fourth series victory of the season and his career, and most importantly for Mayer – who joked he didn’t breathe the final four laps – it is his ticket into the Championship 4 finale that will decide the series title at Phoenix Raceway in two weeks.
The 20-year-old Wisconsin native’s No. 1 JRM Chevrolet led 46 laps on the day – including the final 30 – but brushed the wall exiting Turn 4 as he pushed forward on the last lap to keep a fast-closing Herbst behind him. Mayer’s fellow NASCAR Xfinity Series championship contender, John Hunter Nemechek, finished third in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, leading seven laps despite feeling under the weather.
Regular Season Champion Austin Hill was fourth in the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet and NASCAR Hall of Famer and crowd favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished fifth in his second and final Xfinity Series start of the season. He’s also the owner of Mayer’s Chevy.
“It’s unreal, we won on an oval,’’ a grinning Mayer screamed into the front grandstands. “This Chevrolet Camaro was so good. It’s all about putting a full race together, and I’m so proud of these guys. They kicked tail on pit road and we made it happen with these HMS (Hendrick Motorsports) engines. It’s just really cool to be able to beat an amazing organization like that (Herbst’s Stewart-Haas Racing team). We’ve got to turn it on a little harder going into Phoenix.”
Herbst’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Cole Custer won Stage 1 and led a dominating 114 of the race’s 200 laps, only to suffer a tire problem with 50 laps remaining and drop a lap down. He rallied back but still finished 13th after such an impressive early race. Custer and Hill are now tied three points above the elimination line heading into next week’s Round of 8 finale at the half-mile Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. Nemechek holds a healthy 44-point edge above the line.
Mayer’s JRM teammate Justin Allgaier – another title favorite who came into the race ranked second in the championship standings – also had a tire issue after a pit stop and dropped back midway through the race. He rallied back to finish 15th, but dropped to fifth place in the standings, three points behind Hill for the automatic transfer position for the Championship 4.
Nemechek’s JGR teammate Sammy Smith, who finished ninth, is now 49 points back in sixth place. And it was a more dramatic day for the other championship contenders with Richard Childress Racing’s Sheldon Creed finishing 26th after entering pit road with smoke trailing out of his Chevy with only two laps remaining in the race.
Kaulig Racing’s Chandler Smith rounds out the Playoff 8 – but finished a frustrating 34th place after being collected in an early race accident. They are now 54 (Smith) and 65 (Creed) points below the fourth-place transfer line and will need to win the race at Martinsville next week to meet their playoff goals.
Kaulig’s Daniel Hemric, Big Machine Racing’s Parker Kligerman, JRM’s Brandon Jones, and the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Sammy Smith, and Joe Graf Jr. rounded out the top 10 Saturday.
Earnhardt’s participation was a crowd pleaser and his fifth-place effort in the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevy was his fifth top-five showing since he retired from full-time competition in the NASCAR Cup Series after the 2017 season. He methodically worked his way forward from a 23rd-place starting position and survived a close call in the closing laps, ironically with Josh Berry, who drives for Earnhardt.
“Luckily it didn’t hurt our car and we were able to finish really good, so I’m happy about that,” Earnhardt said, noting he felt badly having an incident with one of his own team cars.
The series moves to the 0.526-mile Martinsville track for next Saturday’s Dead On Tools 250 (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) which will formally decide which three drivers will join Mayer in championship eligibility at the Phoenix season-ender.
“Getting that first oval win [today] was big. … we finally won on an oval and my confidence is feeling good,’’ Mayer said with a huge grin.
Note: Post-race inspection in the Xfinity Series garage was completed without major issue. Two cars were found with unsecured lug nuts in a post-race check — the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevy driven by Austin Hill was found with two loose lugs on the left-front wheel, and the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for Joe Graf Jr. had one unsecured lug nut on the left-rear. The No. 21 team’s penalty should result in a one-race suspension for crew chief Andy Street, according to guidelines in the Xfinity Series Rule Book. The infraction by the No. 19 JGR team should result in a monetary fine in next week’s penalty report.
It’s an incident Mason Massey will never forget. In many ways it changed him fundamentally – and looking back, it ironically enhanced his confidence both personally and as an up-and-coming race car driver.
After dominating a Legends Series race at his home track of Atlanta Motor Speedway more than a decade ago, an 11-year-old Massey consciously decided to give up his sizable race lead in the closing laps to avoid having to do a post-race victory interview over the track’s public address system.
“I just let the guy behind me go at the end of the race,” Massey recalled. “And then immediately after that, I was like, ‘I will never do that again.’ The minute I did it, I regretted it.
“I was really young and not in a good place with my stuttering. When you’re that age, it’s hard and you just want to fit in and be like everybody else. But after that, I knew I would never do that again. And the next week, I won the race, hopped out and did the interview just fine. I had just been over-thinking it. It was all good.
“From that moment on,” the now 26-year-old Massey continued, “I was a race car driver and if you’re a race car driver, you need to win races. If I’m letting people go by and all that stuff, I’m not a race car driver. So, I wouldn’t really say that was a ‘breaking point’ for me, but it was a point I knew I’d never do that again. Win the race. Hop out of the car. Do the interview. Everything will be great and go home with the trophy.”
Massey has taken home hundreds of trophies over the years since and disseminated an equally as important dose of inspiration, too. After years of competition on-track, the NASCAR Xfinity Series driver is ready now to also make a real difference away from the track, to show what a strong belief in yourself and the fundamental good in others can do.
Massey was born with a stutter and he’s hoping that sharing his experience will be that difference for somebody.
He’s certainly not alone in that challenge. Several other famous athletes and entertainers also have had stutters, from golfing legend Tiger Woods to dual-sport star Bo Jackson to NBA great Wilt Chamberlain and former Major League Baseball All-Star Game MVP George Springer. Golden Globe Award winning actors Hugh Grant and Emily Blunt also had stutters as did Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman and the legendary James Earl Jones, who ironically is renowned for his commanding voice.
It’s a condition affecting more than 80 million people worldwide – including the current President of the United States, Joe Biden.
In 2017, Massey’s story of courage and perseverance was made into a short film “Dust & Dirt” – featured and applauded at the famed Sundance Film Festival.
Yet even in the years since the well-received and deeply personal film, Massey had not necessarily felt the comfort level to speak openly about his stutter. Until now.
“When I was little, I wouldn’t hardly say anything,” Massey recalled. “If I didn’t know you, I was just not going to talk to you. And I almost feel like, that’s worse for your mental health than if you just actually put yourself out there and said, ‘This is who I am. I have a stutter.’
“So just a few years ago, I was like, ‘I’ve been hiding this my whole life from people.’ Everyone has their own issues that they’re working on with themselves. And I was finally like, I can’t do this anymore. I’ve just got to be myself and show my personality to people. If I want to make it in this sport, I have to put myself out there. I have to talk to people. And it’s been really good, honestly.”
Just this week Massey participated in his first conference call with the national motorsports media – a nod to Sunday’s International Stuttering Awareness Day. And this weekend competed in the Baptist Health Cancer Care 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, driving the No. 08 SS GreenLight Racing Ford.
It also marked another chance for Massey to compete against one of his lifelong friends and an Xfinity Series championship contender. Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill, a golfing buddy and fellow Georgia native, came up the racing ranks with Massey.
James Gilbert | Getty Images
“I’ve known him forever, so I’ve just known from a very young age about his stutter, but never thought anything about it,” Hill said. “People have brought it up to me, but I don’t even notice it because I’m around him so much and we’ve known each other so long. It’s just something natural I hear, not something that sticks out when we’re talking.”
Hill says he’s proud of his friend’s decision to speak publicly about his stuttering, but insists it’s never truly been a big topic of conversation between the two in their families’ nearly two decades of friendship.
“But I think it’s a great thing for him to do,” Hill said of Massey speaking publicly. “I thought for the longest time he wouldn’t really talk about it. I’ve never talked to him about the stutter; it was just something I was used to and never thought twice about.
“For him to start to show he does stutter and talk about it and help others is great and shows even though you may stutter you still have the confidence to go out there and do what you love, and he loves driving a race car. And, he’s really a good driver.”
NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott would agree. He and his NASCAR Hall of Fame father Bill Elliott fielded a late model car for the fellow Georgian as Massey was coming up through the ranks as teenager.
As with Hill, Elliott says Massey’s stutter was never an issue with the team and not something, honestly, that he ever really noticed. Certainly, it was nothing that solely defined his friend and protégé.
“I’ve known Mason for a long time and always thought highly of him and I recognize the stutter but in general, it’s very easy to get caught up in that or let that become your focus but for me personally I looked past that, that’s not who that person is,” Elliott said. “You’ve got to listen to what that person is saying, listen to who they are, the words they’re speaking, and I’ve already tried to live by that.
“I certainly admire him working through it and not letting that hold him back from doing what he wants to do. For me, I’ve just admired his drive and his passion to want to continue to do this and work so hard at it.”
From as early an age as Massey can remember, he started therapy to help the stutter and build his confidence. He remembers being teased as a young kid, but says as he got older and made his way up the racing ranks, it wasn’t an issue and insists it never has been competing in NASCAR.
The Douglasville, Georgia, native still recalls making two-hour round-trip visits as a child to see Tim Mackesey, a leading speech and stuttering therapy specialist in Atlanta. Born with a stutter himself, Mackesey has a personal understanding of the struggles and the successes. He has worked with Massey for years and seen the progress.
“I would guesstimate he was only six or seven years old when I met him the first time and did some speech therapy, and then there was a break and he came back in high school,” Mackesey said. “He was already racing so here’s someone that’s come up with the courage and steely nerves, and I remember looking at this kid who had so much courage.”
The rigors of racing called for Massey to work through his condition, Mackesey says.
“Everything from talking into the microphone when racing and splitting your attention because you’re going into corner at 130 mph and talking to your pit crew, it’s trial under fire for someone who stutters,” Mackesey explained, his admiration for Massey unmistakable.
“It’s exactly what we who stutter need. Children who stutter – almost all of them – have a social anxiety because they’ve been teased and bullied and are afraid to speak up. Mason gives them a voice. He’s like, ‘I’ve been through it, be courageous and step up. You are more than stutter.’ ”
Massey is the first to concede that dealing with his condition has made him more empathetic. One of his early racing sponsors was the Special Olympics of Georgia, and Massey grins thinking of the athletes he’s met over the years through that partnership. So many of them have kept in touch, encouraging Massey and wanting to know about his racing career. He’s become so fond of the group of athletes and been so inspired by their courage, he continues to volunteer with the group and carry the Special Olympics on his cars even outside of the sponsorship arrangement.
It speaks to the kind of person Massey is – to the way overcoming incredible personal challenges can actually make you stronger than having an easy lane in life.
“It was a heartfelt change for me and I feel like in my heart, I have a soft spot for people with all these different challenges they’re facing, no matter what it is,” Massey says with a smile. “I want to put myself out there so they can see me stutter and see me have this challenge I’m facing because they’re facing the same thing I am, and I want them to know they can follow their dreams like I’m doing.”
“It made it harder in the moment, but looking back I think it’s the whole reason I am where I am now. It was motivating to me. At the time, I didn’t really realize it was motivating but as I look back, it definitely made me want it more.”
NASCAR officials have disqualified the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford and driver Zane Smith for an infraction found in technical inspection after Saturday’s Craftsman Truck Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The No. 38 Ford was found in violation of Section 14.4.7.I in the NASCAR Rule Book, which specifically references the windshield support. Officials indicated that the truck will be brought to the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina for further inspection.
Smith and the team had crossed under the checkered flag in second place behind race winner Carson Hocevar in Saturday’s Baptist Health Cancer Care 200. But the post-race ruling demoted Smith to last place in the 34-truck field, also stripping him of the 16 stage points he would have earned.
The Bob Jenkins-owned Front Row organization released a statement after the decision, saying: “We are disappointed in the disqualification from today’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event. We will continue to work and discuss with NASCAR officials back at the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, N.C., before making any further comment.”
Smith, last year’s series champion, was eliminated from title eligibility in the Craftsman Trucks Playoffs even before Saturday’s post-race penalty.
No other issues were found in post-race inspection in the Homestead-Miami garage, confirming Hocevar’s victory.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — It took a mighty gamble from crew chief Rich Lushes, but Ben Rhodes is back in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship 4.
A gutsy call to pit with 53 laps to go left Rhodes on worn tires, and the 2021 series champion did enough to finish second after a Zane Smith disqualification and advance past the Round of 8 finale via tiebreaker in Saturday afternoon’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. On the other side of the elimination line was Nick Sanchez, ousted after finishing 17th on a day he started from the pole position. Rhodes earns the nod on the tiebreaker with the better finish in the Round of 8, nabbing second-place results at both Homestead and Talladega Superspeedway. Sanchez’s best run in the stanza was seventh at Talladega.
Lushes is Rhodes’ third crew chief of the 2023 campaign but helped guide Rhodes to the championship two years ago. The No. 99 ThorSport Ford struggled Saturday around the 1.5-mile oval, but one risk has the program back in the title hunt with only the finale remaining.
“Our truck was so bad all day long, we had nothing else to do,” Lushes told NASCAR.com. “Like we had to do something different from everybody else so it was the only call I really had. It worked.”
Rhodes trusts Lushes’ gut, but the poor handle of the truck left him doubtful heading into the final run.
“I was so terrible the whole race, I didn’t think it was going to work out,” Rhodes said. “So I mean, that’s just plain and honest. Right? I’m never gonna hide that. But I had faith in the call. Every time we’re down, Rich does a really good job of making some call off-strategy nobody else is doing. And he pulls it out and we end up winning something. Right now, it’s advancing. I’m just proud of him for the call, you know? But yeah, at the time, I was just shaking my head and I said, ‘Yes, I’ll give it a try. Here we go again.’
“I mean, we almost won the championship last year on a call like this. So, you know, this is a big deal. That leadership is important — the ability to make calls like that and have the confidence to let yourself be thrown to the wind if that’s what happens. He does that. He doesn’t care what happens. He just wants to win. Ballsy move, for sure. I’m all for it. He’s got faith in me to back it up. But sometimes I say, ‘Man, that’s a little too ballsy for me.’ ”
Sanchez’s day went south after the green flag, with the Rev Racing rookie unable to find the feel necessary to compete for the victory at his home track Saturday afternoon. His day soured further heading to pit road with 35 laps to go. Sanchez was following Tanner Gray to pit road under green-flag conditions but Gray checked up sooner than Sanchez anticipated. Sanchez rear-ended Gray, creating significant damage to the left-front nose of Sanchez’s No. 2 Chevrolet and ultimately preventing him from making the passes necessary to advance.
Zach Sturniolo | NASCAR Studios
“I wasn’t really good all day,” Sanchez said. “I was kind of confused on the balance a little bit. Obviously, the 19 (Christian Eckes) didn’t really have a lot of good luck so I feel like I was in that position to make it because he kind of got screwed on a couple of things. But I need to do a better job of noticing the balance of the truck and where it was going and fixing that.
“And yeah, me hitting the 15 (Gray) obviously took me out of it at the end. I was racing him and he got in front of me. And I’ve had my marks to go pit road, and here, especially as the pace falls off, you don’t know if they’re running the bottom or they’re going to pit lane. And it’s not an excuse because I hit him. It’s my fault but just gotta learn from it. The second time I’ve done it this year. Did it in Vegas. You can’t make those mistakes and expect to make the championship race and that’s on me.”
Joining Rhodes in the Championship 4 are Corey Heim, Homestead winner Carson Hocevar and Grant Enfinger.
Also eliminated from the playoffs after the Round of 8 were Eckes, Ty Majeski and defending series champion Zane Smith.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Carson Hocevar secured his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship 4 appearance with a victory Saturday in the Baptist Health Cancer Care 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, earning all four of his career series wins this season – the trophy Saturday most impactful among them.
Hocevar put his No. 42 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet into the lead with 11 laps remaining and held off the hard-charging Zane Smith by 2.705 seconds to claim the win over last year’s series champion, whose runner-up effort was disqualified by NASCAR after a post-race technical inspection found the defending series champion’s No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford used an unapproved windshield support.
“We are disappointed in the disqualification,” Front Row Motorsports said in a statement after the NASCAR inspection. “We will continue to work and discuss with NASCAR officials back at the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, N.C., before making any further comment.”
The DQ moved ThorSport Racing’s Ben Rhodes into runner-up on the afternoon helping him to advance to the playoffs’ final round, prevailing in a tiebreaker in the standings with rookie Nick Sanchez — the pole-sitter who finished 17th after making contact with another truck coming to pit road for his final stop.
Regular Season Champion Corey Heim of Tricon Garage, GMS Racing’s Grant Enfinger and Hocevar’s Niece Motorsports teammate Bayley Curry rounded out the top five at Homestead.
Heim, Hocevar, Enfinger and Rhodes will now race for the championship on Nov. 3 at Phoenix Raceway.
Hocevar celebrated the clutch win by climbing high atop the flag stand to claim the checkered flag in person. He threw it down to the cheering fans behind the fence then climbed back down on the grandstand side to high-five fans and celebrate the biggest win of his life to date.
“It kills me I can’t do a burnout but we have to take this truck to Phoenix,” a grinning Hocevar said. “This truck was so good. We just got behind on pit stops and just lost track position which was unfortunate, but man, it’s so good to feel [like this]. I love it.
“I thought we could win today with our truck, even with all the setbacks from the debris and everything, we had a shot to win and we did just that.”
The battle for that final playoff position was as dramatic as the fight for the victory.
Rhodes came into this final Round of 8 race only five points behind Sanchez for the fourth championship-eligible transfer position. He finished 24th in the opening stage and 10th in the second stage. It still left him outside looking into the Championship 4, so Rhodes’ ThorSport team opted to pit for fresh tires early and out of pit sequence. The move allowed his No. 99 ThorSport Ford to take the race lead as the other front-runners stopped later.
He held the point with 30 laps remaining only to have Hocevar and Smith chase him back down on fresher tires. Hocevar passed him with 11 laps remaining, Smith a lap later.
“We failed Ben today, we didn’t give him a very good truck and he bailed us out at the end there,’’ Rhodes’ crew chief Rich Lushes said. “It was the only call we had. We had to do something different than everybody else and it all worked out so I guess we’re going to [championship] again.”
It was a heartbreaking ending for the 22-year-old Sanchez, who is from nearby Miami and raced often at Homestead-Miami Speedway as he was coming up the junior ranks. He won the pole and led the opening five laps, only to see his playoff hopes in jeopardy after a miscue approaching his final pit stop with 34 laps remaining. His No. 2 Rev Racing Chevrolet hit the back of Tanner Gray’s truck as the two were slowing to enter pit road, causing noticeable damage to Sanchez’s Chevrolet.
“Obviously I lost a lot of time there and just lost time in the pits trying to fix it,” Sanchez said. “Just my fault, no two ways to it. I really didn’t know the 15 was pitting and didn’t slow down [enough]. So that’s on me. I apologize to my team. They’re going to support me. To miss by one point is pretty rough, but all you can do is go to Phoenix and try to win.”
Heim led a race-best 57 of the 134 laps and swept both stage victories. Heim had already advanced to the championship race, based on his victory in the Round of 8 opener Sept. 14 at Bristol Motor Speedway. His third-place finish marked the series-best 15th consecutive top-10 finish of the season.
“I really thought we had them covered today, I mean we were smoking the first two stages and kind of waiting on the third stage and then it went out like a light switch so we’ll look everything over,’’ Heim said, adding, “We’ve got bigger things on the horizon so we’ll focus on that.”
Stewart Friesen, Matt Crafton, Rajah Caruth, Ty Majeski and Chase Purdy rounded out the top 10 finishing order. Majeski joins Smith, Sanchez and Christian Eckes as drivers eliminated from playoff contention.
Eckes finished 20th after what looked like a sure-bet top-10 finish was hampered by penalties and miscues on the afternoon. He was called for changing lanes early on a restart and another time for speeding on his pit-road exit late in the race.
“We had a truck able to advance and just kept making mistakes,” Eckes said. “Just wasn’t good enough today.”
IndyCar star Marco Andretti finished 18h in his second series start in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet. He’s scheduled to race at Phoenix in two weeks.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series concludes the season with the Craftsman 150 at the 1-mile Phoenix Raceway on Friday, Nov. 3 (10 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
It’s been a rough postseason for regular-season champion Martin Truex Jr. It took seven races into the playoffs before the No. 19 team earned its first top 10 – and top 15 – finish at Las Vegas. It was the most consecutive races he went without a top 15 since 2009. But the leaderboard shows even more speed out of Truex at Homestead, as he won his second pole of the season (Darlington I). If Truex wins on Sunday, the first two rounds of the postseason are irrelevant to the No. 19 bunch.
NEXT IN LINE: Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney
RISING: There were very little expectations for Blaney this weekend. For his fans, I advise you not to look up his statistics at Homestead – they’re mediocre at best. But in his ninth race weekend at Homestead, Blaney can begin a new trend. The No. 12 car was among the best cars on the long run, ranking fifth on 10-lap averages, but more impressively, quickest on 20, 25 and 30-lap runs. Looks like the No. 12 car will be hoping for long green flag runs on Sunday.
It’s been a terrible season for Austin Dillon. So much so that after advancing to the final round of qualifying, he told NBC Sports that he was glad just to be interviewed. The No. 3 team has found speed at Homestead, dating back to last season when Dillon finished fourth. He won’t have to come from a starting position in the 30s on Sunday, as his sixth-place qualifying effort is his best of the year on asphalt.
FALLING: It looked as though Team Penske had a second bullet in its arsenal early in practice, with Joey Logano sitting seventh on 10-lap averages and was the second quickest of cars in Group B. In the waning minutes of practice, however, the No. 22 car got loose and smacked the inside wall. As we saw last week with Chase Elliott and countless other times when teams have gone to a backup car in the Next Gen era, it doesn’t seem to be as good, with all the emphasis leading into the weekend on the primary. It could be a long day for Logano on Sunday.
Harvick thought his car showed potential on the long run, but the No. 4 car timed in the middle of the field on 10-lap averages. All four Stewart-Haas Racing cars qualified outside the top 20, with Harvick sitting 22nd. Getting Budweiser to sponsor Harvick for the first time since 2015 and Mobil 1 honoring the 2014 champion all weekend long, Homestead is serving as the weekend for remembering Harvick’s Hall of Fame career. It’s just hard to find a spot for him in a stacked fantasy lineup.
FEATURED MATCHUPS:
Kyle Larson vs. William Byron
This could be the toughest matchup of the season. Whenever NASCAR visits Homestead, everyone wants to crown Larson the winner before the race even begins. He’s won just one race at the track and Byron visited Victory Lane first in a fewer number of starts. Both cars looked nearly equal in practice, cracking the top 10 in practice and qualifying. Going to stay with Larson, as he mentioned Saturday that all his emphasis this week was on Homestead and not looking ahead to Phoenix.
Denny Hamlin vs. Martin Truex Jr.
I’ve flipped with this one. Another week where Hamlin hovered in the back half of the top 10 in practice and failed to make the final round of qualifying. And while Hamlin has three triumphs at Homestead, Truex is elite at the track and was the only serious threat to Larson in last year’s race prior to getting spun on pit road. Truex scored his first morale victory of the playoffs by winning the pole.
Christopher Bell vs. Tyler Reddick
If you read Fastlane earlier this week, you would have seen that Bell was listed under drivers to stay away from. He’s still on that list for me, despite having a good practice session and was one of three playoff drivers to miss the final round of qualifying. I’m lovin’ the Reddick pick, though, and still think he’s going to be in contention for the victory.
Chris Buescher vs. Ryan Blaney
Here’s another matchup in which I’ve flipped on from earlier this week. Blaney had more pace in his car than Buescher had in his, especially over the long run. That’s where the No. 12 car shined, with Buescher ranking 26th on 20-lap averages. If Blaney can have a clean race, he should be able to outrun the No. 17 Ford.
See where drivers will pit for Sunday’s 4EVER 400 Presented by Mobil 1 at Homestead-Miami Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
