Posted on by Staff Report

Ryan Preece will return to the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, he confirmed on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday.

Preece is in the midst of his first full-time season at SHR, his fourth full-time campaign at the sport’s highest level. Through 30 starts in the No. 41 Ford, Preece notched a season-best finish of fifth in July at Richmond Raceway and is set to return for another year at the four-car outfit.

RELATED: Cup Series standings | Silly Season updates

“I’m gonna be here with the 41 at SHR next year,” Preece told SXM’s Dave Moody. “I’m definitely looking forward to it, and we’ve made a lot of gains.”

Preece began his Cup career with Phil Parsons Racing’s No. 98 car in 2015 when he made five part-time starts but joined the ranks full-time in 2019 with JTG Daugherty Racing. The Berlin, Connecticut, native competed for three seasons with JTG before the team downsized to one car, leaving Preece without a ride.

Preece, 32, spent the 2022 season working as a simulation and reserve driver for Stewart-Haas Racing, making two starts with Rick Ware Racing in the process. He moved back to the driver’s seat full-time this season, replacing Cole Custer in the No. 41 Ford.

The 2013 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion, Preece has just one top-10 finish this season but is confident in the progress Stewart-Haas Racing is making as the 2023 campaign winds to a close.

“I like the direction of the things that we’ve been working on here at SHR,” Preece said. “And it makes me optimistic going into not only Talladega because we have such fast superspeedway cars, but going to Las Vegas – our mile-and-a-half stuff, it’s never been really my strong suit, but some of the things that we’ve worked on, I feel really, really eager and excited to get to Las Vegas. And obviously when we go to Martinsville and Phoenix, those are two of our stronger tracks so we have a good couple races coming up.”

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to action at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) for the second race of the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Playoffs.

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR officials issued crew-member suspensions to two Cup Series teams and one Xfinity Series team for detached wheels during last weekend’s races at Texas Motor Speedway.

The safety violation falls under the heading of Section 8.8.10.4.C in the NASCAR Rule Book (Tires and Wheels) and refers to the “loss or separation of an improperly installed tire/wheel from the vehicle during the event.”

Two teams had wheels come unattached in crashes during Sunday’s Cup Series event at the 1.5-mile Fort Worth track. Two-race suspensions were issued to:

• No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet: Josh Sobecki (jack) and Michael Johnson (rear-tire changer)
• No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford: Matthew Schlytter (jack) and Coleman Dollarhide (rear-tire changer)

In the Xfinity Series, one team had a wheel break loose during Saturday’s 300-miler, resulting in two-race suspensions for a pair of pit-crew members.

• No. 27 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet: Justin Clapper (jack) and Dakota Bonds (rear-tire changer)

The rule for a detached wheel changed before the 2023 season. Previously, a four-race suspension was handed to the offending team’s crew chief. Starting this season, the penalty means two-race suspensions for pit-crew members and a two-lap penalty if the wheel detaches on the track. An errant wheel on pit road during green-flag conditions results in a pass-through penalty; under yellow, that same violation means the team must restart at the tail of the field.

Also in the Xfinity Series, competition officials issued a penalty for a single unsecured lug nut on the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driven to a third-place finish at Texas by Sammy Smith. The infraction resulted in a $5,000 fine for crew chief Jeff Meendering.

Posted on by Zack Albert

JR Motorsports announced Tuesday that Sammy Smith will drive the team’s No. 8 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Xfinity Series next season.

Smith makes the move from Joe Gibbs Racing, where he reached the Xfinity Series Playoffs in his first full season of competition. Smith has one Xfinity victory – achieved in March at Phoenix Raceway – and currently ranks sixth in the circuit’s postseason standings, 18 points above the provisional elimination line with one race remaining in the Round of 12.

RELATED: Key figures in Silly Season | Xfinity Series Playoffs standings

Sponsorship will be provided by Pilot Flying J, TMC Transportation and the Allstate Peterbilt Group.

The 19-year-old driver replaces Josh Berry, who is set to move to the NASCAR Cup Series next season as the pilot of Stewart-Haas Racing’s No. 4 Ford. Berry, a five-time Xfinity Series winner, has driven the No. 8 JRM Chevy full time the last two seasons, reaching the playoffs each year. He qualified for the Championship 4 round in 2022.

“Sammy is a great fit for our program and will mesh well with our other drivers,” JRM team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. said in a team release “He’s a young, talented racer who’s willing to learn and carries himself with a lot of professionalism. He has a bright future ahead. I’m excited for our team to help him continue his journey.”

Smith made the jump to the Xfinity Series last season, making nine starts in Gibbs’ No. 18 Toyota. He established solid credentials in the ARCA Menards Series with six wins in 2022, and he netted back-to-back ARCA Menards Series East championships in 2021 and 2022.

On his way to the NASCAR national-series ranks, Smith made the rounds with success in Super Late Model events. The Johnston, Iowa, native holds crown-jewel victories at the grassroots level in the Winchester 400 and Redbud 400 in Indiana, and the Governor’s Cup and World Series of Asphalt at New Smyrna Speedway in Florida.

Smith joins three returning drivers on the JR Motorsports roster for 2024. Sam Mayer (No. 1 Chevrolet), veteran Justin Allgaier (No. 7), and Brandon Jones (No. 9) all re-signed with the Dale Earnhardt Jr.-owned organization in recent weeks.

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

FORT WORTH, Texas — Whether it’s Brad Keselowski leading almost every lap only to lose to Jimmie Johnson and not make the Championship 4 or a good old-fashioned donnybrook on pit road with a handful of playoff drivers, Texas Motor Speedway has been at the forefront of postseason theatrics since the inception of the current format in 2014.

Sunday was no different as an array of results accumulated across the 12 drivers still eligible to win the Cup Series championship.

RELATED: Texas results | Playoff standings after Texas

William Byron was the ultimate benefactor of the day, nabbing his sixth win of 2023, the 300th for Hendrick Motorsports all-time, and securing his spot in the Round of 8. However, it wasn’t a straightforward day for the No. 24 team as the group struggled in the first half of the race.

“I think it was kind of one of those days that I knew it would be a grind from start to finish,” Byron said. “Just honestly, we had kind of advanced forward quicker than maybe I expected and got the Stage 1 points and felt good about that, and then just the sequence in Stage 2, I just made a mistake and pitted there, and [crew chief] Rudy [Fugle] made the right call, and we restarted 25th or wherever we were. It was just really hard to go forward after that.”

Kyle Busch was the first to fall victim to Texas woes as he spun and crashed late in Stage 1 trying to manage his right-front tire to the Lap 80 green-white-checkered flag. Leaving the Lone Star State with just one point gained, the two-time Cup champion now sits last in the 12-driver field, 17 points below the elimination line after entering the Round of 12 eight points above.

RELATED: Busch crashes in Stage 1

“It felt really good when we came off of pit road after that green-flag stop,” Busch said. “The car had good grip in it. We had those couple of yellows back-to-back and we restarted on the outside. I felt like I had a flat right-front [tire] and I was going to come to pit road. I second-guessed it and said ‘I don’t think so, man. It’s just something is wrong… something isn’t right, but it’s not a flat.’ And just all on its own, just turned into the bottom of the race track in Turn 1 and it just swapped ends on me. That’s the rear, not the front, not having grip, so I just don’t know.”

Regular Season Champion Martin Truex Jr. had another difficult playoff outing with a 17th-place result and no stage points.

At the end of Stage 1, he was spun in a chain-reaction incident as fellow playoff driver Brad Keselowski hit the back of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

Truex has yet to score a top-15 finish through four races in the playoffs and only holds a 19-point advantage above the Round of 12 elimination line heading to a less-than-favorable track for him at Talladega, followed by the round-closing Charlotte road course where he’s had mixed results.

Truex’s JGR teammate Denny Hamlin had an eventful day on pit road. The No. 11 Toyota was hit on the right side by rookie teammate Ty Gibbs on a stop in Stage 1 that resulted in the No. 54 going behind the wall. Hamlin continued on with significant right-side damage to pull out his third consecutive top-five finish.

MORE: Hamlin, Gibbs collide on pit road

“I swung out there to avoid hitting him [No. 2 tire changer]. Obviously we were three-wide with the 54 so as you can see, there’s not much room here [on pit road],” Hamlin said. “This pit lane is not very wide so one car coming out and a car two-wide, you’re going to have contact.”

Christopher Bell earned a fourth-place finish to put himself 20 points above the elimination line before Talladega and the Roval but lamented the overall performance of the No. 20 team on Sunday.

“We had to overcome a slow performance, that is for sure. We got away with one today,” Bell said. “We didn’t have the pace to run fourth for sure. The restarts worked out in our favor, and we were able to sneak by on the bottom and get a good finish out of it. This is one of those days that I’m going to be really, really happy on Wednesday or Thursday, but right now, I’m pretty disappointed because the performance wasn’t there.”

Christopher Bell climbs out of his car
Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR Studios

The biggest playoff drama on the day occurred in the closing laps as Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace and Ryan Blaney all had individual woes.

Larson and Wallace dominated most of the day, combining to lead 201 of the 267 lap-event, but a hotly-contested fight for the lead on a restart with 20 laps to go sealed Larson’s fate as the No. 5 spun on the inside of Wallace, hitting the outside wall in Turns 1 and 2. A 12-point advantage for the 2021 champion is now just two above the elimination line, and in an odd bit of coincidence, it’s Wallace who is lurking just behind as the first driver outside of the Round of 8.

It looked as though Wallace was the clear favorite to take the checkered flag, but a tight battle for the top spot with Chase Briscoe opened the door for Byron to sneak on the inside of both to make it three-wide and take the lead off Turn 4 on the final restart. Wallace settled for a third-place finish, which marks a season-high for the No. 23 23XI Racing driver.

A winner at all Round of 12 tracks, Blaney had a day he’d like to quickly move on from, but he took advantage of pit strategy to score vital points in the first two stages after finding himself outside the top 20. Once again finding himself toward the back of the field on the penultimate restart, the No. 12’s luck ran out as it was collected in a multicar incident down the frontstretch that also included Truex, AJ Allmendinger, Erik Jones and Blaney’s Team Penske teammate Austin Cindric.

More postseason shake-ups are expected next Sunday as the Cup Series heads to Talladega (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

Posted on by Adam Fenwick

For the first time in the history of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, the series invades North Wilkesboro Speedway this Saturday night for the running of the Brushy Mountain Powersports 150 (8 p.m. ET on FloRacing).

While this is the first time the NASCAR Tour has visited North Wilkesboro, Modifieds have raced at the track for decades. Notable names like Red Byron, Curtis Turner, Fonty and Tim Flock, Buck Baker, Junior Johnson, Speedy Thompson, Ray Hendrick, Jerry Cook, Satch Worley, Geoff Bodine, Jimmy Spencer, Gary Myers and Junior Miller have won Modified races at the legendary facility.

Modifieds last raced at North Wilkesboro in 2022, when Ryan Newman and Matt Hirschman split a pair of events as part of the Racetrack Revival that helped breathe new life into the track. Both men are in the field for the Whelen Modified Tour’s inaugural event at North Wilkesboro this weekend.

Tickets to Saturday’s Brushy Mountain Powersports 150 are available here. Below is everything you need to know about the 16th race of the 2023 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season.

Brushy Mountain Powersports 150 at North Wilkesboro Speedway

What to watch for:

An incredible field is set to race at historic North Wilkesboro Speedway for the inaugural running of the Brushy Mountain Powersports 150 this Saturday night.

A whopping 39 cars have filed entries to compete in Saturday’s event, making it the largest field of entries this season and the largest overall since 2019 for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.

Headlining that list are championship contenders Justin Bonsignore and Ron Silk, who are separated by just three points with three races remaining in the 2023 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season. Both drivers will be making their North Wilkesboro Speedway debuts.

A pair of NASCAR Cup Series veterans – Bobby Labonte and Ryan Newman – rejoin the Tour for Saturday’s race. Newman has the unique honor of winning the first race of North Wilkesboro’s revival in 2022, which happened to be a Modified race. Labonte was in the field when the NASCAR Cup Series ran its last points paying event at the track in 1996. Both men will drive for SS Racing this weekend.

MORE NORTH WILKESBORO: Watch live Saturday on FloRacing

In addition to regulars like Austin Beers, Kyle Bonsignore, Craig Lutz and Tyler Rypkema, some of Modified racing’s best competitors are joining the fray at North Wilkesboro. They include Matt Hirschman, who is returning to Tour competition after suffering a broken bone in his left arm at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park in August.

Doug Coby and Tommy Baldwin Racing, fresh off capturing the Whelen Granite State Short Track Cup, are back in action at North Wilkesboro. Bowman Gray Stadium champion Brandon Ward makes his Whelen Modified Tour debut while another Bowman Gray regular, Burt Myers, makes his first Tour start in two years.

Bobby Santos III, the 2010 Whelen Modified Tour champion, will once again wheel the No. 44 for the Tinio family. Patrick Emerling also returns to the Tour, this time aboard the No. 14 for Advantage Motorsports. Andy Seuss is also slated to make his second start of the season in his family’s No. 70.

Other notable entrants include Kyle Ebersole, Chase Dowling, Tommy Catalano, Eric Goodale, Anthony Nocella, Sam Rameau and Jake Johnson, among others.

The complete entry list for Saturday night’s Brushy Mountain Powersports 150 is available here.

Cars line up before a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour earlier this year. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)

RACE FACTS

Race Brushy Mountain Powersports 150
Date Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023
Track North Wilkesboro Speedway
Layout 0.625-mile paved oval
Location North Wilkesboro, North Carolina
Start Time 8 p.m. ET
Laps 150
Posted awards $110,495
Live stream FloRacing (Live)

Schedule: Saturday, Sept. 30 … Practice from 1 to 1:45 p.m. ET … Final practice from 2:30 to 3:15 p.m. ET … Qualifying at 5:15 p.m. ET … Brushy Mountain Powersports 150 at 8 p.m. ET (FloRacing).

Qualifying: Two consecutive qualifying laps. Faster lap determines qualifying position. Adjustments or repairs may not be made on the vehicle after the vehicle has taken the green flag at the start/finish line. NASCAR reserves the right to have more than one vehicle engage in qualifying runs at the same time. Starting field for the Brushy Mountain Powersports 150 is limited to 32 starters including Provisional Positions.

Tire allotment: The maximum tire allotment available for this event is fourteen (14) tires per team. All tires used for qualifying and the race must be purchased at the track and scanned by Hoosier, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. Four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. All qualifying tires must remain in impound until released by NASCAR Officials. The remaining tire allotment may be used for practice and/or change tires during the event. The tire change rule is six (6) tires, any position.

Posted on by Brandon White

MARTINSVILLE, Virginia — Every day in Trevor Ward’s Late Model Stock career has been a fight.

Ward and his small operation do not have the resources of powerhouse teams like JR Motorsports and Lee Pulliam Performance, but that hasn’t stopped the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, native from persevering to become one of the best in the discipline.

Sunday’s ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway saw Ward’s laborious efforts translate into the biggest accomplishment of his career. He held off Landon Huffman to take home a grandfather clock, $32,000 and a Virginia Late Model Triple Crown championship.

Ward found himself speechless after claiming the most prestigious event in Late Model Stock Car competition, but he made sure to credit every member of his crew for helping him obtain his lifelong dream of being a Martinsville winner.

“I haven’t processed it all in yet,” Ward said. “I want every single one of my guys to enjoy this just as much as I am. Everything will settle in this week, but I have to thank everyone that had a part in this win.”

You all know who you are.”

Heading into his seventh ValleyStar Credit Union 300 start, Ward felt that he was more prepared than ever to contend for a victory in the prestigious race.

Ward’s other appearances at Martinsville have been marred by disappointment. Outside of a top-five in 2018, Ward had either failed to qualify or finish in every attempt despite seeing steady improvements in his car’s performance year after year.

The key for Ward was reminding himself of past Martinsville shortcomings to see how he could gain an edge on Peyton Sellers, Bobby McCarty, and other Late Model Stock Car elites.

“I studied every day,” Ward said. “I’ve built [a car] for this race every year. We’ve made progress and I think we’re about close to where we need to be at in this deal.”

When the green flag waved on Sunday evening, Ward knew his car was one of the best in the 40-car field.

Although he was initially content with riding behind Carson Kvapil during the second half of the ValleyStar Credit Union 300, a mandatory caution with 25 laps remaining provided Ward with a perfect opportunity to put his No. 77 in front of the field.

Ward held nothing back during the final sprint of the finish. He muscled his way around Kvapil and Sellers before contact with the latter on the final restart of the night caused him to briefly lose the lead to Huffman.

Not ready to let a ValleyStar Credit Union 300 victory slip away, Ward relentlessly chased Huffman down and managed to pull alongside him with four laps remaining. Neither driver gave the other any room to work with as they both traded blows heading towards the checkered flag.

Huffman had never once participated in the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 during his own prolonged career prior to Sunday evening. He executed his strategy perfectly and did everything possible to hold off a faster Ward, only to lose by .058 seconds.

“I was half a car short,” Huffman said. “I’m heartbroken because I’ve never had an opportunity to race for anything like this. To be here on this stage, have a shot at the clock and be leading with five to go is really all I can ask for.

“I’m proud of this effort and hopefully we can continue to build on it.”

Ward was so immersed during the closing laps that he was almost oblivious to Huffman on his outside. The only thing Ward wanted to see in front of his windshield was the checkered flag waving.

“[Landon] wasn’t in front of me,” Ward said. “I knew I was better than him and when I got to him, I had to clear him and go. We raced hard, but during the last three laps, I didn’t even know he was out there.”

Once the immersion subsided and the magnitude of what he accomplished began to set in, Ward could not believe he was in the same category as the other Late Model Stock Car drivers who have taken home a grandfather clock.

Ward sacrificed copious amounts of time and energy just to have enough pace to race inside the top-10. The results did not immediately surface overnight on the national stage, but his triumph in the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 only reinforced Ward’s commitment to success in Late Model Stock competition.

Now that he has two of Virginia’s most storied short track accomplishments on his resume, Ward is already focused on the next race in front of him.

And he’ll do whatever it takes to win.

“It ain’t about the money,” Ward said. “This is about bringing fast cars to the race track. I don’t care if I live in a box as long as I have a race car.”

Posted on by Staff Report

After the fourth race of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, here’s a quick look at the playoff picture. The Round of 12 opener at Texas is in the books, with two more races — Talladega (Oct. 1) and Charlotte’s road course (Oct. 8) — remaining before the championship-eligible field is trimmed from a dozen drivers to just eight.

WINNER

William Byron sprang into Victory Lane with a late-race maneuver that left him in front for just the final six laps of the 267-lap contest at Texas Motor Speedway. The win marked a milestone with Hendrick Motorsports’ 300th Cup Series victory and his sixth of the 2023 campaign. The 25-year-old speedster is now safely into the next round of the postseason, and he reached double digits with career win No. 10.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Texas

WHO’S HOT?

Bubba Wallace. The 23XI Racing driver ranked last among the 12 remaining playoff-eligible drivers entering the round but converted a solid performance with a third-place finish. Wallace secured his first pole position of the season in Saturday’s qualifying session, then led a career-best 111 laps on the hot Texas track. He’s still below the provisional elimination line, but it’s just a two-point gap rather than a 14-point deficit.

Denny Hamlin. Make it three consecutive top-five finishes for the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing veteran. Though he wasn’t a lap leader Sunday at Texas, Hamlin continued after an early pit-road collision with teammate Ty Gibbs to claim fifth at the checkers, steering clear of the havoc that struck other playoff contenders. He now ranks second in the playoff standings, with a hefty 37-point pad over the elimination mark.

WHO’S NOT?

Kyle Busch. “Rowdy” entered the Round of 12 with an eight-point cushion above the provisional elimination line, but terminal damage in a crash near the end of Stage 1 relegated the Richard Childress Racing driver to a 34th-place finish in the 36-car field. Busch was stumped for answers after registering his eighth consecutive finish outside the top five, and he now faces a significant deficit that’s working against his title hopes. He heads to next Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) as the track’s most recent winner.

Ryan Blaney. A costly pit-road speeding penalty on a Lap 210 stop dropped Blaney’s No. 12 Ford from fifth place to 27th for the race’s final stretch. He regained a slight amount of the lost ground, but the miscue put him back in the pack, where he was caught up in a crash with 12 laps left. The 28th-place finish dug a deeper hole for the Team Penske driver to escape. Like Busch, Blaney has some Talladega success on his side — two wins, plus runner-up finishes there his last two times out.

BUBBLE WATCH

RankDriverCutoff
5Martin Truex Jr.19
6Ross Chastain12
7Brad Keselowski8
8Kyle Larson2
ELIMINATION LINE
9Bubba Wallace-2
10Tyler Reddick-3
11Ryan Blaney-11
12Kyle Busch-17
Posted on by Holly Cain

FORT WORTH, Texas — Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron took the lead on a restart with six laps remaining and held off the field to claim Sunday’s Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 victory on a steamy-hot, highly dramatic afternoon of NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs action at Texas Motor Speedway.

It marks a historic 300th victory for the championship Hendrick Motorsports organization – the most in NASCAR history for a Cup Series team – and is the series-best, personal-high single-season sixth victory of the year for the 25-year-old Charlotte native Byron. He came from third place on the final restart to ultimately drive away from the field and take a 1.863-second victory ahead of Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain to claim an automatic berth in the Round of 8, which starts in three weeks.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Texas

Those final six laps out front were the only laps Byron led all day. He turned in a fabulous final restart to pull ahead of 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, who was out front on that start after leading a race-high, career-best 111 laps in his No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota. Wallace finished third, ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin – all five drivers among the 2023 playoff contingent.

“I finally got a good restart at the end and number 300 for Hendrick Motorsports, but [teammate] Kyle [Larson] really deserved this one, I’ve got to say, those guys were really fast all day, and I hate it for them in the end,” Byron said, noting his teammate Larson’s crash in a contest for the lead with 20 laps remaining.

“But man, it was awesome getting this car to the front. My car loved clean air. We just fought through traffic all day. My Liberty University Chevrolet was just tight back in traffic but had good pace. … it was a grind-it-out day, and our team was there at the end, and I’m really proud of this one as hot as it was, it was tough. We’ll take it and go on to the next round.”

As for the historic 300th win for his team, Byron grinned, “I don’t know if I can even put it into words. I was such a Hendrick Motorsports fan growing up as a kid, watching Jimmie Johnson and became really fond of Jeff Gordon as I got to know him. Just thankful for all the men and women back at Hendrick Motorsports. … just appreciate all Rick Hendrick has done for me. This is awesome. We’re really going to enjoy this one.”

Wallace, who turned in a career day in his first career playoff stint, was obviously disappointed in the final outcome. He started from pole position, and his triple-digit laps out front were a personal best.

“Just choked,’’ Wallace said. “My worst restart (of the day). Hate it for my team, hate it for [sponsor] McDonald’s. We deserved to be in Victory Lane, but nothing’s ever guaranteed, you have to go out and fight for it and not give it away, and that’s what I did.

“We struggled a little in traffic but kept our heads in the game, made great strategy calls all day and had track position. So, good points day.’’

Larson had been out front for 34 laps and was racing alongside Wallace when his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet got loose with 19 laps remaining and smashed into the outside wall. He looked strong all day, leading 99 laps himself as Wallace’s strongest competitor for most of the afternoon.

“We just went in there side by side, and I lost it,’’ said the 2021 series champion Larson, who finished 31st. “Pretty bummed, but happy for William and Mr. H. 300 Cup series wins is incredible and a great night overall for our organization.”

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick, RFK Racing driver Brad Keselowski. – also a Playoff driver – Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suárez, JTG Daugherty Racing’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and SHR’s Chase Briscoe rounded out the top 10.

SHOP: Winner gear, favorite drivers

There were 11 caution periods on the day and multiple issues for the 12 playoff drivers competing in this three-round series of races to decide which eight will advance to the next round. Byron’s victory is an automatic ticket. Several other playoff drivers had impactful days – for the good and bad – as well.

Among the other Playoff competitors, RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher finished 14th and JGR’s Martin Truex Jr. – the regular season champion – finished 17th. Defending race winner Tyler Reddick – Wallace’s 23XI Racing teammate – was 25th.

Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney (28th), Hendrick’s Larson (31st) and Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch (34th) suffered DNFs – all involved in incidents.

It was indicative of the afternoon with 10 playoff drivers experiencing some sort of setback – from crashes to pit-road penalties to pit-road issues.

Bell had jack issues early. Hamlin had a pit road door-to-door collision with his JGR rookie teammate Ty Gibbs but was able to continue, while Gibbs’ Toyota suffered enough damage that he had to retire early.

Busch’s No. 8 RCR Chevrolet slammed into the outside wall only a couple laps after the two-time series champion had radioed to his team that he thought he had a front tire going down. He stayed out on track and ultimately suffered a rear-tire failure on Lap 74 that slammed his Chevrolet hard into the wall. Busch drove the No. 8 Chevy backward all the way around the track and onto pit road, but the RCR team was unable to repair it.

“I was going to come to pit road, and I second-guessed it and said, ‘I don’t think so, something’s wrong, something’s not right, but it’s not a flat,’’’ Busch said. “Then, all on its own, it just turned to the bottom of the race track in Turn 1, just swapped ends on me.

“Hate it for everybody. For sure, I thought our car was top five today.”

MORE: Kyle Busch out early at Texas

With the victory, Byron earned the automatic ticket to the next round. Hamlin now ranks second in the playoff standings by 37 points over the provisional elimination line. Buescher (plus-22), Bell (plus-20), Truex (plus-19), Chastain (plus-12), Keselowski (plus-8) and Larson (plus-2) round out the top eight.

Wallace is the first driver below the elimination line – two points behind Larson. Reddick is three points off the elimination line, followed by Blaney (-11) and Busch (-17) heading to the always unpredictable Talladega Superspeedway next week for the YellaWood 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). Chase Elliott is the defending race winner.

Note: Post-race technical inspection in the Cup Series garage at Texas was completed without issue, confirming Byron as the race winner. Competition officials indicated no cars would return to the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina, for further inspection.

Posted on by Staff Report

Playoffs contender Kyle Busch found early trouble in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race, crashing near the end of Stage 1 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Busch, who started seventh in the 36-car field, spun out through Turns 1 and 2 in the 74th of 267 laps in the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400. His No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet backed into the outside retaining wall, sustaining heavy rear damage at the 1.5-mile track.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Texas

Busch guided his wrecked car back to pit road in reverse to the attention of his crew, but he later drove to the garage with insurmountable damage. Busch was credited with a 34th-place finish, just ahead of the race’s first two retirees — Todd Gilliland and Busch’s RCR teammate, Austin Dillon.

Busch was evaluated and released from the track’s infield care center. He had radioed his crew before the crash that he felt that his car had a right-front tire going flat but pressed on when the issue seemed to improve.

“I had no idea,” Busch told NBC Sports. “It felt really good when we came off of pit road after that green-flag stop. The car had good grip in it, and then we had those couple of yellows back-to-back, and I restarted on the outside, and I felt like I had a flat right-front.  Was gonna come to pit road, and I second-guessed it and said, ‘I don’t think so, man. It’s just something’s wrong. Something’s not right, but it’s not a flat,’ and just all on its own, just turned into the bottom of the race track in Turn 1, it just swapped ends on me.”

The finish is Busch’s worst of the Cup Series Playoffs so far, and while he was steady in navigating through the postseason’s opening round, the result marks his fourth finish outside the top 30 in the last 11 races.

“I felt like our car was, for sure, a top-five, top-10 car today,” Busch said. “Seems like every time I try, something happens. I crash or whatever. Right there, I just said it two laps before that, that I got up in the high side, and I was like, ‘You know what, I just need to just stop and just run the bottom, just make laps here, finish this stage,’ and it swaps ends on me. So I don’t know what to do. Somebody wants to tell me what to do, I’m all ears.”

Sunday’s 400-miler marked the first race in the Cup Series Playoffs’ Round of 12. After Texas, events at Talladega Superspeedway (Oct. 1) and Charlotte’s road course (Oct. 8) will determine the eight drivers who advance to the next round and which four will be eliminated from championship contention.

Busch advanced from the opening round of the postseason and entered the Round of 12 eight points above the provisional elimination line. His Texas result dropped him to last among the 12 title-eligible drivers, with a 17-point deficit to that cutoff point.

Posted on by Staff Report

We talk about Kyle Larson a lot in this space, but it’s pretty hard to ignore the man, the myth, the legend after what he did in the Round of 16 to open this year’s playoffs. After winning at Darlington Raceway, Larson went on to finish fourth at Kansas Speedway and second at Bristol Motor Speedway for an average finish of 2.3 — second all-time only to Greg Biffle’s mark of 1.67 in 2008 through the first three playoff races.

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What will the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet do for an encore? Well, Larson enters Texas with 409 points scored on 1.5-mile tracks in the Next Gen car, and that’s second only to Ross Chastain, who has 415. With an average finish of 9.5 on 1.5-mile tracks this year, Larson is a good bet to be running among the leaders in Sunday’s Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, USA, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

However, Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron has the best average finish on 1.5-mile tracks this year at 5.25, and he has won on a 1.5-mile track in 2023 (Las Vegas), whereas Larson has not. Meanwhile, Tyler Reddick, who won this race last year as a member of Richard Childress Racing, has also won on a 1.5-mile track this year (Kansas) and has an average finish of 7.5 on the 1.5-milers.

If Larson does manage to hold off those guys and pull out the win at Texas, then look out because he won here in 2021 on the way to a championship — matching Jimmie Johnson (2007, 2013) and Tony Stewart (2011) as drivers who took Texas and then went on to claim the championship that year as well. Is another legendary Lone Star moment in store for Larson? While we think about the answer to that question, let’s look at some of the other key drivers in this race:

PLAYOFF PICTURE

KYLE BUSCH: Busch begins the Round of 12 in sixth place and eight points above the elimination line. Based on his history at Texas, there’s a chance he could improve his standing. In addition to being a four-time Texas winner, Busch has finished in the top 10 in five of the last six Texas races.

RYAN BLANEY: Unlike Busch, Blaney begins the Round of 12 beneath the elimination line, six points to the bad side of the equation. But Blaney is arguably the best available playoff driver at Texas with top-10 finishes in eight of the last nine Texas races and a victory in the 2022 All-Star Race in the Lone Star State.

BRAD KESELOWSKI: Keselowski enters the Round of 12 three points beneath the elimination line, so a good start at Texas is imperative if he wants to continue on the path to a second Cup Series title. The good news is Keselowski has finished in the top 10 in the last four Texas races and won the pole for this race last year.

CHRIS BUESCHER: Buescher has a cushion of 10 points on the elimination line entering Texas, but unfortunately for him, the Prosper, Texas, native hasn’t fared too well in his home state. Buescher has never finished better than 15th in 13 starts at Texas and has only one top-10 finish in the last 15 races on 1.5-mile tracks.

BUBBA WALLACE: If you’re looking for a sleeper pick, then Wallace could be your lucky driver. Although he’s at the very bottom of the standings and 14 points below the elimination line, Wallace has finished fourth in three of the last four races on 1.5-mile tracks, and his team, 23XI Racing, has been strong with three wins on 1.5-mile tracks in the Next Gen car.

Projections as of Sunday, Sept. 24:

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
211Denny Hamlin
345Tyler Reddick
424William Byron
519Martin Truex Jr.
612Ryan Blaney
74Kevin Harvick
86Brad Keselowski
920Christopher Bell
1022Joey Logano
111Ross Chastain
128Kyle Busch
139Chase Elliott
1423Bubba Wallace
1517Chris Buescher
1654Ty Gibbs
1748Alex Bowman
1843Erik Jones
1999Daniel Suárez
2014Chase Briscoe
2110Aric Almirola
223Austin Dillon
2347Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2434Michael McDowell
252Austin Cindric
267Corey LaJoie
2731Justin Haley
2816AJ Allmendinger
2941Ryan Preece
3021Harrison Burton
3142Carson Hocevar
3277Ty Dillon
3351Todd Gilliland
3438Zane Smith
3515J.J. Yeley
3678BJ McLeod