Posted on by Press Release

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – After two races off, Tommy Baldwin Racing announced today that the team will field a Mayhew Tools No. 7NY entry for Doug Coby in this Saturday’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour 150 at Monadnock Speedway.

Coby and Baldwin enter the event leading the point standings for the Whelen Granite State Short Track Cup, which will conclude Saturday night.

The Cup awards a bonus of $5,000 to the team that captures the most points over three events. Coby picked up the win in round one of the Cup at Monadnock back in May and finished sixth in the second race at Lee USA Speedway to enter this weekend in the lead.

The team is also eligible for additional bonuses from the Cup, including a lap leader bonus from all three events combined and the best average finish over the three races. The team has the opportunity to collect over $6,400 in bonus money, plus any winnings collected for finishing position on Saturday. It made the decision to attend a no-brainer.

Last month, Tommy Baldwin Jr. announced a diagnosis of cancer and is currently undergoing treatments. The team is not returning full-time on the Whelen Modified Tour for the remainder of the season, but will come together to chase the Cup crown at Monadnock.

Baldwin is selling Baldwin Strong stickers on his website, TommyBaldwinRacing.com, and donating final proceeds to the Matheny School. His goal is to share awareness and have everyone know they are all in it together when fighting through health issues.

“After winning at Monadnock in May and leading the Cup standings heading into Saturday, we really wanted to make this event happen,” team owner Tommy Baldwin Jr. said. “I’m thankful for everyone’s support through my announcement and treatments – it’s been incredible and our entire family couldn’t be more grateful. The team will be ready to roll into Monadnock to chase the Cup title, but also another win for Mayhew Tools and everyone involved with Doug and our team.”

Coby has one goal in mind for Saturday: win.

“We had a great car last time at Monadnock, it was dominant all day,” Coby said. “This will be a little bit of a different race being at night compared to the day time back in May. As far as Tommy wanting to have a car prepared and go to the track, it’s good for him to be able to have something different to focus on and he said he feels good enough to make it happen, which is great to hear. With the race now 150 laps, you will probably be able to go harder and really battle for spots earlier in the race. There will likely be some serious battling on restarts to keep or gain track position.”

Saturday’s event schedule at Monadnock Speedway includes NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour practice from 2:55-3:55 p.m., followed by qualifying at 5:30 p.m. The estimated green flag time for the Winchester Fair 150 is set for 8 p.m. Tickets for the race are available in advance at JDVProductions.com. The event will air live on FloRacing for those who can’t make it to New Hampshire.

Posted on by Staff Report

Denny Hamlin has signed a multiyear contract extension to remain with Joe Gibbs Racing as the driver of the No. 11 Toyota, the team announced Monday.

”Joe Gibbs Racing has been my home for almost 20 years now,” Hamlin said in a press release. ”My relationship with Joe (Gibbs), my team and everyone at JGR means a lot to me. We have accomplished so much together over the years. I’m excited to finally announce this so we can put all our focus on chasing the championship.”

Hamlin is a 50-time winner in the NASCAR Cup Series, scoring each of those victories in JGR equipment. The Virginia native has made 641 Cup starts, all with Joe Gibbs Racing since his debut at the end of the 2005 Cup season.

MORE: Updated playoff standings | Kansas schedule

Hamlin enters Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) fifth in the playoff standings following his 25th-place finish at Darlington Raceway in the Round of 16 playoff opener. Hamlin is in search of his first Cup title and has qualified for the Championship 4 in three of the past four seasons.

The 42-year-old driver has two wins this season, claiming the checkered flags at Kansas and Pocono Raceway, solidifying his position in this year’s postseason grid.

In 2021, Hamlin branched out into team ownership, joining NBA legend Michael Jordan to become co-owners of 23XI Racing. The operation began as a single-car team with the No. 23 Toyota piloted by Bubba Wallace before expanding with a second chartered team to field the No. 45 entry in 2022 with Kurt Busch. Tyler Reddick took over the ride this season. All three drivers have won for the organization, with Wallace winning twice (Talladega-2, 2021; Kansas-2, 2022), Busch once (Kansas-1, 2022) and Reddick once (Circuit of The Americas, 2023).

Posted on by Zack Albert

DARLINGTON, S.C. — There is no easing into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs and no risk-free, 30-day trial that makes the initial trip into the season-ending 10-race stretch any more soothing.

The 16 drivers who met the press during Playoffs Media Day just a few days before Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 came in with typical pre-postseason “I think we have a good shot at it” optimism, all the while acknowledging the punishing task that greeted them on the very first weekend. Old, rugged Darlington Raceway — a track that’s been around for all but a couple of NASCAR’s 75 years — lived up to that billing Sunday, remaining undefeated.

Kyle Larson emerged as the track’s only true tamer late Sunday evening, earning safe passage to the playoffs’ next round with his first Darlington victory. Several of his competitors for the Cup Series title found out the meaning behind the egg-shaped track’s “Too Tough to Tame” nickname. Some pushed through the adversity to score respectable finishes and minimize the harm, while others did not.

RELATED: Larson wins Southern 500 | At-track photos: Darlington

Sunday’s 500-mile test did not discriminate based on experience or earlier success. Veteran drivers well accustomed to the challenge that Darlington’s annual marathon brings could not steer clear of the pitfalls.

Denny Hamlin threw an otherwise dominant day into the neighboring minnow pond, stopping an extra time on pit road after a wheel felt like it was coming unfastened on Darlington’s rough surface. He led 177 of the 367 laps — most of anyone — and was left to stew on a 25th-place finish.

Kevin Harvick, another 40-something with a proven Darlington record, had smiled for a team photo to commemorate his final start at the South Carolina facility and the final playoff run of his storied Cup Series career. He seemed poised to pen the final chapter of a storybook finish, lunging into contention late before an ill-timed sequence foiled him.

Harvick drove to second place in the final stage and pointed his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford to pit lane on Lap 310. Fellow playoff driver Tyler Reddick tried to counter the strategy move and whoa-ed up through Turns 3 and 4, but the pit-road call from the lead came too late, and the trailing Ryan Newman spun in a desperate act of accident avoidance. The caution flag and illuminated pit-road lights flashed just an instant before Harvick crossed the pits’ entry line, and the commitment violation dropped him to 26th in the order.

“Unbelievable,” cracked the No. 4 radio. Harvick ended up 19th at the checkered flag.

Add Martin Truex Jr. to the trouble list of veteran names. The regular-season champ started a lackluster 31st and made his own unscheduled pit stop on Lap 153. He never fully recovered and finished 18th at a track that had been a sweet spot for strong finishes in recent years.

Joey Logano’s title defense began with a test of resilience in a crash with newly minted playoff driver Bubba Wallace, who lost control of his No. 23 Toyota and squeezed the two-time champion’s No. 22 Ford into the outside wall at the end of Stage 1. Logano’s crew made lengthy adjustments to try to repair the toe, and he labored back to finish 12th. Wallace made his own recovery, accepting the blame for the incident as he surged back to place seventh.

Christopher Bell broke out from the pole position and set the early pace, but the new pit crew installed on his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 team stumbled early with a premature drop of the jack. He clobbered the wall after the opening stage and fought to make his damaged car keep up the rest of the way, finishing 23rd.

MORE: Playoff Pulse | Cup Series standings

In all, 10 drivers in the 16-driver playoff field had some form of glitch, penalty or misfortune. Chalk up some of the peril to Darlington’s treacherous characteristics but also factor in the exacting nature of the playoffs, which demands near-flawless execution from both driver and team. In the Southern 500, that precision is required for nearly four-plus hours on a narrow ribbon of asphalt.

The pathway gets little easier in the middle event of the opening three-race round, Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) at Kansas Speedway. The 1.5-mile track had one of its most memorable and eventful races in its much briefer history in May, making it a stealthier source of potential playoff trouble as the postseason rolls on.

But there’s at least a smidge of collective exhale after Sunday’s playoff opener at Darlington, with one of the schedule’s biggest hurdles cleared — or at least tripped over and kicked out of the way. The place was once compared to venerable Augusta National and described as “a heavenly bit of hell” in the same sweep of a six-column broadsheet by the great Bob Myers of The Charlotte News back in 1977, and it remains an apt depiction.

For drivers who have scraped Darlington’s walls with varying degrees of severity, that hellish ordeal remains a Labor Day tradition and a blunt introduction to the playoffs. For racing purists and the fans who packed Darlington’s grandstands for a third straight Southern 500 sellout, it’s still every bit the promised land.

Posted on by Staff Report

After the first race of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, here’s a rapid look at the playoff picture. There are two races left in the Round of 16 — at Kansas Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway.

WINNER

Kyle Larson led the final 55 laps to score the victory in the Cook Out Southern 500. The victory secures Larson’s spot in the Round of 12 regardless of the results of the next two races. It was an impressive effort for Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team, which rallied from an 18th-place starting spot and into the top five during the second round of green-flag pit stops. Larson capitalized on the track position and overcame wall contact to earn his third win of 2023 and first at Darlington.

RELATED: Updated playoff standings

WHO’S HOT?

Tyler Reddick. Reddick turned a strong Saturday that saw his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota qualify third into quite the night. Reddick led 90 laps and was stalking Larson’s tire tracks in the final moments in his hunt for the Darlington win. At the checkered flag, Reddick was second, 0.447 seconds behind the race winner.

Chris Buescher. An incredible stretch of races continues for the No. 17 RFK Racing team. Buescher stormed to a third-place finish at the track “Too Tough to Tame,” his best result at the historic 1.366-mile track. Buescher entered as the winner of three of the last five races of the regular season.

WHO’S NOT?

Denny Hamlin. Hamlin seemed destined to end up in the “Who’s Hot?” section of this week’s Pulse until the final 100 laps. After leading 177 laps, Hamlin pitted for a believed loose wheel at Lap 274, miring him in 30th place and off the lead lap. Stuck in traffic, Hamlin was later involved in a Lap 331 crash and ultimately finished 25th, one lap down.

Michael McDowell. The Front Row Motorsports driver battled a tight No. 34 Ford all evening long and fell off the lead lap early. The Indy Road Course winner was getting better late, but a late crash at Lap 331 involving Hamlin and Christopher Bell resulted in a 32nd-place finish.

BUBBLE WATCH

RankDriverCutoff
9Ryan Blaney16
10Ross Chastain13
11Joey Logano3
12Christopher Bell1
ELIMINATION LINE
13Bubba Wallace-1
14Kevin Harvick-2
15Ricky Stenhouse Jr.-4
16Michael McDowell-19
Posted on by Reid Spencer

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Welcome back, Kyle Larson.

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion held off a desperate charge from fellow playoff driver Tyler Reddick at sold-out Darlington Raceway to claim victory in Sunday night’s Cook Out Southern 500 and earn an automatic berth in the Round of 12.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Darlington

Larson entered the playoff opener with an undistinguished average finish of 17.5 in his previous six races, but he weathered a transmission momentary stuck in neutral and a disconcerting brush with the wall to register his third victory of the season, the 22nd of his career and his first at the famed ‘Lady in Black.’

“Yeah, finally from start to finish,” Larson said of his ability to put together a complete race. “Eighteenth to third in the first stage, I didn’t think that was possible. Our race car was really good when the sun was out. Just had to work on it.

“I messed up once and it got hung in neutral, and I slid and hit the wall, and I think bent the toe link a little bit, so it was kind of a struggle from there. Definitely had to fight it more than I was earlier, but we kept our heads in the game. That was really important. This race is all about keeping your head in it…

“What a great way to start the playoffs, and hopefully we can keep it going.”

Larson took the lead for the first time during a quick pit stop on Lap 313 and held it for the final 55 circuits. Reddick rolled off pit road second but couldn’t find a way past the race winner.

“Kyle and I were pretty close the majority of the day, honestly, and he just got ahead of us there on pit road, but all in all, this is the day that we needed to have,” said Reddick, who led 90 laps and crossed the finish line 0.447 seconds behind Larson.

“Really just thankful for the hard work from my pit crew, from the team, everyone at the shop. Days like this, with a car like this, we haven’t been able to get a second-place finish out of it, so really glad we were able to do that, and it was a really good points day on top of that, as well.”

Chris Buescher ran a mistake-free race and finished third, followed by William Byron, who charged forward from his 23rd starting position. Ross Chastain ran fifth with Brad Keselowski and Bubba Wallace behind him as playoff drivers claimed the top seven positions.

While Larson leaves Darlington with guaranteed admission to the Round of 12, Byron, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, leads the playoff standings by one point — over Larson. Reddick is 15 points behind Byron, followed by Buescher and Denny Hamlin, who trail by 18 points.

SHOP: Find all your favorite NASCAR merchandise here

Catastrophes proved the undoing of several playoff drivers who showed excellent speed but succumbed to a variety of pit-road mistakes and errors in judgment.

Hamlin led 177 laps, swept the first and second stages and dominated the race — until he made an extra green-flag pit stop on Lap 274, believing he had a loose wheel. Hamlin lost a lap and any chance he had of starting the playoffs with a victory. Hamlin’s night got worse when he was collected in a five-car wreck on Lap 331. He finished 25th, one lap down.

After Hamlin’s demise, Kevin Harvick was chasing Reddick for the lead. Harvick steered his car toward pit road on Lap 310, causing Reddick to check up in front of Ryan Newman in an attempt to duplicate Harvick’s maneuver. Newman spun in Turn 4, causing the sixth caution, and the red light indicating a closed pit road caught Harvick just before he reached the entry line. The resulting penalty sent Harvick to the back of the field for a restart on Lap 317, with no time to recover past 19th place.

A driver with no margin for error entering the Round of 16, Michael McDowell didn’t have the speed to stay on the lead lap, but his Waterloo came in the same Lap 331 wreck that involved Hamlin and fellow playoff driver and pole winner Christopher Bell. McDowell’s No. 34 Ford was too badly hurt to continue, and he fell out of the race in 32nd place.

McDowell heads to next Sunday’s playoff race at Kansas Speedway in 16th place in the playoff standings, 19 points behind Bell in 12th.

MORE: Playoff Pulse: Who’s hot, who’s not after Darlington

Late in the first stage, Bell slammed the outside wall and damaged the suspension on his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, ruining any chances of victory.

“I just got in the marbles and fenced it hard,” Bell radioed to his team.

After the stage break, Bell dropped precipitously through the field and was soon lapped by then-leader Hamlin.

“The toe is messed up — I’m having to turn the wheel a lot,” Bell radioed to crew chief Adam Stevens.

Bell, who finished a lap down in 23rd, wasn’t the only playoff driver who fell victim to mistakes in the first stage, which ran under the green flag from start to finish. Joey Logano scraped the wall at the apex of Turns 3 and 4 on Lap 86.

His No. 22 Ford bit the wall again on Lap 115 — the final circuit of Stage 1 — when the No. 23 Toyota of Wallace spun underneath him in Turn 4 and knocked the right rear of Logano’s car into the fence, after Hamlin had taken the green-checkered flag to win the stage and the accompanying playoff point.

After qualifying 31st, Martin Truex Jr. (who finished 18th) lost four spots after brushing the wall late in the stage and ran 18th in the first segment. Truex’s problems multiplied in Stage 2 when he had to make an unscheduled pit stop because of a loose wheel and lost two laps.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (16th) lost a lap serving a pass-through penalty for speeding on pit road during his first green-flag pit stop, as mistakes began to shape the playoffs — as they invariably do.

The race was red-flagged at Lap 188 during the race’s second caution period because lights on the inside of the race track in Turns 3 and 4 had not illuminated as the sun set.

The second race of the Round of 16 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set for Kansas Speedway on Sunday, Sept. 10 (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

Note: Post-race technical inspection concluded without issue, confirming Larson as the race winner. The Nos. 42 and 54 cars will be taken back to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, for further inspection.

Contributing: Staff report

Posted on by Zack Albert

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Denny Hamlin had a long talk with crew chief Chris Gabehart beside their Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota on pit road after Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500. The grueling opening race of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs had started off with such promise for Hamlin, who seemed intent on adding a fifth Cup victory at Darlington Raceway with trademark dominance.

The opportunity for early advancement on the postseason grid unraveled after night fell on the historic track, with Hamlin dipping to a 25th-place finish in an event where he led large swaths for a race-high 177 of the 367 laps. The stumble came on a night where several contenders on the 16-driver playoff grid encountered problems, and Hamlin was not immune from that sting.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Darlington

“We think we’re going to win every week. There’s not one week where I show up and I don’t think I’m going to win,” Hamlin said when asked if the performance encouraged him for the rest of the playoffs’ opening round. “But you’ve got to play the game, and sometimes when you play the game, it doesn’t work out the way you planned. I am happy about the speed the car had and the restarts that I had. The things I had to work on I felt like I really did well today. It’s part of the process. We move on and if we advance, all we really lost out on is five points for the next round so we’ll see.”

With 94 laps to go, Hamlin was forced to make an extra green-flag pit stop, feeling he had a loose wheel. The unscheduled trip down pit road dropped him to 30th in the 36-car field, one lap down. He was later caught up in a chain-reaction tangle on the frontstretch that triggered the final caution period, halting some of his progress.

Hence, the long conversation with Gabehart, who said the debrief was more reflection on how the night went than pep talk.

“One thing I’ll say about Denny, he’s such a professional that even if he’s gutted inside, he’s not gonna let you see it, and he’s well-rounded enough that he knows as much as it sucks, this is just a part of racing,” Gabehart said. “So no, we were just sharing a moment of man, what a great job, what a great car, what a great drive. And just truthfully, we’re rounding in on our fifth year together and everyone has these stories, but I can tell you, I spend a lot of time looking at the numbers and as many races as we’ve won together — it’s been 19 — I can tell you it could easily be in the 30s, well into the 30s, and this is just another one that we’re gonna have to put into that column, unfortunately.”

Hamlin, fresh from his sixth Darlington win in the Xfinity Series in Saturday’s undercard, started second Sunday and took control midway through the opening stage. Victories in both stages added a pair of playoff points to his total and provided a buffer in the standings for what was to come.

After the first round of pit stops in the final stage, Hamlin brought the No. 11 Toyota back to pit road, feeling something was amiss with the left-rear wheel. After the additional four-tire change knocked Hamlin from contention, Gabehart later radioed Hamlin to note the team could not find an issue.

“Everything we can tell, the wheel looked fine, bud,” Gabehart said.

Hamlin replied: “It was loose. I felt it.”

Hamlin was less certain post-race, but said the feel of his car made the extra stop necessary.

“It’s really tough to tell,” Hamlin said. “It looked like the left-rear was still tightening as we were gone. It’s close enough to where it didn’t matter. What I felt, I was gonna crash if I kept going. I had to bring it in and just turned the day upside down.”

Gabehart said that the issue was not worth risking, considering which wheel was in question. He also put his trust in his driver’s instinct and experience to make the pit-road call.

“There was not anything visible to the naked eye, but the left-rear is orders of magnitude the most sensitive tire on the car to being loose because of the way it gets loaded on track,” Gabehart said. “So if you can’t see it, it doesn’t mean it’s not real, because it’s so sensitive. And when we finally went back and looked at the footage, which takes time to get, first thing you’re gonna look at is assess the wheels. You can do that right away. It takes you a few minutes to get all of the footage from the pit-crew members to evaluate. And once we looked at the left-rear wheel nut being drawn up, there is a doubt. It’s not for sure, but there is a doubt. …

“I mean, my guy’s won 50 of these. He’s been doing it for nearly 20 years. He knows what he feels. So live on TV, it probably looked uncertain, but I’m certain. Denny knows.”

The stage stockpile of points helped Hamlin offset the subpar finish, which included a scrape with 35 laps remaining. Hamlin opened the postseason as the No. 3 seed, and he slipped two spots to fifth in the Cup Series standings.

The circuit heads next to Kansas Speedway, site of the middle race in the opening Round of 16 next Sunday (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN, SiriusXM, NBC Sports App). Hamlin prevailed in the Cup Series’ most recent visit there in May, but the unpredictability factor is expected to remain high. Converting at Darlington would have released that pressure valve.

“Either way, I hate it for the team. I hate it for Denny. I hate it for the pit crew. I mean, God, they had an amazing day. I think by any metric, they’re going to be a top-three team on pit road today, if not the best,” Gabehart said. “But, it’s NASCAR racing, and in today’s world even a fraction of an error is the difference. And today it was, and it hurts a lot. It hurts to keep losing races these ways where we clearly have a car, in this case, the winning car. I mean, Denny had never even shown his whole hand, I’m confident. It’s not enough to be winners in your heart. You gotta get it all right, and man, it is frustrating to keep missing out on opportunities.”

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Dustin Albino

With the Cup Series Playoffs set to get underway Sunday evening at Darlington Raceway, championship-eligible teams came out swinging in practice and qualifying, taking the top nine qualifying positions. For the first time since 1982, Chevrolet didn’t crack the top 10 in qualifying for a Darlington race, and the leading Chevy driver Kyle Busch will have to drop to the rear for a change in practice. The Toyotas looked blistering fast, and it would be hard not to have a few of those drivers eligible in your lineup.

PLAYOFFS: Playoffs hub page | Playoffs Grid Challenge game

Dustin Albino’s race-day lineup:

Starter 1: Denny Hamlin

Starter 2: Kyle Larson

Starter 3: William Byron

Starter 4: Christopher Bell

Starter 5: Martin Truex Jr.

Garage pick: Brad Keselowski

NEXT IN LINE: Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch, Chris Buescher, Ryan Blaney

RISING: Earlier this week, we covered Blaney’s Darlington woes, but the No. 12 team showed up on Saturday for practice and qualifying. In 13 Darlington starts, Blaney has a pair of top 10s, including a ninth-place finish in May. He also has an average finish of 17.8. But this weekend, he was second in 10-lap averages and qualified fourth.

Michael McDowell enters the Cup Series playoffs playing with house money. The No. 34 team has nothing to lose and a lot to gain should it continue overachieving. That’s exactly what McDowell did on Saturday, as he made the final round of qualifying for the third time in the last four races. I wouldn’t put the No. 34 team in my lineup just yet, but McDowell does have a pair of top 10s in the last three Darlington races.

FALLING: Having a car that is loose on entry and in the center of the corner can be treacherous at Darlington. Truex had a remarkable save in qualifying but dropped to 31st on the scoring chart. With three Toyotas pacing the field in qualifying, the former Southern 500 winner will have the speed to overcome the mishap in qualifying. He’s got 500 miles to get to the front, but it could potentially cost you some stage points in the opening stage.

There were certainly concerns with how Chastain closed the regular season. In the nine races since winning at Nashville, the No. 1 team has just one top-10 effort. At Darlington, a place where Chastain is historically fast, he ranked 27th in qualifying. The No. 1 car wasn’t much better in practice either, sitting 23rd on single-lap speed and 24th on 10-lap averages.

FEATURED MATCHUPS:  

Denny Hamlin vs. Kevin Harvick

Hamlin and Harvick are among the most elite talents to ever strap into a race car at Darlington. Hamlin has four victories at the track to Harvick’s three, though it’s the 2014 Cup Series champion who has shown more consistency in recent years, with 12 top-five finishes in the last 15 races – just one of which was outside the top 10. However, Hamlin’s savvy 7.7 average finish shouldn’t be overlooked. Hamlin looked to have one of the best cars on both the short and long runs, so he’s my pick.

Tyler Reddick vs. Christopher Bell

These two Toyotas had lights-out speed on Saturday. Bell was quickest of all drivers in practice and paced Group A in qualifying. Reddick was quickest in Group B. It was Bell who had the last laugh, scoring his third pole of the season, edging out Hamlin and Reddick. One would assume that a worn-out track surface would suit Reddick better, as he did finish second and third in the two races last season. But the No. 45 team has continuously failed to execute in 2023, and I think that costs Reddick in this matchup.

Martin Truex Jr. vs. William Byron

Both drivers have recent wins at Darlington, with Byron taking the charge in the spring race. Disappointing is probably the best way to describe their respective qualifying efforts, with Byron turning the 23rd quickest lap and Truex’s struggles dropping him to 31st. According to the speed chart, both will excel on the long run, and though Truex has more track position to overcome, my feelings have switched from earlier in the week after seeing how strong Toyota unloaded.

Brad Keselowski vs. Ryan Blaney

Blaney’s No. 12 team should give itself an A for how well Saturday went. The 1.366-mile oval is a track Blaney hasn’t been able to get a handle on, while Keselowski is a former Southern 500 winner. We’ve seen this song for Blaney before at Darlington, where he can put one solid lap together and fall off in the race. Keselowski is the pick, even though Blaney was second on 10-lap averages. Keselowski wasn’t far off in ninth.

Posted on by Brandon White

OSWEGO, New York – Saturday’s Toyota Mod Classic 150 at Oswego Speedway was close to a perfect evening for Ron Silk.

Not only did Silk move into sole possession of 10th on the all-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour wins list with his 21st career victory, but he also increased his advantage in the series points standings after Justin Bonsignore was collected in a late-race accident.

RELATED: Complete results from the Toyota Mod Classic 150

Silk entered the Toyota Mod Classic 150 with just a one-point lead on Bonsignore in the battle for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champinoship. While he was relieved to build some breathing room between himself and Bonsignore, Silk understands that his fortunes can easily change during the five races of the year.

“It was nice to capitalize with a win, but there’s still quite a bit to go and anything can happen,” Silk said. “We hadn’t had a bad race yet. Hopefully we don’t, but there’s always that chance, so we’ll try to keep [the momentum] going.”

Silk’s points lead was in jeopardy during the opening stages of the Toyota Mod Classic 150, as Bonsignore controlled the field from the pole.

The path to the front from his eighth-place starting position was a grind for Silk. He had to patiently time his moves around Oswego’s unique five-eighths-mile layout to gain crucial track position, but he made gradual progress on Bonsignore as the laps clicked off.

A restart shortly after the halfway point was the opportunity Silk needed to take advantage of Bonsignore’s ill-handling car to take the race lead.

“I really slipped up in qualifying, which got us back to eighth,” Silk said. “I was able to drive to third on that first run. The guys had a great pit stop and we came out second. I was better than [Bonsignore] was at the beginning. He looked tight in the middle and I could cross him over and get the lead.

“My car was phenomenal during the second half of the race.”

Bonsignore was attempting to chase down Silk when disaster struck for the three-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion.

While trying to pass Tommy Catalano for second, Bonsignore collided with the slower car of Gary McDonald on the low side of the track entering Turn 1. All three cars crashed, with Bonsignore and Catalano taking heavy hits into Oswego’s foam barriers.

The damage to Bonsginore’s Modified was significant enough to keep him on the sidelines for the final 20 laps, all while Silk fended off an aggressive charge from Austin Beers to pick up his second career Oswego victory.

Silk knows Bonsignore is going to make a push for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour in the final five races of the year, especially with two of Bonsignore’s best tracks, Riverhead Raceway and Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park, still on the schedule.

“It’s always good to win,” Silk said. “We’ve had quite a battle so far and it’s not over yet. You don’t want to see someone have something like that happen to them, but there’s quite a few races to go.”

Following Silk and Beers in third at Oswego was Bobby Santos III, with Anthony Sesely and Kyle Bonsignore completing the top-five. The rest of the top-10 finishers were Jimmy Zacharias, Jon McKennedy, Tyler Rypkema, Tommy Catalano and Tyler Catalano.

A replay of the Toyota Mod Classic 150 at Oswego Speedway will air on CNBC at 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, Sept. 17.

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour returns to action next Saturday night for the Winchester Fair at Monadnock Speedway, which serves as the third and final leg of the Whelen Granite State Short Track Cup. FloRacing has the coverage starting at 8:30 p.m. ET.

Posted on by Staff Report

Toyota Mod Classic 150

Oswego Speedway

  • Race results
Pos Car No. Driver Sponsor Laps Diff
1 16 Ron Silk Blue Mountain Machine & Future Homes 152  —
2 64 Austin Beers Dell Electric/Lumiere Electrical/Andrew James Interiors 152 0.252
3 14 Bobby Santos III Advantage Trucks/Anastasi Trucking 152 0.865
4 19 Anthony Sesely Wanick Construction Inc. 152 1.051
5 22 Kyle Bonsignore Chalew Performance/MTT/Munns Auto 152 1.23
6 71 Jimmy Zacharias Danny’s Cesspool Service, Inc. 152 1.525
7 77 Jon McKennedy Curb Records/Mowhawk Northeast 152 2.08
8 32 Tyler Rypkema Northeast Driling/MUSCO Lighting 152 2.284
9 54 Tommy Catalano FX Caprera 152 2.513
10 84 Tyler Catalano Catalano Motorsports 152 2.994
11 18 Ken Heagy Buoy One Seafood Market & Restaurant 152 3.383
12 26 Gary McDonald Lakeland Ave Landscape Supply/L.I. Wood Heat 143 9 Laps
13 59 Andy Jankowiak BNP Machine 138 14 Laps
14 4 Tim Connolly Connolly Companies LLC 137 15 Laps
15 51 Justin Bonsignore Phoenix Communications Inc. 129 23 Laps
16 82 Craig Lutz Horton Avenue Materials 117 35 Laps
17 3 Bryan Narducci* Florida Connection 94 58 Laps
18 01 Melissa Fifield Pine Knoll Auto Sales 32 120 Laps
Posted on by Zack Albert

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Austin Hill did his best to keep the big-picture goals top of mind Saturday afternoon at Darlington Raceway. He had lined up inside NASCAR Cup Series regular Denny Hamlin for an overtime restart and battled valiantly before coming home 0.657 seconds short at the checkered flag.

“Good fight,” he told his No. 21 Richard Childress Racing team on the radio post-race, before adding with a laugh: “Sucks to be second, though.”

It was a strong second place that Hill took solace in after Saturday’s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200, and the result helped him keep his lead in the Xfinity Series standings with one race left in the regular season. He held off a dominant John Hunter Nemechek, who was one of his closest competitors in Saturday’s 148-lap preliminary and sticks as his nearest challenger in the standings as well.

RELATED: Race results | Weekend schedule

Hill led seven times for 29 laps and fought pressure from Hamlin and Nemechek throughout the final stage. He took advantage of having the pit stall nearest the pit-road exit but said that his No. 21 RCR crew “was just on it today,” repeatedly gaining him spots with speedy service.

His lament was making the most of restarts, which he said he and the team would review to see where further gains could be made. But he left the historic 1.366-mile track with a 23-point edge in the points standings over Nemechek and a 33-point cushion over third-place Justin Allgaier with next Saturday’s race at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM, Peacock) wrapping up the regular season.

“I mean, coming in here, everybody was just really wanting to make sure that we didn’t lose too much ground to the 20 (Nemechek) and the 7 (Allgaier), I think we only lost a couple of points to them so we’re still looking good going into Kansas,” said Hill, who is in his second season with the Childress team. “I feel really good about Kansas in general. I’ve won there in a truck. I ran really well there in the Xfinity car, so I feel really good there. I think that we have a shot at winning, just like we did today. So we really did what we needed to do today, that was get stage points and finish solidly in the top five. But yeah, I’m definitely gonna sleep on this tonight and be pretty frustrated with myself on these restarts on maybe what I could have done differently going forward to try to win the race next time.”

MORE: At-track photos: Darlington

John Hunter Nemechek exits his No. 20 Toyota after a third-place finish at Darlington Raceway
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Studios

Nemechek was in prime position to avenge his defeat the last time the Xfinity Series visited Darlington, where he wound up on the short end of a fender-banging, last-lap clash with Kyle Larson. Saturday, he started from the pole position and led a race-best 99 laps, sweeping the stage wins to add a pair of playoff points to his tally.

Nemechek’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led just one lap in the final stage, however, and he was just a car-length behind Hill after the two traded crossover moves in the final lap. His performance was enough to equal a five-point gain on Hill in the standings with Kansas looming.

“Solid day,” Nemechek said. “Two stage wins, good points. Just came up short by two spots.”