DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Martin Truex Jr. clinched the Regular Season Championship in the NASCAR Cup Series during Saturday’s race at Daytona International Speedway.
The title is Truex’s second since NASCAR began recognizing the leading points scorer at regular season’s end in 2017, when the New Jersey native claimed the inaugural championship. That momentum carried Truex to his first NASCAR Cup Series Championship through a masterful postseason in which he won four of the final 10 races, including the title race.
“It’s really awesome to get these bonus points,” Truex said. “I’m just really proud of my team and everybody at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing), TRD, Bass Pro, Auto Owners, Resers — all of our partners for giving us the opportunity to be here and to be able to have the season that we had. Hopefully, we can keep it going.”
Truex, driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, is a three-time winner in 2023, collecting checkered flags at Dover Motor Speedway, Sonoma Raceway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The year is a significant turnaround from 2022, when Truex went winless and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2014.
As the Regular Season Champion, Truex receives a bonus of 15 playoff points that will carry through each round of the NASCAR Playoffs to which he advances.
Kurt Busch’s rapid climb from stocking shelves at his local grocery store to becoming a NASCAR Cup Series-winning driver was a story most would assume came from a movie, but in a span of just four years, the Las Vegas native did just that. Memories of that career came flooding back as Busch announced his retirement from Cup Series racing on Saturday.
Busch’s raw talent took him from winning the Southwest Tour championship as a 21-year-old in 1999 to beating out a handful of other candidates to drive the No. 99 Exide Truck for Jack Roush in 2000. It didn’t take long to realize Busch was a legitimate title candidate with three top-four finishes over the season’s first four races. Busch’s second-place finish in the Truck Series points standings, behind teammate Greg Biffle, launched him into a full-time ride in the No. 97 Cup car starting with the 2001 season.
His rookie campaign didn’t go as planned, but Busch exploded onto the scene in 2002, winning the first four races of his career and finishing third in points. He won another four races in 2003, and the team looked forward to 2004 with eyes set on its first series championship.
The Chase for the Cup, a 10-race playoff system that NASCAR rolled out starting with the 2004 season, was set up well for Busch. Despite driving just two full-time seasons, he had already found success at the 10 tracks on the new playoff schedule.
Busch had kicked off the 2004 campaign with a handful of solid finishes over the first seven races, including a victory at Bristol Motor Speedway. What followed was an unfortunate stretch of growing pains. Between the races at Talladega Superspeedway in April and Chicagoland Speedway in July, Busch finished 31st or worse four times over 10 starts while only notching two top-10 finishes.
Busch led 110 laps at Loudon the following week en route to his second win of the season as the team looked to push through the struggles. As the postseason approached, he capped off the regular season with five top 10s over the final six races, yet still enter the playoffs as an underdog due to the strong crop of drivers vying for the title.
Four-time champion Jeff Gordon entered as the points leader, while his teammate and 2003 runner-up Jimmie Johnson was five points back in second. The two previous drivers to win the championship, Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth, were not far behind, as each position was separated by five points after the regular-season reset. Busch entered the postseason seventh in the standings, 30 points back of Gordon, right in front of his teammate Mark Martin.
Busch dominated the playoff opener at New Hampshire, leading 155 laps en route to the win. Seven of the 10 playoff drivers had finishes of 13th or better, and Busch left the track tied for the points lead with Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The playoff race at Talladega is where Busch proved he was a legitimate title contender. Busch finished fifth but was the second-best playoff driver that day. He left the track second in points, 13 back of the race-winner Earnhardt Jr., but a penalty to Earnhardt Jr. flipped the grid and instead put Busch up 12 points with seven races remaining on the schedule.
Busch later led a race-high 120 laps at Martinsville Speedway, but Johnson won the race and now had two consecutive victories. Two weeks later, Johnson grabbed his fourth win of the playoffs.
If it shows how strong of a season Busch was having that despite how well Johnson was driving, Busch was still faster. He arrived at Homestead for the season finale with the points lead. Johnson, Gordon, Earnhardt Jr. and Martin were all mathematically eligible for the title.
Busch would need everything to go right for him to leave that weekend with the championship trophy, and the weekend kicked off with him putting the No. 97 Ford on the pole as many of his fellow contenders struggled.
Once the green flag waved, Busch led the first four laps before settling back in the field. It all seemed to come apart on Lap 93 as Busch lost a right-front wheel, somehow keeping his car straight as he attempted to bring it down pit road for service. Thanks to incredible work from his Roush Racing crew, Busch returned to the track on the lead lap, albeit in 28th position.
Trouble didn’t just strike the No. 97 team, though. Shortly afterward, Earnhardt Jr. found trouble after contacting the No. 06 of Travis Kvapil. With just under 40 laps to go, Martin’s chance disappeared after needing to pit for a flat tire under caution.
It all came down to a restart with 10 laps to go, with Gordon, Johnson and Busch all restarting inside the top 10. Busch held a narrow eight-point advantage over Gordon, with Johnson sitting just two points behind his teammate Gordon. Everything seemingly pointed toward Busch wrapping up his first title. If they could just find the checkered flag.
As if the race couldn’t find any more dramatic moments, race leader Ryan Newman blew a tire, bringing out the caution with just three laps remaining, invoking a green-white-checkered finish. At this current moment, Busch held a 16-point advantage over Gordon in the standings.
The green flag waved, and despite Johnson and Gordon moving up to second and third, respectively, Busch held on to capture the title. He’s one of just 35 drivers to win a Cup Series championship.
Busch’s talent on the track was a giant piece to that puzzle. He turned midseason growing pains into an incredible 2004 playoff stretch, one where he beat some of the greatest drivers of all time while they were at their best. That season saw 15 of the top 18 in points named as one of the 75 Greatest Drivers in 2023. Out of all those drivers, it was Busch who came out on top, hoisting the elusive Cup Series title.
It didn’t matter the car number, owner, sponsor or manufacturer, Busch always managed to find Victory Lane throughout his career. He hangs up his helmet tied for 25th all-time in Cup Series victories, winning at least one race in 19 different seasons. The driver has visited Victory Lane at 18 different tracks. From the Daytona 500, to the twists and turns at Sonoma Raceway, to the paperclip at Martinsville, no matter the track, he was always a contender.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Kurt Busch, who became the first champion of the NASCAR Cup Series’ playoff era, announced Saturday that he will retire from Cup Series competition, ending a driving career that spanned two decades-plus.
Busch has not returned to racing since suffering a concussion in a crash on July 23, 2022, at Pocono Raceway. He had announced last fall during an emotional press conference at his hometown track of Las Vegas Motor Speedway that he would step away from a full-time driving career in 2023.
Saturday, he said another version of farewell at Daytona International Speedway, in a packed media center attended by NASCAR executives and officials, plus fellow drivers, including his brother, Kyle.
“As I transition out of the driver’s seat, I can’t help but feel incredibly blessed to have spent the amount of time I did as a driver in NASCAR, and I could never have imagined that growing up as a blue-collar kid from Las Vegas,” Busch said. “So many people have been part of my journey. I want to thank the fans, my family, friends, sponsors and team members. Thanks to everyone who has taught me the different things around the motorsports world, and also for those who have had to put up with me. And I want to just thank again, everyone that continues to push me to strive for success in this sport. It’s time for a new journey, and I’m excited to get started.”
The 45-year-old driver has remained with his 23XI Racing team after the accident in a consulting role and as a mentor for current teammates Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick, a role he said would continue in the years after his full-time driving days. He has also stayed on as a brand ambassador for Monster Energy, a personal and team sponsor.
In May, Busch was named to the list of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers in recognition of the sport’s diamond-anniversary season, joining his younger brother, Kyle, as a recipient of the honor. He was further recognized in pre-race ceremonies at Darlington Raceway later that month, and he told reporters that his health was improving and he was still hopeful of being medically cleared to return.
Saturday at Daytona, Busch noted that he was not at 100% of his ability to compete but remained upbeat that he might one day race in some form of motorsport.
“Again, it’s not one moment that’s led to this,” Busch said. “It’s a few different factors, and my body is having a battle with Father Time. I’ve had arthritis ever since I can remember. My gout has flared up so much that I can barely walk on some days. Just pushing to get through physical therapy and to continue the workouts. I remember last summer, I was trying to not show that emotion, and I barely could even walk to the car at Dover because I had to have some shots pre-race just so that I could move my knee and move my feet. Those are those moments where things were starting to add up before things happened at Pocono.
“So, Father Time. I’m 45 years old. I’m very happy, complacent, and there’s nothing that I look back on and regret about having this opportunity at the top level of NASCAR.”
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Studios
Busch’s Hall of Fame-caliber career was marked by dramatic highs and fiery lows, but his driving talent and tendency toward winning were constants. He collected 34 Cup Series victories, a figure that ties current points leader Martin Truex Jr. for 25th on the circuit’s all-time win list.
Among Busch’s wins tally were crown-jewel triumphs that included the Daytona 500 in 2017 and the Coca-Cola 600 and All-Star Race on consecutive weekends seven years earlier. He was also a six-time winner at Bristol Motor Speedway, which was the site of his first Cup Series victory in 2002.
Kurt Busch rose to national prominence after learning his craft racing go-karts and then competing in Dwarf and Legends Cars at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring. He won the championship in NASCAR’s former Southwest Tour in 1999 and was hired by Hall of Fame team owner Jack Roush for a Craftsman Truck Series ride the following year.
After finishing second in the standings in his lone season in trucks, Busch quickly jumped into the Cup Series as a rookie in 2001. He became a premier-series winner the next year, starting a streak of 10 seasons with at least one victory.
Foremost among those winning campaigns was his title march in 2004, the first year for a new playoff system to determine the Cup Series champion. The inaugural format featured 10 title-eligible drivers in the final 10 races, with the crown awarded to the driver with the most cumulative points. Busch won the opening playoff race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and headed the points standings nearly the rest of the way. He recovered from a detached wheel in the Homestead-Miami Speedway finale to best Jimmie Johnson by eight points and teammate Jeff Gordon by 16.
“We beat the best of the best over 10 races,” Busch told reporters, “and to have my name along the best names in history, it means so much to me.”
Busch’s winning ways early in his career came with a brash style that rattled fellow drivers, NASCAR officials, the media and his team owners. Multiple altercations led to penalties, probations and severed ties with the team owners who employed him, Roush and Roger Penske. He was also suspended for the first three races of 2015 after a legal ruling on a criminal complaint alleging domestic abuse was filed after his split with former girlfriend Patricia Driscoll.
After two winless seasons (2012-13) with underfunded teams, Busch landed with Stewart-Haas Racing when that organization expanded. He won in each of his five seasons there, and he continued that streak with Chip Ganassi Racing with one victory each year from 2019 to 2021.
Busch’s move to 23XI Racing came as the organization co-owned by Denny Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan grew to a two-car operation last season. He was tapped as the driver of the No. 45 Toyota, and he scored a dominant win in their 13th race together, driving a Jordan Brand-sponsored car to Victory Lane at Kansas Speedway.
“It started when we decided to expand, and for me, it was a year earlier than I thought we would,” said 23XI Racing president Steve Lauletta, “but when somebody like Kurt Busch becomes available, you jump at the chance.”
Eight races after his Kansas win, Busch lost control of his No. 45 Camry during a qualifying attempt at the 2.5-mile Pocono track, and the car made heavy rear-end contact with the third turn’s outside retaining wall. After a medical evaluation in the infield care center, Busch was not cleared to race the next day. Ty Gibbs, then an Xfinity Series regular, filled in for 23XI at Pocono and eventually for the remainder of the season.
Before the postseason began last year, Busch withdrew his request for a waiver that would have kept him playoff-eligible had he been cleared to return. At Las Vegas last October, he announced that he would end his tenure in the Cup Series as a full-time driver, adding that with clearance he had hoped to participate in “a few select races” this season.
“I know I am not 100% in my ability to go out and race at the top level in the NASCAR Cup Series,” Busch said then. “These are the best of the best drivers, and lately, I haven’t felt my best. My long-term health is priority No. 1, and I don’t feel committing at this point to compete for a championship next year is in my best interest or the best interest of the team.”
Reddick took his place in the No. 45 Toyota this season. Busch provided an update before the 2023 season at Daytona in February, saying that he still struggled with balance and eye movement and that physical therapy regularly drained him both from a physical and emotional standpoint.
Busch’s influence remained strong with 23XI, and he was a fixture at the track and the shop. He said Saturday that he would stay with the team “as long as they’ll allow me,” and Lauletta drew parallels with the role that former IndyCar driver Dario Franchitti held during his time at Chip Ganassi Racing.
“I watched what he started doing and talked to Kurt about, ‘Could we do the same thing with you?’ and he was all for it,” Lauletta said. “And so now, since that time, he continues to come to the race shop a lot, he works with drivers on his own, has his direct text exchanges with them, works with the crew chiefs, and then works with our partners. So he’s just a great teammate and brings a lot to what we’re trying to build, which is a championship-caliber organization.”
David Wilson, Toyota Racing Development (TRD) USA president, noted that Busch held the now-rare distinction of winning with four manufacturers — Ford, Dodge, Chevrolet and finally Toyota. He also noted the contributions he made to the many teams he drove for during his career.
“You talk to any one of those organizations, and they’ll all say the same thing: He made us better,” Wilson said. “So again, I love the fact that Kurt is not going anywhere, he’s still going to be around. We’re still going to have a relationship with him as an OEM. He’s going to continue to be an ambassador for Toyota, and so we’re not saying goodbye officially. We’re going to support him through this next chapter.”
Busch said before this season that he still held out hope that he would return to the cockpit to race again one day but added that he had accepted his potential fate if his career was indeed at an end. Saturday, he was able to reflect on his long career at NASCAR’s top level and offer his appreciation.
“There’s plenty of stories and fun and wins and losses,” Busch said. “But thank you to NASCAR for giving me a fair shake at this. There’s a bunch of cool trophies at the house, lots of memories, and I hope to give back in all the ways that I can moving forward.”
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — In his bid for what would have been a playoff-clinching victory in Friday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race, Sheldon Creed came up just 0.005 seconds shy — a margin that had the Daytona International Speedway crowd oohing and aahing at the slo-mo replays and that had race winner Justin Allgaier questioning if he was actually on the plus side of the ever-so-slim gap.
The result could have been a draining heartbreak for the runner-up in Friday’s Wawa 250, but Creed did nearly everything else right as he fights for the postseason. He led 21 laps, finished second and first at the stage breaks and collected a race-best 54 points to pad his stature in the standings with two regular-season races remaining.
“No, actually happy tonight,” Creed said as he held his young son, Axel, on pit road post-race. “I felt like I checked all the boxes. I was not a good speedway racer two years ago, and just tried to get better and better at it, so to run like we did tonight — second in Stage 1, win Stage 2 and finish second in the race — I can’t be mad at that.”
Creed and his fellow playoff hopefuls also had to navigate complex drafting tactics in the pair of overtimes that extended the race 10 laps past its scheduled 100-lap distance. The top five for each restart also included two of the Richard Childress Racing driver’s closest competitors in the Xfinity Series Playoffs hunt — Parker Kligerman and Daniel Hemric.
Further complicating matters, both drive for Childress affiliates — Kligerman in Big Machine Racing’s No. 48 Chevrolet and Hemric in the No. 11 Chevy from Kaulig Racing. And eventual fifth-place finisher Cole Custer was also among that group, perhaps not inclined to lend a hand that might hurt the playoff chances of Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Riley Herbst, who placed 24th in a damaged No. 98 Ford.
Those thoughts all factored in when the contenders chose drafting partners down the stretch.
“I would’ve done the same thing he did. I would have lifted,” Creed said of Kligerman’s position in the draft. “I wouldn’t have pushed him to win because I can’t … we have a good points buffer now, but you never know what’s gonna happen the next two weeks, so I can’t afford to give up that playoff spot.”
In the end, Creed, Hemric and Kligerman all made gains on Herbst. Creed’s Daytona windfall moved him from plus-22 to plus-60 over the provisional elimination line. Hemric wound up third and left Daytona with a 56-point cushion — a 29-point boost. Kligerman went from minus-3 relative to the playoff cut to a plus-20 margin. He also emerged with a newfound appreciation for the inner workings of playoff pursuits in this, his first full Xfinity Series season since 2013.
“So I’ve personally never been in this position because I never got to race in a playoff format,” said Kligerman, who also works as a broadcaster for NBC Sports. “And I got a lot of respect now for the Cup guys who I talk about on TV all the time. I did have a lot of respect. I’ve got a lot of respect for them having to make these decisions because it is awkward as heck. It’s really weird trying to think about all these ramifications and what everyone’s thinking about. You know, I’m used to just showing up at superspeedways and being like, ‘I’m gonna push whoever the hell’s in front of me and try to win.’ This is a little different, and you’ve got to be smarter.
“But yeah, that’s part of it. I think it’s cool, though. It just adds a whole ‘nother element to the season and to what you gotta do out there. It’s not just hold it flat-out and try to hope for the best. There’s a lot of strategy.”
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Justin Allgaier survived a trip to the rear of the field, a pass-through penalty after the initial start and a war of attrition to win Friday night’s Wawa 250 Powered by Coca-Cola NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway in overtime.
Allgaier didn’t win by much. On the final lap of the two-circuit overtime, Allgaier bumped side-to-side with Sheldon Creed coming to the finish line and beat Creed to the stripe by 0.005 seconds—approximately 12 inches at the 2.5-mile track.
Allgaier was penalized after his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet failed pre-qualifying inspection three times on Thursday. He started from the rear of the field and was forced to serve a pass-through penalty with four other cars after the first lap.
But Allgaier, who won at Daytona for the first time after two runner-up finishes in 25 previous starts at the speedway, stayed on the lead lap for the first stage and vaulted into the third position with a fuel-only pit stop during the break after Stage 2.
“I’ve been coming to this place for a long time,” said Allgaier, who won for the second time this season and the 21st time in his career. “I wanted to win here so bad—we’ve been so close. I just can’t say enough about (crew chief) Jim Pohlman and everybody on this 7 team.
“We had an oversight yesterday when we brought a car to the track and put it through inspection, and it wasn’t where we wanted… and that cost us a pass-through, but the team never quit, never gave up, and we rallied, and obviously we put ourselves in a good position. The strategy was awesome.”
Allgaier’s battle with Creed followed a massive wreck in Turn 3 that sent the race to overtime.
A late block attempt by Trevor Bayne moments after a restart on Lap 99 of 100 robbed many contenders of the win. Bayne shared the front row with Allgaier for the restart. Running behind Bayne in the top lane, Austin Hill made a bold move to the outside, and Bayne moved up to cover, perhaps with Hill’s car dragging his bumper to the right.
Bayne turned into the outside wall, and chaos reigned behind him. All told, nine cars were involved, including those of John Hunter Nemechek and Josh Berry.
That set up the two-lap shootout, with Allgaier prevailing by the smallest of margins.
“Another great run for us—my best speedway race,” said Creed, who is still seeking his first Xfinity Series win. “I hated speedway racing two years ago. My teammate (Hill) was kicking my butt at it, and I had to get it together, right?
“So asking him questions, just trying to learn and watch and get better at this stuff because speedway racing is so hard mentally. It’s probably harder than any kind of racing mentally, just knowing where to go and what moves to make.”
Daniel Hemric ran third, followed by Parker Kligerman, who moved into the final playoff-eligible position in the standings with two races left before the Xfinity playoffs begin.
Cole Custer was fifth, followed by Ryan Sieg, Parker Retzlaff, Alfredo, Gray Gaulding and Justin Haley.
As Hill was taking the green-checkered flag to win the 30-lap first stage, Riley Herbst’s left front tire exploded and obliterated the fender above it. Herbst brought the severely damaged No. 98 Ford to pit road, where his crew effected repairs and beat the damaged vehicle policy clock.
Herbst, who had complained of steering issues before the tire blew, rejoined the field three laps down. The diagnosis? The top bolt had backed out of the steering box on the No. 98 Stewart-Haas Ford. That problem was solved, and Herbst continued—without a left-front quarter panel.
Herbst benefited from late-race attrition to finish 24th, but he fell out of the top 12 and trails Kligerman by 20 points for the final playoff berth.
Just two races remain on the Xfinity Series regular-season calendar. Next up is the always tricky Darlington Raceway on Saturday, Sept. 2 (3:30 p.m. ET, USA, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Note: Post-race inspection is complete in the NASCAR Xfinity Series garage. There were no issues, confirming Allgaier as the winner.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Saturday’s regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway stands as an all-for-one proposition, with 17 hopeful drivers all vying for the lone remaining spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. None of them, however, should anticipate getting there alone.
Teamwork and the assistance of others in the aerodynamic draft at the high-speed 2.5-mile track will be at a premium in Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Peacock, NBC Sports App). In some cases, the strategies have already been discussed, with alliances drawn along team and manufacturer lines in an effort to regulate the unpredictable nature of Daytona.
“I mean, you can plan all you want for it, but it’s still a speedway race, right?” said Tyler Reddick, who is locked into the Cup Series Playoffs; his 23XI Racing teammate, Bubba Wallace, is not. “Like, it’s not gonna go as you expect, so it’s good to talk about it and have a game plan, but I mean, as soon as the green flag drops, the situation may not ever play out over the course of the entire race. It’s just the way speedway racing can be.”
The possibilities have already raised the specter of some strained what-ifs. Wallace currently has a provisional hold on the final playoff spot, with a 32-point edge over fellow Toyota driver Ty Gibbs.
Denny Hamlin made some podcast waves by saying earlier in the week that given the choice of pushing Gibbs — his teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing — or Wallace — his employee at 23XI, the team he co-owns — to a playoff-clinching win, he would assist Wallace. He stood by that statement after his arrival at Daytona on Friday.
“No change in my opinion,” Hamlin said. “Certainly, I’ve kind of stated from the very beginning that the 11 car always comes first. I’d never compromise any of my on-track position for the race team I own. Certainly, it’s important to be a good leader for the team that I own; it’s also important to be a good teammate. Therefore, I’m going to work with both of them equally, but you know, right now, if I had to choose, they’re side-by-side coming to the line at the zero, zero-point-one chance that that happens, then obviously, I’d probably lean to the 23 side.”
Gibbs was brief in his media session on Friday, saying, “We’ve got great teammates at JGR, and hopefully we can all work together and have a great result for the organization.”
On the General Motors side, Ross Chastain said that Chevrolet teams met Monday to talk shop. For Chastain, two objectives stand out — to ensure the best result for Chevy but also to assist Trackhouse Racing teammate Daniel Suárez, who is 18th in the provisional playoff standings — 43 points out of contention.
“Just getting everybody together to talk and just hear what people’s plans are and philosophies,” Chastain said. “There are a million ways you can go about this race. I know for me, and I can’t speak for anybody else, but my mind kind of sways with the wind on what I think is going to work. You look at statistics and the history of it, and you can read it one way, and you can read it the complete 180 of what is successful here. It was just getting us in a room and hearing everybody out.”
Suárez was sealed into the playoffs last season but said the Chevrolet thrust is different this year. Last season, one primary Chevy driver — Austin Dillon in the Richard Childress Racing No. 3 — was the focus, and Dillon cashed in with a clutch victory that put him in the postseason. This year, the list is longer.
“We always try to help each other like we always do, but the priority was the 3 car, and right now, there is four of us, so who are we going to help?” Suárez said. “So it’s a little more tricky. It’s not as easy as last year, but like I mentioned before, I think that anything can happen here in Daytona. We have seen the fastest car win the race, and we have seen a wrecked race car win the race, so anything can happen. The numbers don’t lie. Every Daytona race, the second Daytona race of the year, is always a wreckfest. So hopefully, a little bit of luck is on our side, and we can be there at the end.”
Two of those Chevrolet hopefuls are big names from the Hendrick Motorsports camp. Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman both missed time during the regular season, and both are firmly in the must-win grouping heading into Saturday night’s showdown. With two teammates trying to funnel into one playoff spot, the question of who lends help to whom gets muddled.
“That’s a great question,” said William Byron, teammate to both in Hendrick’s No. 24. “I think it’s probably not going to work out like that, but I think try to stick to one guy or another throughout the field and just try to see who works the best together. You know, I personally haven’t … I don’t know, I’ve worked with both in the past. I think Chase pushed me to my first win here, so maybe a little bit of karma there and maybe try to pay that back, so we’ll see. We’ll see. Just try to help when I can.”
Elliott said he’s already talked with Bowman about the possibilities if the late-race cards are dealt with the two battling at the front.
“Well, I mean, I don’t want to wreck the guy for the win, but honestly, I hope it comes down to the two of us because that means one of us is gonna get in, or one of us has a good shot of getting in if it’s he and I racing to the line,” Elliott said. “So I hope that’s the case for the sake of Hendrick Motorsports and Alex and I, we typically work really well together at these tracks. Ironically enough, we’re in the position where one of us is going to be left short, but you know, it’s part of racing, and I’m looking forward to it. I know he is, too. We’ve talked about it a lot this week, so we’re excited, ready to go to battle.”
Ford’s best-laid plans may be easier to execute early on after the manufacturer swept the first three spots in qualifying and put 10 Mustangs among the top 14. Chase Briscoe’s No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford will start from the pole position, with teammate Aric Almirola sharing the front row on Saturday.
Almirola said that Ford team managers and crew chiefs typically meet to talk strategy during the week ahead of superspeedway events, with drivers convening on race day. SHR teamwork was essential in helping Almirola to a superspeedway victory at Talladega in 2018, and he said it would be crucial again come Saturday.
“I don’t think it’s harder to do here, but it’s a prerequisite for winning — at least getting yourself in position,” Almirola said. “I think you have to work together with your teammates because this style of racing, you are so dependent on the cars around you. So it’s important to have teamwork, but you’ve got to have fast teammates, and we’ve had really fast speedway cars at Stewart-Haas Racing. So working together is a must for us, and then when it gets down to the end, obviously, it’s every man for himself.”
See where your favorite driver will pit during Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway (7 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Peacock, NBC Sports App).
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Chase Elliott came to the defense of crew chief Alan Gustafson, saying Friday that he stood by his crew chief after his No. 9 Chevrolet’s fuel tank ran dry at a critical juncture during last weekend’s race at Watkins Glen International.
Elliott’s remarks came after Friday’s qualifying session at Daytona International Speedway, where the Hendrick Motorsports driver has his last chance to make the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs in Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Peacock, NBC Sports App). One postseason berth remains open in the 16-driver field, and Elliott is among a host of drivers who must win Saturday’s regular-season finale to clinch that final spot.
Elliott’s most recent opportunity to make the postseason field for the eighth straight year came at Watkins Glen, the 2.45-mile road course where he’s a two-time winner. His bid came to a sputtering halt on the 55th of 90 laps when the fuel cell on his No. 9 Chevy ran empty, and he finished 32nd in the 36-car field.
The miscue led to criticism of Gustafson’s call from certain sectors of social media. Elliott said neither he nor his crew chief gave it much mind, reaffirming the bond that they’ve built ever since they were first paired together for his rookie season in 2016.
“That’s not something that he and I worry about. You know, he doesn’t worry about social media, and I don’t either,” Elliott said after qualifying 23rd for Saturday’s 400-miler. “We have a lot of trust in one another and the job that we do. I think a lot of him, and I think he’s a great dude, he’s a great crew chief, and I don’t really care what anybody says about that because I work with him every week, and no one else does. So it’s kind of unfair, really, for anybody to feel like they have a good hold on what our team sees and the things we talk about every week and the things that we go to work on together, and I’m really proud of that. We’ve been working together for, what, about eight years now, so I’m not worried about him.”
Elliott said that he hasn’t made a major dive into the reasons for the error, which came after the driver hit the switch to the No. 9’s fuel reserves. Gustafson had communicated that Elliott could pass pit road two more times before he needed to bring the car to pit road. Instead, the car stalled at the backstretch chicane.
“I have a decent idea of what went on, but it’s really better that we don’t know, to be honest,” Elliott said. “I don’t really think it was anything trick or anything like that; it was just an unfortunate error that was bad timing more than anything. It wasn’t as obvious as I would say the average watcher would think it was.”
